We’ve to graduate to become business consultants to the world

If IT is the major enabler for change, then we should be seen as business consultants in this transformation. LC Singh, Director, and Executive Vice Chairman, Nihilent, talks about the importance of AI and India2047. Edited excerpts from a video interview.

The early years…

Initially it was a lot of hard work, struggle and sacrifices, because nobody knew that India could give value added services to the IT industry. That was the case from the 1980s to the mid-1990s. The kind of stature, respect and rewards that people are getting now in IT were not available to us in those days.

Things then changed. I would say that a lot of development took place and thresholds were reached between 1995-96 and 2001. The first phase of development and recognition happened then. We had the Internet bust and boom followed by powerful PCs, laptops and mobiles coming into the picture. There was no looking back after that.

Sufferings during the pandemic…

It was a shock. The physical communication and travel which was routine and taken for granted suddenly came to naught. Overnight we had to create a Work From Home culture. There was even the logistics of sending laptops to someone’s home. There were administrative challenges.

Acquiring new customers was not that difficult. But that softer side of the relationship did not happen, when you have dinner and lunches with them. It became a very transactional and formal relationship during the Covid period. It was specially a loss for mid-size companies who didn’t have the set ups in every country the way big companies have. They could survive, but expansion was a problem.

The second thing was the employee turnover which hit the industry like a thunderbolt. Especially when a person threatened to leave in the middle of a critical project. Some employees and associates took advantage of it. I don’t think that was ethical. So, the direct costs started going up. Even if you recruit new people, you have to train them for a year or so before they can perform any credible task. Mid-size companies were on the receiving side. But now things are normal and have stabilized. Attrition has gone down. The people who were job hopping during Covid will suffer.

We should talk of mega companies…

It’s been my hypothesis from the 1990s, that India missed the boat from the products market, otherwise we would have been talking in trillions and not hundreds of billions of dollars for the Indian IT market. That’s the only regret I have. All the major products which are known come from one country.

We Indians need a different mindset. We should talk of “mega companies”. That’s my dream. Our innovations are ready to go to market. My only hope is that they should not sell it cheap. They should take it through and we should also be known as creators of brands.

Have we matured from IT services to IT consultancy?

We are seen as IT consultants of the world. But how do we graduate to be seen as business consultants? If IT is the major enabler for change, then we should be seen as business consultants in this transformation. Business transformation, not digital transformation. Every IT company has become a digital transformation company. But anyway, IT is digital. That’s not the point. The question is now do we know business enough to be able to advise them to transform using technology.

The technology has affected not only the enterprises but the consumers as well, to their social networking and communication within their own groups. So, they have become a major influence on the enterprises to the extent that they can demand what they want now. So, the push mechanism which worked earlier is no longer valid. You have to give to the people what they want. You need mechanisms to understand the voice of the customer. Therefore, you need listening mechanisms. That’s where concepts like design thinking come in.

How soon will AI tech like ChatGPT be integrated into business processes?

We are already doing so. We have already integrated ChatGPT in one of our recent products. Customers demand something like this. From now on, AI will be a given. It will be commoditized. The tools will be democratized. Many will be available. You will have multiple choices. AI is no longer a luxury. AI is essentially a neural network combined with the cloud, data analytics and BI. It’s not only pattern recognition but applying the human element to predict the future much more accurately.

But if you see how the human body functions, intelligence doesn’t come just from the brain. The brain is the focal point, but it uses the entire body to listen to the environment. So, the idea is where are we going to get an enterprise which is listening continuously? That is the next phase.

We discovered that many technologies being developed now are very intrusive. For example, they will put a headgear or something else on you. They then listen and you can’t control it. We firmly believe that is not the way to go to the future. Eventually, people will realize that they are being violated. Therefore, you need to conduct research devoid of any intrusiveness. The user should have the choice of remaining anonymous.

India must stop creating human robots…

Our education policy is creating robots. I think that must change. Robots are efficient, repetitive and they will do what they are trained for. Is that the India we are looking forward to? Why are we not nurturing creativity and the human element?

How much time is given to our children in their course to discover what they are really built of? What is their tendency? Why does everyone have to go in for JEE or NEET? Is that the end of life? So much pressure is put on the child. So much pressure is put on the parents. We are creating totally different industries parallel to the institutions. Institutions have become nothing. All teaching happens outside the classroom now.

If I have to hire in Nihilent, I will go in for a number of people who are psychologists, economists and from English literature and anthropology. They all will play a role because I am aiming for business transformation. Business is not in a steel frame structure.

We need a closer look at the education system and allow the child to have the freedom of what he or she is designed for.

LC Singh

Director and Executive Vice Chairman, Nihilent

(Catch the complete interview on the CyberMedia Series YouTube channel)

sunilr@cybermedia.co.in