AI will result in higher productivity and job losses; need to reskill people to prepare them: N Chandrasekaran

N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, TCS

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Chairman N Chandrasekaran on May 31 said that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI will lead to job losses in certain areas that is getting automated resulting in higher productivity.

He highlighted that reskilling and preparing employees to embrace this change is the best way forward. Chandrasekaran was speaking at the country’s largest software services exporter’s 29th annual general meeting (AGM).

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His comments come a month after TCS’ CEO and MD K Krithivasan had said in an interview with the Financial Times, that the progression of AI will lead to decreased demand for call centres, impacting the industry not only in Asia but also in other regions.

Addressing shareholder queries at the AGM, Chandrasekaran said, “In certain areas, AI and Gen AI will automate stuff that will result in higher productivity and job losses. But in some other cases AI will require a lot more capability and a lot more jobs will be created in certain areas like data management, and so on and so forth…it’s a mixed bag and we have to actively embrace it to reskill people and prepare them to embrace the change.”

Earlier though in February, Krithivasan had said that AI and generative AI won’t lead to reduction in hiring or job displacement, it will only change the way the IT services giant is training its employees.

According to Chandrasekaran, every industry will be impacted due to generative AI, whether it is consumer or B2B. But the impact on consumer industry will be much more prominent as consumers will “feel the power of AI in a way personalization happens and the experience is better delivered to them whether it is in financial services, healthcare services, insurance products, retail etc.”

“In B2B, real time visibility, supply chain visibility, data gathering and analytics will go into it and the way AI will change that will be impactful,” he added.

Chandrasekaran also said that at any given point the Tata Group has at least 100 active generative AI projects in the pipeline.

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During the company’s Q4FY24 earnings, Krithivasan had shared that TCS has $900 million worth of AI and generative AI projects in the pipeline, and has won over 200 engagements in AI so far this year.

In the company’s annual report which came out on May 9, Chandrasekaran had said that AI and generative AI technologies are expected to impact every sector and country going forward.

“GenAI technologies will impact almost every sector and country going forward. Enterprises have already invested in cloud, data infrastructure and large processing power which will aid AI/ GenAI. GenAI will not only improve productivity, but also create impact we hitherto have not seen or imagined,” he said on the impact of generative AI.

He had also highlighted that after two years of recessionary fears and high inflation, the global macro-outlook has started to look better in FY25.

“After two years of recessionary fears, persistently high inflation, and unprecedented monetary tightening, the global macro-outlook looks relatively better now with improving growth, disinflation, and monetary easing in sight,” he said.

He, however, continues to remain wary of the military conflicts that intensified this year and continue to impact the global supply chains, even as initial signs of stability began to emerge.

According to TCS, across industries globally, there are multiple mega trends that are shaping priorities of businesses. These include AI, new energy, supply chain and talent.