Title: Indian Tech Giants TCS and HCL Tech Secure Over 100 genAI Opportunities, Begin Bagging Projects
Subtitle: Generative AI Projects Gain Momentum in Indian IT Outsourcing Market
Indian tech majors TCS and HCL Tech have announced that they have a pipeline of over 100 genAI opportunities. These companies have also successfully won a few projects, most of which are in the proof-of-concept or pilot stages. Both firms have invested in building large-scale genAI capabilities and are eager to take on more projects.
Despite a slow demand and elusive discretionary spends, generative AI technology has brought excitement and work into the IT outsourcing market. While the size of the deals is currently small, top executives of Indian IT companies affirmed that genAI has captured the imagination of clients. TCS and HCL Tech specifically mentioned that most of their genAI projects are in the proof-of-concept or pilot stages.
During TCS’s Q2 earnings press conference, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, the COO of TCS, stated that deal sizes are currently small, mostly under $1 million, as clients are still in the trial phase. However, there is significant potential for TCS to integrate AI and ML capabilities into projects like Jaguar Land Rover.
HCL Tech’s MD, C Vijayakumar, also shared that the genAI deals they have secured are mostly half a million or sub-$1 million projects. They are currently working on a hundred such opportunities. One notable partnership is with a large software major for product testing and sustenance efforts, where HCL Tech provides GenAI on a private language model to improve resolution rate and speed efficiency.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh also revealed that they are developing proprietary large language models (LLMs) and AI is now a crucial part of almost every deal they undertake. As genAI expands and more enterprises adopt it, Parekh believes it will bring further excitement to the market.
To demonstrate their commitment to generative AI, several tech majors made significant moves in the space a few months ago. Wipro, for instance, pledged $1 billion over three years to build capabilities. TCS and HCL Tech partnered with software major NVIDIA to upskill their employees.
TCS proudly announced that they now have a 100,000-strong GenAI-ready workforce and 250 GenAI opportunities in their pipeline as of September. CEO K Krithivasan explained that genAI is becoming more complicated as clients gain a deeper understanding, using it for projects like developing a co-pilot for financial advisors to provide advice and assist with underwriting policies.
Additionally, TCS has identified opportunities across various verticals, cataloging use cases per vertical to engage in conversations with clients. Similarly, HCL Tech is focusing on use cases related to the banking and financial sector, working on a generative AI deal to enhance risk and compliance efforts.
With clients increasingly interested in cost optimization and automation deals, tech companies anticipate that AI and ML will find more use cases. They are confident that a portion of these opportunities will spill over into the emerging field of genAI.
Overall, the Indian tech industry is witnessing the rise of generative AI, with TCS and HCL Tech leading the way in securing projects and building advanced capabilities.