Indian IT Bets On AI

As Indian IT services companies move beyond run-of-the-mill businesses and towards digital transformation, artificial intelligence is taking centre stage.

- Rukmini Rao

I can understand how the limited perspective of an un-artificial mind would perceive it that way. You’ll get used to it”: Samantha taunts Theodore Twombly when he calls her just a computer voice. These are lines from the critically acclaimed 2013 movie Her based on artificial intelligence (AI). Today, a ‘Her’ is closer to reality than ever. Chat bots, voice-based AI solutions and cognitive robotic process automation (RPA) are now the order of the day. Big services players like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Cognizant and HCL Tech, which embarked on the AI and automation journey less than five years ago, see upwards of 30 per cent of their total revenues coming from these digital segments.

A look at the revenues of the top three IT companies tells the emerging story. Market leader TCS saw more than 50 per cent year-on-year revenue growth(constant currency terms) in its digital business in the third quarter of FY19, which now contributes 30.1 per cent to the overall revenues. Infosys also registered a 33 per cent revenue growth yearon-year in the same period, with digital business brining in 31.5 per cent of the overall revenues. Wipro saw a 35.4 per cent year-on-year increase with digital business now accounting for 33.2 per cent of the overall revenues.

Though the term ‘digital’ is yet to be standardised, most companies use it as an encompassing term to include automation and AI. Even though IT services companies are yet to break up services lines and business, signs of automation and AI becoming turnkey elements for both revenue and operating margin have started becoming clearer.

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