Era of AI: Infosys' Mana eliminates need for lawyers to process contracts

For now, AI is eating jobs but it will create opportunities for jobs in future, says Vishal Sikka

Infosys, the country’s second-largest software exporter, has deployed its artificial intelligence (AI) platform ‘Mana’ to process contracts for a bank in Asia that typically needed a team of 10-15 dedicated lawyers.

“We had an astonishing experience with a client in Asia in the last quarter where we were able to eliminate a small team of lawyers by using Mana to analyse non-disclosure agreements and  other  contractual documents, only escalating exceptions to senior lawyers,”  said Vishal Sikka, chief executive officer of Infosys, earlier this week. 

“In our lifetime, we will see AI systems achieve skills so that any problem that can be mechanically articulated will be solved by them,” he added.

Infosys, among the pioneers in hiring thousands of graduates and training them at its university-style campus in Mysuru, has practically stopped mass hiring. Last year, it added 6,320 employees, a third of the 17,857 people it hired the previous year, as it increased the use of automation. Around 11,600 engineers have been put on other projects, as theirs became automated using tools such as Mana.

“For now, we have AI  at  a  unique situation, where on the one hand it is eating the jobs of the past but on the other hand it is creating far greater opportunities for jobs of the future,” Sikka added.

Mana is an AI-based platform or software that helps enterprises automate processes using data from machine and human experience. While it is offered to customers within the main software service contract to enhance productivity, Mana can be offered standalone at a licence fee. At the end of 2016-17, Mana had 50 customers and 150 engagements.

It is not just Infosys that has its AI platform. Rival Wipro has Holmes, Tata Consultancy Services has Ignio and Tech Mahindra has TACTiX, each offering to help clients automate projects to improve efficiency and push professionals to work on more complex projects.

Infosys has also strengthened its AI team by hiring machine learning experts.

“Contribution from new areas, specifically our 2016-17 revenues from new software and software-related services, including Mana, Edge, Panaya and Skava, grew more than 42 per cent,” Sikka said.

While Infosys is investing significantly in building AI capabilities to reduce repeatable works in projects, it is offering software platforms like Mana as a separate package to increase the digital technology business revenue.

“We want automation to come to 100 per cent of our projects, 100 per cent of our fixed price projects, 100 per cent of our large client engagements, where we have a meaningful chunk of the business process or the application landscape that we can transform by virtue of automation,” Sikka added. 

Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder and chief executive, Greyhound Research, believes AI significantly helps in operational efficiency, but 100 per cent turnaround is a long journey. 

“An AI platform like Mana offers knowledge from different fields. It can significantly change the way jobs are done and improve the ability to measure outcomes in a sustained manner. But operational efficiency to value creation is going to be a long-term goal,” he said.

Infosys is also promoting innovation among employees through it initiative Zero Distance and some some ideas have been converted into intellectual property. Infosys implemented 2,000 innovation ideas through Zero Distance, which will play a key role in driving automation.