Still early days for GenAI on revenue side, says LTIMindtree CEO & MD

The desired results of the merger have been impacted by the prolonged slowdown that the industry is witnessing

When the merger of L&T Infotech and Mindtree was announced in 2022 the idea was that the merged entity would be in for larger deals. The integration has been flawless, according to DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, chief executive officer and managing director of LTIMindtree and the man who put the process in action. In an in-person interview with Shivani Shinde, he talks about the path ahead, the $10 billion target, and the GenAI opportunity. Edited excerpts.

It has been slightly over a year since the merger was completed. How do you see the road map?

The philosophy of the integration was that there were two information-technology services companies in the group, and at some time these two had to come together. And as it was laid out by A M Naik (former chairman of L&T), these companies should be merged at a time when both were doing well in their own way. The integration plan was executed flawlessly.

But I don’t think anybody anticipated the market would be where it is today. The industry has gone through ups and downs, and these downturns have not lasted long. This theory, however, has been proven wrong this time. Because if you look beyond the pandemic, there was apprehension about the United States getting into recession, the geo-political situation, and then the election scenario … so there are multiple uncertainties we are dealing with, which is affecting sentiment. The result is that decision making is cautious now.

You have spoken about the $10 billion target. Any timeline?

The $10 billion is an aspiration. We acquired Mindtree with an aspiration, and we don’t want to remain wherever we are. We are a $4 billion enterprise, and have the potential to look at inorganic options. We never gave a timeline for this ... now it will take a little longer.

Also the $10 billion will have a combination of organic as well as inorganic play. But we will not do an acquisition just for scale. It has to also fill up some of the white spaces for us.

Has customer sentiment changed over the past three months?

As far as the discussion we are having with our clients is concerned, that is not changing. Most of the conversation is on the efficiency side. I don’t think there is much discretionary conversation going on. There is overbearing caution in the market…But even in such scenarios we have managed to do well.

One such instance is our joint venture (JV) with Aramco. It’s a very important strategic JV for us because this is in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

This JV is to be set up in data, AI digital services and GenAI -- something we are excited about because some of these things, when they kick in, will help us in diversification.

Will GenAI be the opportunity the industry needs badly?

GenAI is the chief dispatcher at this point of time. It is still early days, but has huge potential. GenAI will probably play in three areas. The first is creating use cases for clients where we can change the business models or transform the business model in terms of revenue. The second is the productivity and efficiency play. And the third aspect is leveraging GenAI for engineering, which is like code conversion, automated testing, etc.

Where is LTIMindree in the GenAI landscape?

The data and analytics service line, which started a few years ago, has now evolved into one of our largest service lines. GenAI is embedded in all our large deals and influencing our overall pipeline. In the last quarter alone, we have engaged in over 100 conversations and have more than 20 active engagements with our clients.