Bengaluru: Indian IT services firms are aggressively devising ways to stay ahead in the AI game amid talks of threats to existing business models arising from rapid development in the AI and Generative AI domain.
Sources in the know said boardrooms are discussing ways of insulating the business from any disruption though public pronouncements from in this regard remained limited with a message of stability. According to industry sources, IT services companies are not only tying up with promising AI startups and global tech giants; management is also going back to the drawing board with respect to their hiring plans, bench strength and related matters.
“It’s not that IT firms are silent when the world is talking about disruption to business models of the services companies. In the last one year, they have tied up with various startups and even tech giants like Nvidia. Hiring plans are getting reevaluated given rising automation. Even, traditional calculation with regard to how much reserve employees (bench strength) are being revisited,” said an industry source privy to the development.
Notably, insiders of Indian IT firms said upskilling of their vast workforce in AI and related domains puts them in a good stead to bag projects despite growing threats to their business models.
As part of staying ahead of the curve, IT companies are aggressively tying up with promising AI startups. For instance, Infosys has collaborated with Sarvam AI to develop small language models (SLMs) for banking & IT operations. Similarly, reports suggested the company has released two SLMs in partnership with chip giant, Nvidia.
Likewise, TCS has an aggressive play in the AI & generative AI space. The company has tied up with Google Cloud & Microsoft in this space. Last year, the company had put all the GenAI related services under one umbrella, termed ‘Wisdom Next’ platform. Notably, TCS is the only company in India, which has quantified its AI deal pipeline since the advent of the technology.
Wipro, another top-tier IT firm, has committed $200 million investment in Wipro Ventures for investment in early and mid-stage startups in AI space. This investment is likely to help Wipro leveraging innovative AI solutions for its clients. The company has also tied up with IBM, Dell and Nvidia to raise its AI game.
Similarly, HCLTech has launched Enterprise AI Foundry for faster adoption of GenAI solutions by its clients. Not only top four, but mid-tier IT firms are also upping the ante for increasing their market share in the current AI landscape.
“Many IT firms are sensing threats from new age companies working on innovative GenAI solutions. For this sake, new plans are getting drawn,” the source added.