Software engineers can breathe a sigh of relief. Your work may be changed a bit, but it won’t lead anywhere according to the CEO of India’s second largest IT company. Infosys. In an interview with Economic Times, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh discussed a series of issues, including the impact of AI tools on the core business of IT services companies like Infosys. Asked specifically what he thinks about the idea that the IT services industry is going to be decimated by AI tools in the next five years. The Infosys CEO said, “If you look at the size of technology services, the overall global market size is $1.5 trillion. Our analysis is that the market for AI services is between $300 billion and $400 billion. Infosys will leverage these six growth areas, and we will see revenue from these six growth areas. »On the impact of agentic AI tools on companies like Infosys, Parekh said, “Every time a technology comes, it is a brownfield, somewhat old and new. Greenfield is when something is entirely new. But dispersion within a large company is slower. This is where our engineering is needed to ensure it works within your organization.
The business environment is improving in the United States
Parekh said the business environment appears much more positive, particularly in the United States. “At this point, the macroeconomic situation looks better than it did 12 months ago. At least in the US market, they have relaxed regulations quite significantly. Some are at least talking about a further reduction in interest rates. When we talk to people, we get the impression that they feel the business environment is more favorable,” he said. Parekh spoke about Infosys’ campus recruitment over the past year when asked about the future of work, given that IT services in India are known to employ a significant portion of the country’s middle class. “Look at the data. This year, till March, we will end up recruiting 20,000 college graduates in India. We already had 18,000 at the end of the third quarter. This is only for university graduates. We have already announced that we will recruit 20,000 university graduates next year. What typically happens is that some of these projects will require more staff over time. Yes, they will also use agents, but the overall size will still be larger. If you assume that IT spending or labor are the same, then this view (of job losses) is more prevalent. Having more staff is always more positive than negative. What we’re seeing is that some of the skills that individuals will have, even as they enter the workforce or over time, will give them more specialization,” he said. On criticism that the Indian IT services industry has not given back enough to the startup ecosystem, Parekh said, “Infosys has an innovation fund in which we invest a lot. Wherever there is overlap, a huge amount of work is being done. We have invested in work in data analytics, healthcare, etc.“Talking about Infosys’ AI strategy, CEO Parekh said, “We build agents for our customers using the fundamental models. At AI day, we had about 10 or 12 customer examples that were presented. reduce time, increase quality, etc. Then we have legacy modernization, because there are many companies with old technology. So, to me, there is a huge opportunity that we see in AI services. »