The drive towards digitisation has given a boost to India’s IT and business process management (BPM) industries. In particular, rapid adoption of enterprise-wide data, cloud and AI in the past few years, coupled with rising demand for a technically skilled workforce, have been critical value-creation levers for the BPM industry, says Riju Vashisht, Genpact’s chief growth officer & global business leader for transformation services and enterprise sales.
In a recent interaction, she discusses with Sudhir Chowdhary some of the key factors behind India’s success in the BPM space, and unravels what the future holds for this sector.
How is Genpact leveraging data driven insights to cater to changing needs of its clients?
At Genpact, we have developed and refined our AI capabilities over the years, enabling us to create innovative, industry-specific solutions for our clients. Our generative AI strategy relies on democratising AI through incubation with a strong footing in responsible AI. We consider stages of adoption: incubation of processes, people, tools, and technology, and eventually, democratisation. This allows us to establish Large Language Model centres of excellence, identify the technology foundation, enhance the tool stack, streamline processes, and empower the workforce with self-serve generative AI apps.
When it comes to having a competitive differentiation within the industry, talent has historically been a key factor. How is Genpact redefining its talent strategy to gain the edge?
We view data, technology and AI as an opportunity for both client value-creation and internal efficiency. Whether it is through our AI-powered chatbot, Amber to gauge employee sentiment, or a virtual bot, Watercooler to orchestrate serendipitous meetings for networking and improved engagement – we continue to invest in and identify ways to integrate technology to elevate the employee experience. We believe the opportunity to learn new skills and solutions and work on digital, generative AI, and other new technologies in many of our client engagements is a big talent attractor and is also driving retention for us.
With new technologies disrupting the industry, what critical skills will be required in future for employees to stay relevant?
Companies are increasingly looking for talent with critical skills needed to harness technologies, like data science, AI, machine learning, and engineering. At Genpact, we’re fostering a culture of continuous learning to build these “skills of the future” through Genome, our online learning platform. For instance, Genome’s generative AI channel is designed to help employees understand the rubrics of how LLMs work and their application in building enterprise-grade solutions. Our Machine Learning incubator is a hybrid learning program that drives contextualised learning around key skills.
How has the Indian tech industry matured when it comes to diversity and inclusion and social impact?
Diversity and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts should be table stakes for all businesses. At Genpact, we see ESG as a key part of the business transformation lever and are focusing on it internally and for our clients. With a 42% gender-diverse workforce and 50% women representation on our board, we aim to achieve 50% gender diversity across all levels of the company, and we see diversity and inclusion as a continuous journey.
At Genpact, we have developed and refined our AI capabilities over the years, enabling us to create innovative, industry-specific solutions for our clients.