Let us begin with the basics first. Tell us some of the key findings of the report and the study that you have conducted on AI. What has stood out for you?
Sivaraman Ganesan: If I were to characterise it in a couple of important points, one would be that there is a lot of interest in Gen AI and AI and there is particularly a high amount of momentum worldwide right now. Secondly, a lot of the work that is being done is in early stages,what we in TCS tend to call the assist and augment space where customers are looking to leverage AI for a certain amount of gains.
The third point would be that the transformative play, which is the third part of a cornerstone in assist, augment, and transform that is being discussed and talked about, but has not fully taken off yet. So, net-net, I would say a lot of momentum and vibrancy and early stages of adoption across different industries really.So, when you say that over 80% of people have started deploying AI, what has really been the nature of this utilisation? Is it more towards revenue generation or productivity or cost optimisation and which verticals are you seeing the maximum utilisation in?
Sivaraman Ganesan: Firstly, in terms of how the consumption of this has been, I would think it is a lot for productivity, what sometimes we tend to call is extraction, summarisation so those kinds of gains really and that is what we, again, characterise as assist and augment style use cases or utilisation. The larger transform play is starting to get discussed but yet to take off. If you look at different industries, banking, financial services, insurance, retail for sure, life sciences, we see a lot of traction and adoption. And when it comes to certain horizontal cuts, the play in HR, marketing, a lot of interest and adoption is happening right now.
You have been highlighting how it has not taken off really on the transformative side as yet. What do you think are the impediments to achieving that?
Sivaraman Ganesan: In terms of the transform scenarios, the scope being very large, there is a need for the right checks and balances, the right regulatory guardrails as we call it at times to be in place. Since it is a very fast evolving but nascent area, the time for that to come in and become mainstream is what probably is happening or is playing out as we speak. How quickly do we anticipate it to move? I would think rather quickly, not able to give a precise timeline, but you have all seen the space so far the last 18 months and how rapidly it has evolved. So, I am pretty sure that the momentum is there and very soon even the transform space will come to be.
You say that the momentum around AI and gen AI will be sustained in the coming few months as well. I also want to understand this fear that everybody has with respect to AI replacing humans and jobs. What do senior executives really have to say about whether AI is supposed to complement humans or really replace them in certain functions?
Sivaraman Ganesan: We have consistently been saying AI will supplement human efforts. In fact, our human-centric AI centre was launched in France just last week. We are very clear and we have said it in the report as well, human creativity is always going to be something that cannot be substituted by AI. AI will supplement what we do. What it means is we as humans will get that cutting edge thanks to the computing powers of the AI as the road unfolds rather than being wholly substituted. That has been our point of view and we continue to maintain that.