Infosys CEO has a serious warning for its workers: the biggest disruption tha's taking place is digitization and the "tidal wave" of automation and artificial intelligence that can easily replace tech jobs. So in order to stay ahead, they must shed their "lackadaisical" attitude and bring "greater value" to customers.
In his New Year message to Infosys employees, he stressed it's important to not "just mechanically execute the jobs" they are handed but serve customers "in the smartest, fastest way possible, and not give up or give in to weaker instincts."
"Often teams deliver only what is told without going beyond the given scope and with a lackadaisical attitude towards greater value creation," said Sikka. "This can no longer be the case."
He said Infosys should embrace automation to become more productive and "with the resulting capacity", focus its attention on innovation, and cautioned that the "road ahead" won't be easy.
"We will not survive if we remain in the constricted space of doing as we are told, depending solely on cost-arbitrage, and working as reactive problem-solvers," he said. "By standing still, instead of moving forward decisively, we will face the brunt of these disruptive forces, as our industry has already started to see. A lot of the work that came to us and to others in our industry, can already be done with Al systems," he said.
But by achieving these objectives, he suggested Infosys could help bring "a world where our AIs may make us more successful, but also more human....." he added.
According to him, the future promises to be even more disruptive, especially for Infosys's business, which is impacted by the multiple factors of technological and geopolitical disruption.
Sikka took over as CEO and Managing Director of the country's second largest IT firm in August 2014.In February, 2016, his tenure was extended by nearly two years till March 2021, saying his initiatives have helped the company move towards reclaiming its industry leadership position.
With PTI inputs
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