TCS not afraid of AI, fine with revenue cannibalisation as well: CEO Krithivasan
Country’s largest IT services company TCS is “not afraid” of artificial intelligence and is also fine with revenue “cannibalisation” through the deployment of AI tools by its associates, a top official said on Wednesday. TCS is finding that senior level employees are slower in building AI-based solutions compared to the “proficient” younger staff, its Managing Director and Chief Executive K Krithivasan said at the annual NTLF event here.
“We encourage our associates to go out (to the customers and use AI), even if it means cannibalising our revenues,” Krithivasan said.
TCS is “insisting” that each of its over 6 lakh staffers are AI fluent, Krithivasan said, insisting that the company is not “afraid” of the new technology taking away livelihood. As part of the same efforts, the company has asked associates to explore how it can use AI in projects, even if it means forgoing some part of revenues, he said. Krithivasan said everybody wants to learn the new AI skills, and there is no case of creating incentives for them to learn. However, as people climb up the hierarchy and become senior level employees, they tend to read a lot but do not build anything on it, Krithivasan said.
It is not about just giving a few prompts to a generational AI platform like ChatGPT, he said, adding that staffers have to get their hands dirty and build solutions using the AI tools.He termed AI as a “civilisational shift”, pointing out that it is democratised knowledge, which is solving problems which were unsolved for 60 years. AI is becoming a board-level agenda now, wherein the chief information officers are being directed to scout for solutions, he said. The new technology will increase productivity, but TCS also focuses on the benefits that can accrue to its customers while looking at the technologies.
Amid heightened concerns over governance around the use of AI, Krithivasan said TCS is looking at a situation where AI itself can govern AI by usage of multiple agents.Speaking at the same event, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Chief Executive and Managing Director Ashok Vaswani said the private sector lender aspires to be a “fast follower” on the AI front and leave “the tech to technologists”.
