DBT Bureau
Bengaluru, 30 August 2024
Generative AI is the talk of the town in the technology world. HCLTech’s management shared their perspectives on different aspects of the GenAI space during the analyst call of Q1FY25.
Here are some of the details:
On Business:
C. Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech:
In terms of business trends and GenAI, we continue to see a lot of AI and GenAI-related opportunities. We had launched HCLTech AI Force, a generative AI and automation platform couple of months ago and now, we have launched another suite of products, HCLTech Enterprise AI Boundary to simplify and scale enterprise AI journeys.
On Skilling:
C. Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech:
In terms of people, we have a target of training 50,000 people on GenAI and AI skills this fiscal. 33% of this target has already been achieved in this quarter alone. Our focus on data AI, Gen AI developer skilling across the stack with a special focus to create a cohort of data and AI principals.
Question: What the clients are asking in terms of any benefits to be passed on from GenAI when deals in ADM (Application Development & Maintenance) or IMS (Infrastructure Management Services) come for renewal?
C. Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech:
- Yes, my answer may not be very popular, but I will still give it. More than the expectation from the clients on GenAI, I think it’s the competitive intensity which is kind of driving some irrational behavior. That’s all I would want to just say.
- In GenAI, customers, especially for running production landscapes, are a lot more pragmatic in what can be done and what needs to be done with a lot more thought and in a very gradual manner. I think we are working very well.
- Our AI Force platform is addressing the end-to-end lifecycle of software development and application operations, and a lot of our DRYiCE solution suite is also now integrated into the AI Force platform, where the earlier through machine learning runbooks were getting created, but now it’s a lot easier through generative AI. So, that’s all part of our AI Force platform. We are committed to implement AI Force platform across all our customers as and when we get the approvals. From then on, it’s a journey and the customers recognize that. I would leave it there.
Question: What is the growth strategy in GenAI space and how is HCLTech different compared to some of the peers?
C. Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech:
- Coming to generative AI, if I kind of summarize all the different use cases, one is very, very efficiency led. The second one is really innovation led driven by the leverage of data. So, our HCLTech AI Force is a comprehensive platform, which addresses all the efficiency-led benefits, both on IT processes and business processes. So, this is one platform, if a customer can implement it within their enterprise, then all the functions within the organization can leverage it to drive their efficiency programs using one consolidated platform which is secure, which has got ways to look at implementation of responsible AI and traceability of the decisions. So, I think this platform is very comprehensive.
- While we started with Azure OpenAI, now it’s expanded into several other LLMs. I think it’s going to be quite pervasive across. I don’t believe the industry has a similar platform. We definitely have an edge in this.
On Cost Savings:
C. Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech:
- On GenAI, I have been fairly clear on the four areas and the kind of impact it will have. The first is DPO and testing. I believe the benefits would be to the extent of 50% and we ourselves have delivered programs or delivering programs which is promising 50% savings from their current outsourced spend on DPO and testing. We have examples for both.
- The second aspect is in ADM. I think ADM and all the operations needs to be looked at differently. In ADM, we expect productivity improvement anywhere from 10% to 30% by adoption of a GitHub Copilot.
On progress of GenAI projects:
C. Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech:
- I see it more like the cloud journey where it kept growing incrementally. That’s how I see this come up.
