WATCH | TCS CEO says AI is not a threat to jobs yet — Exclusive

Krithivasan started the conversation by acknowledging the surge in interest surrounding generative AI and recognising its potential while remaining cautious about potential disruptions in the short-to-medium term. "Everyone wants to leverage generative AI, so there's so much work that needs to get done. So we believe there is a lot of opportunity there. But there could be medium-to-short-term disruptions because of the overall economic outlook. So we remain optimistic, at least cautiously optimistic, in the medium to long term," he said.

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The discussion shifted to a perceived decoupling between revenue growth and hiring in the IT industry. Krithivasan countered this narrative, providing a nuanced perspective. "Decoupling is too strong a word. Many organisations hired over the quota during the pandemic. As the demand stabilised and softened, we started using our existing workforce and training them, so we've been using the bench to fulfil the new requirements. So to call it decoupling is too early and to say that it is because of generative AI is not accurate," he explained.

On the potential impact of AI on the workforce, Krithivasan aligned with Nadella's view, emphasising the coexistence of displacement and opportunity. "We agree with him. With every technology, there will be some displacement, and some disruption, but eventually, we'll be able to do more work. When you have to do more work; you need more people to do that," he stated.

On hiring trends, Krithivasan detailed the company's stance. "We don't see any significant decline in hiring. But we probably may need to change the way we train people. The kind of people we hire may also change. But we don't expect to reduce hiring or for our headcount to decrease."

Diving into the specifics of AI's role in the workforce, Krithivasan highlighted the need for a nuanced approach to training and skill development. "So what generative AI is doing is increasing productivity in the middle where the programming takes place. But where you are trying to gather the requirements, validate the requirements, the design, or the planning process all towards the end, where you need to validate the output of the machine and create a superior user experience, you still need humans. Those areas will not go away very quickly. What probably may get replaced, or disrupted or where you get more productivity, is the middle," he said.

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He added that critical thinking, strategic planning and creativity will always be in demand and that TCS will reorient its training to reflect that. "These (human-centric skills) will not go away; you probably are going to need them in higher numbers."

The conversation extended to the broader adoption of AI across companies, with Krithivasan outlining a phased approach. "The way we look at generative AI or any of these AI technologies is in two three phases" he explained.

He called these phases to assist, augment, and transform.

"Assist is just helping a human do the job better. Automate is participating in the work that a human is doing. So the first, assist, could be in a call centre where a question comes on what is in this document. The answer is the summary of the document. Augment means, say, like helping a wealth advisor suggest better products," he added.

"So in the initial stages, you will see more assist and augment. For you to see more programmes or work that gets in the transform space, it will take more time," he elaborated, providing a roadmap for the evolution of AI applications in the industry.

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