Videos
Salil Parekh on Unlocking Enterprise Value from AI
Insights
- AI is creating value across the enterprise by enabling organizations to accelerate growth while improving operational efficiency through intelligent automation.
- Long-term AI success depends on reskilling employees, preserving institutional knowledge, and equipping people with new AI capabilities rather than replacing them.
- Organizations that move quickly to deploy AI at scale and rethink business processes will be best positioned to capture competitive advantage.
Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer at Infosys, discusses how enterprise leaders are moving beyond AI experimentation to focus on measurable business outcomes. He explains how organizations are using AI to accelerate growth through more targeted customer engagement while simultaneously improving efficiency across customer service, supply chains, software engineering, and business operations. Salil also emphasizes that successful AI transformation requires more than technology. It demands cultural change, workforce reskilling, and the ability to rapidly integrate AI into core operating models. As AI fundamentally changes how work gets done, he argues that organizations that embrace large-scale adoption while investing in their people will be best positioned to unlock long-term enterprise value.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
I’m Jeff Kavanaugh, head of the Infosys Knowledge Institute, and we're here at Infosys Connect Conference in Los Angeles. Here with our CEO for Infosys, Salil. Thank you so much for joining us.
Salil Parekh:
Thanks, Jeff, and thanks for having me here.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
We're here to talk about unlocking value from AI. And I know it's a nice, high-sounding message, but it's got some very real kind of an edge to it that we need to get into. What is it now that beyond the basics that people have been thinking about for a while, that's top of mind for senior leaders?
Salil Parekh:
So today I think what I hear when I talk to our clients, CEOs and senior executives is how can they translate the enormous potential of AI into what can benefit their company. There are two massive dimensions. One is how can they do new things that can help them grow faster? And there are several areas in that where we are helping our clients, for example, building things that can assess and target a set of clients, customers much more narrowly and allow them to get the customers to buy their product that they really want at that time, can scale it up. And then the second question is how can they make things more efficient across the organization? How can they do things faster? How can customer service improve? How can other stats improve? And there again we have a set of areas where we can help, whether it's by building agents, whether it's by looking at customer service, whether it's by looking at supply chain processes, making all of those improve in the quality that they're looking for.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
That's a great way of describing, I’ll call it the efficiency in the process. Thinking about a senior executive perspective, this has profound implications on operating model, capital structure, and even what the long-term value of a company is. What should senior leaders be thinking about from that perspective?
Salil Parekh:
So there I think many of our clients are already in discussions internally with their leadership teams, with their boards, looking at what is the step function change they can drive by using this. And there a lot of it is making sure the AI works within that culture of the organization, making sure that they can make that change by deploying it with speed today. So the idea really is use the AI capabilities, whether it's foundation models, whether it's the platforms on top of them, and scale up as quickly as you can. Many companies are also rethinking completely their approach because there are areas where you could do things in days and hours and minutes which were taking weeks and months. And so that changes the way you can approach a certain area of your business. So those are the sorts of discussions that our clients are having and we are in a fortunate position to support them. Our own work with AI is a large percentage of our business growing very fast and in six broad areas where we can provide these services.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
It's interesting you mentioned culture because you have to also think about people and culture in our own company. What's the approach you've taken at a three-hundred-thousand-person company ourselves and what might a lesson be for others?
Salil Parekh:
So here we've taken an approach where essentially we are reskilling all of our teams with the new AI, both foundation model and toolkits. And there's a huge array of them out there today. So, our approach, for example, last year we recruited about 20,000 college graduates. We are continuing to recruit and grow. We are not planning layoffs. We are doing things which will reskill our employees. And this is a longer-term approach within Infosys. But it's an approach we believe is the right approach. A lot of our people have deep insights into what clients know. It's now a question of using those insights with new tools and technologies which are massively productive, but also massively different. And then learn new skills. So, some of the tasks that they were doing in the past can be done more efficiently, and they can do new tasks with all of the context experience for the clients.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
It's taking a long-term view and converting it into to borrow from Jim Collins, a flywheel concept that continually reinforces and makes it better.
Salil Parekh:
No, absolutely, and I think we feel quite good at where we are. We've defined six broad areas, for example, AI engineering, building agents, code modernization, other areas which are growing rapidly. And those areas with this flywheel that you mentioned allow us to go faster and faster with AI.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
I keep hearing that emphasis on speed. If you had one thing to say to your peers out there, at other companies, what should they be thinking about at a strategic level to drive this?
Salil Parekh:
I think here my sense is the technology is already proven itself. There are huge innovations, especially here in the US, which can be leveraged across all businesses. So to me, this is the time to actually get in and do these things at scale. As you do them, as our clients do them, there will be ups and downs, but when you have a partner like Infosys, you can sort of ride that and make sure you can deliver well.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
And you'd be learning along the way.
Salil Parekh:
Absolutely. It’s ongoing, the learning for them and building on our sort of Topaz Fabric, all the skills we can bring to them.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
Awesome. Salil, thank you so much for your time.
Salil Parekh:
Thanks very much for doing this, Jeff.
Jeff Kavanaugh:
I'm Jeff Kavanaugh. Until next time, keep learning and keep sharing.
