Automation to impact Indian jobs the most: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka

Sikka invoked Moore's law and said automation was the future of Indian IT

India would see the biggest impact on jobs due to automation, Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka said, quoting a research report, while addressing shareholders on Monday.

While most observers would have followed Sikka's address with regard to the recent tussle between the company's board and its founders, especially N R Narayan Murthy's allegations of a drop in corporate governance standards in India's second-largest software company, Sikka steered clear of the issue and merely dismissed media reports as drama and distraction. 

However, he did have a lot to say on the impact of automation and innovation on the country's IT sector and Infosys. "We have to eliminate our own work to automation, improve productivity, deploy the improved productivity to innovation," Sikka said, adding, "Technology continues to change and we have to continue to adapt."

"Instead of 10 people, what if we have three people to work on it. If we don’t have the software, then some others will take the advantage ... Having software together with education is something that is critical for our business. This, in essence, is the nature of our journey ... If you look at the 3.5 million people in our industry, the only thing that I see in the future is automation."

Invoking Moore's Law, Sikka said that advances in computers' processing speeds would lead to exponential growth in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), which in turn would offer plenty of business opportunities. 

"(The) entire digitisation and AI revolution is powered by computing that is simply exploding; Moore’s law is ending and new technology is exploding," he said.