 "Infosys to focus on the renewal of systems and innovations")
He was talking about how technological innovations are necessary to supplement human expertise to do more with less for more people. He said the belief that the use of automation tools and artificial intelligence to improve productivity and efficiency will make people irrelevant was "nonsense."
"I did my PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) in artificial intelligence, and people tell me these days this automation will make us irrelevant, our humanity will be made irrelevant by technology and I think that is complete nonsense. Ever since the industrial revolution, or even before that, technology has always served to empower people, to amplify their reach and enabled us to do more and it will continue to do so," he said.
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As part of the new strategy, Infosys on Friday said it wanted to position self as a next-generation services company, with a focus on the renewal of the core and innovation in new areas.
Sikka said the first was about renewing and rethinking the existing systems and processes to make those more relevant to the emerging world and derive more value out of these. The second was about innovating in newer areas with design-led thinking and to amplify the clients business instead of only augmenting it by leveraging the cost arbitrage.
"For us, renew means renewal of all our existing businesses, services offerings and service lines. Everything we do will be renewed. In business process outsourcing, the renewal will be led by automation, artificial intelligence and innovation to achieve better operational excellence," Sikka said. "Clients are no longer interested in previous generation ways, simply augmenting for cheaper prices."
While emphasizing that the strategy which is being spelt out now and will become more and more refined over the next couple of months, is not radically different from the past, Sikka said it is centered around Rs human revolution', wherein increasing use of automation, IP-led innovation and continuous learning will play major role.
"Infosys must look into amplifying the ability of or clients, not just augmenting what the clients are already doing. We have to find new ways to understand the customers, get into new markets and areas, and take the existing systems and make it more relevant to the emerging world," he said.
According to Sikka, a major part of the new strategy would centre around increasing focus on education, learning and re-skilling people to imbibe a sense of Rs design thinking' with an eye of the future. However, at the same time the company will not dilute its focus on the ultimate outcome. "There will be a greater focus on business outcome" he said.
As a part of the strategy, the company will increasingly engage with the startup community by rendering them help to take their services to global markets. In some areas, the company would also look at investing in ideas which would supplement the works it is already doing.
Earlier, Infosys had announced a $100 million fund with an aim of investing in innovating ideas from within the company as well as outside apart from start-up companies. Sikka said they are evaluating many opportunities at the moment.
He however refrained from giving a roadmap by which the new strategy will be implemented and reflect in the balance sheet. "These are early days, but the key difference is that we are already executing it."
TECHTONICS
- Focus on renewing existing systems, service lines
- Innovate for the future with design-led strategy
- Focus on education, learning
- Increasing use of automation tools, artificial intelligence, etc.