'India is Well-Poised As Significant And Valuable Partner in the AI Ecosystem' The impact of Generative AI will be significant, and can lead to improved customer experience, increased market share, revenue growth, supply chain resiliency, operational efficiency, and achievable sustainability goals, says Brijesh Singh, Senior Vice President and Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Head, Wipro Limited in an exclusive interview with Entrepreneur India. Edited Excerpts.

What key trends in AI are emerging across the globe?

The biggest development is that we are now at an inflection point, with AI shifting from the age of adoption to the age of value. The technology is maturing, businesses are invested and learning more about where and how to leverage AI and what works for them and what doesn't. Now comes the pursuit of value, which will be found from efficiencies created, savings realized, increased productivity, as well as monetization and creation of new revenue streams.

Another aspect of reaching maturity and usefulness comes from the interplay between the analysis, predictions, and insights garnered through Traditional AI and the productivity, efficiency, and creativity that Generative AI brings into the mix. This opens the aperture, expanding possibilities and possible use cases, from fueling and funding other transformations, to targeting investments, or gaining/maintaining competitiveness, or even more fully implementing AI across the enterprise.

Where does India stand, compared to the US & China in the AI ecosystem?

India is well-poised as a significant and valuable partner in the AI ecosystem. India has a long-term, strong STEM foundation, and a talent pool that has matured significantly over the last three decades. In turn this strong foundation has provided engagements across the globe, and servicing those engagements creates more knowledge and understanding for the talent pool. Additionally, the government has funded the creation of many STEM-focused colleges and universities, consistently refreshing and expanding that talent pool.

Another strength comes from the recent "Innovation Handshake" event that took place between the US and India. Along with several US-tech leaders, a commitment was made to ensure continued innovation supporting future security and prosperity, via a focus on technology and talent.

What are some of the biggest challenges that the AI industry is facing today, and how's Wipro working to address them?

AI doesn't come without risk and challenges. The technological innovation is fast moving, hard to keep up with, and only getting more complicated. The constant updates and upgrades, both for the technology itself and the upskilling and training of talent, is expensive and time-consuming for companies. These dynamic changes also make it hard for AI professionals to stay current. Crowded and confused landscape is also rapidly evolving, with a lot of existing players and new entrants emerging every day. The AI-driven future will also require us to rethink how we train, deploy and develop talent.

Investment is a ubiquitous challenge, but today's economic environment and AI requirements heighten this obstacle. First, an uncertain economic environment is creating an increased level of caution in investments. And while commitment to AI remains high, my second point is the dependent spend connected to AI. For example, many companies will need to establish or upgrade their data foundation – migrating, modernizing, unifying.

As we navigate these challenges and uncertainties, one thing we always advise clients on—and adopt in our own business—is to not lose sight of the long game.

How does Wipro help businesses and organizations leverage AI technology?

For starters, we practice what we preach. Our years-long focus and investment in AI has allowed us to be an early adopter, and through the lessons we learn, we help clients do it better. In addition to saving them mistakes, it helps save time & money for our clients. We also employ pilots and other testing to help minimize risk while implementing AI initiatives. Then scaling is faster and smarter. Our domain focus provides deeper understanding so we can address specific challenges and needs. This understanding also informs the solutions we develop.

What do you have in mind regarding Wipro's ai360?

The impact of Generative AI will be significant. It can lead to improved customer experience, increased market share, revenue growth, supply chain resiliency, operational efficiency, and achievable sustainability goals. This opportunity is the genesis of Wipro ai360. Wipro ai360 brings together our full set of AI capabilities, talent and technology, from across our four global business lines.

How do you plan to accelerate AI adoption across Wipro's portfolio?

We are working to infuse AI into every part of our ecosystem – every platform, every tool, every solution and across business functions, processes and practices – to build AI-first, intelligent enterprises. With platform-agnostic capabilities and frameworks and the world-class expertise of our global partner network, we enable new levels of agility, knowledge, execution and outcomes.

Our plan to invest $1 billion in AI over the next 3 years will transform both our own business, and our offering for clients through the combined forces of all Wipro business lines – Cloud, Engineering, Consulting and Enterprise. We also aim to expand and build upon existing AI solutions, assets, accelerators, tools, etc., through the investment. Overall, Wipro's extensive expertise, comprehensive solutions, commitment to responsible AI, global presence, will allow us to help accelerate the Generative Enterprise journey.

There is much talk about Responsible AI. Your thoughts on it.

No reward comes without risk. At Wipro, we believe that businesses are accountable for the products and solutions they put into the market, the systems they use and the due diligence they apply. That's why we have responsible AI at the heart of how we work and what we do through 4 core dimensions:

• Individual: Ensuring data privacy, responsible data handling and safeguarding of protected and copyrighted information.
• Social: Bringing transparency – so we know where data comes from, quality of the data and most importantly making sure data is free of bias and prejudice.
• Technical: Embedded security from the onset through strong protections and governance.
• Environmental: Both employing measures to minimize environmental impact (synthetic data, use of the cloud) and using AI to help fight climate change.