I have always been fascinated with India – from its people, traditions, fashion, jewelry, and food. Knowing that our president and CEO attends the NASSCOM conference every year, I had indicated to her at the end of last year that I would like to attend the next conference with her. Luckily, she didn’t forget, and I was able to go to India with her and several of my colleagues.
India and the conference did not disappoint. It was a week of discovery and learning. The first couple of days, we were in Delhi, and I was lucky enough to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I had a wonderful Indian guide who spoke great English and gave me the history and significance of this magnificent palace, which is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. Although it was quite overwhelming to share the place with so many people since it was a very busy Sunday, I will never forget the majesty and artistry of the palace.
From Delhi, we flew to Mumbai where the conference was being held.
The NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum for 2024 was held on February 20-21 at the JIO World Convention Center. This is the 32nd year of the conference, and this year’s theme was “Shaping the Techade,” which focused on how India became a central part of the digital infrastructure. India is the #1 Global Sourcing Hub, with $250 billion in revenue, and is also the third-largest digitized country in the world. The country is the third-largest technology start-up ecosystem, with over 31,000 tech start-ups, over $70 billion in equity investments, and 91 unicorns (start-ups worth at least $1 billion). The country continues to build its AI capabilities, digital skills, and technical support.
Although I attended most of the sessions at the conference, four sessions truly piqued my interest. The following are summaries of those sessions.
Unraveling AI’s Impact on Skills and People: Scholar Track
Speakers: Holger Mueller from Constellation Research and Sivakumar Selva Ganapathy from Johnson Controls
Both speakers shared the following:
- It is not the time to be afraid of the technology. What’s important is preparing your people and organization for the time when this will happen.
- For companies to be more proactive, there has to be a lot of de-learning and re-learning. Build eagerness among your employees to learn more about AI and Generative AI (Gen AI) because we can do more higher-level work because of them.
- AI can assist a company’s sustainability efforts. But they have to be responsible for how this is being created, as well as maintain the integrity of the data, carefully manage information, and ensure data privacy.
- Education has a huge upside in AI. Train students to think about what constitutes a good answer and teach them how to think critically.
Redefine, Reskill, Succeed: Thriving in the Age of AI
Moderator: Adhiti Jha – Director & Country Lead: Legal & Government Affairs, LinkedIn
Speakers: Jeffrey Spector, Kravat; Sajid Ahmed, Wells Fargo; Vinay Pradham, Udemy
In the age of AI, success demands a paradigm shift. Companies need to embrace reinvention and reskilling of their employees to have a thriving future. The following were discussed during this session:
- In leveraging AI and Gen AI, we need to acknowledge the acceleration’s impact within the organization. Eighty-seven percent of companies are seeing skills gaps within their organizations.
- Leaders need to understand how Gen AI will impact their organization. Hence transformational leadership is important. The more technology, the more the human touch should be brought in. Because of this, companies should invest heavily in upskilling their workforce.
- Technology is powerful, but we need to make people responsible for the way they work.
- The following are the top skills to develop: adaptability, lifelong learning, curiosity, and communication.
Unlocking $1 Trillion Growth with the Power of AI
Moderator: Nitin Bhatt – Technology Sector Leader, EY India
Speakers: Ashwin Yardi – CEO (India), Capgemini; Daisy Chittilapilly – President, Cisco India & SAARC
This session covered India’s transformative AI journey from different sector perspectives that will contribute to the vision of $1 trillion growth. The following were pointed out:
- 70% of Chief Engagement Officers (CXOs) said that their people are not ready to adopt AI.
- Yardi said that 76% of CXOs need to generate content and create customer experience. Ms. Chittilapilly indicated that Gen AI will drive the cost of knowledge to 0 and will help curate better experiences.
- The following vectors are where the value of Gen AI can be utilized:
- Immediate Value Vector – elimination of mundane tasks and human error
- Medium Value Vector – reshaping critical capability
- Implementor Vector – implementing new revenue streams and innovative experience
- When adopting AI within an organization, remember the 4Cs:
- Communicate: What’s the roadmap?
- Co-create and Collaborate with different ecosystems within the organization
- Calibrate: constantly evaluate so you can calibrate
- Should an organization innovate or regulate AI? There is a unified thought process that we need to do both.
- It’s humans that build AI. Therefore, it’s the human that is the center of making decisions and driving this culture change.
- AI risks are real. So, we need to be risk-aware and not risk-averse. We need to transform and focus on changing mindsets.
From Productivity to Trust: Decoding AI Success for Business
Moderator: Rajiv Gupta – Managing Director & Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group
Speakers: Puneet Chandok – President (India and South Asia), Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.; Harsh Kar – Global Data & AI Head, Genpact
This question was posed by the moderator: “Is AI really different from all those technologies?” Both speakers noted that AI has been democratized. It is available to everyone and can be used to make people more productive, which could lead to better lives. But we also have to be aware that there are “data hallucinations,” where AI can give inaccurate information. AI hallucination is a phenomenon wherein a large language model (LLM) perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent to human observers. This can create inaccurate outputs, which is why we have to check on the data we receive.
People are also realizing that their data is powerful. It is important to have data governance, management, and lineage.
AI is here to help us provide better quality work, but the industry has to work on ensuring there is security and transparency in the products that are being offered.
According to the speakers, AI is teaching us to be humble. We are privileged to see how history is being made, but history has its aftermath and aftereffects. One of the biggest fears is job loss. We have to realize that humans are needed for the creative part of software development. Critical thinking and problem-solving will be skills needed, so we need to continue to develop those skills. We should be part of the change and not be impacted by the change. If we can eliminate inefficiency, a lot more can happen in what people can do.
Key Takeaways
The two-day conference raised issues of concerns and opportunities that organizations need to be aware of. AI and Gen AI are transformative – technology is here to help people be more productive and effective. Therefore, companies need to upskill their workers and make them able to de-learn, re-learn, and continue learning. The following are key: develop critical thinking skills, be curious, and be adaptable. Lifelong learning is essential for all of us to thrive in this new environment.
This trip was indeed a memorable one. I not only fulfilled my dream of visiting and experiencing India. But I also learned the importance of AI and Gen AI in my work and its importance in building talent within our organization and contributing to our future growth.
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