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Informist, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025

 

By Shakshi Jain

 

NEW DELHI – Artificial intelligence is evolving and rapidly making its way into processes across sectors, so much so that it has today become an integral topic in industry dialogues. However, much more remains to be done on the ground, said Shalabh Srivastava, global head for digital transformation and client delivery excellence at Wipro Ltd.'s business process services division.

 

"If you go and see how many AI use cases have really been put into production, there are not many. So we are in the hype cycle," Srivastava told Informist in an interaction on the sidelines of a symposium organised by the Indian Foundation for Quality Management. This is a challenge and the reality is that there is still some effort required to get there, Srivastava said.

 

Among sectors demonstrating the strongest demand for AI as part of their projects, Srivastava named banking, healthcare, retail, travel, and transport. However, the financial services and insurance sector continues to have a high AI entry barrier because of the criticality of data these sectoral players handle. "The sectors that may still have to pick up in that area (AI) are more conventional, government, and institutional finances...But healthcare and related industries like pharma, medical devices, they are going big on AI," Srivastava said.

 

Wipro has trained around 80% of its staff on AI fundamentals categorised as "Level 0," Srivastava said. "We have moved to Level-1, Level-2 trainings...40-50% people have already been trained there." The company has also developed trainings for its executives, who are also asked to ensure that they are "AI literate". As part of its ai360 program, Wipro is investing a billion dollars in advancing AI capabilities by 2026. 

 

On deal ramp-ups, Srivastava said the timelines have moved up dramatically. "Even for the mega deals, the ramp-up time is not 6 months, 12 months. They (customers) want as quickly as possible. More importantly, they want the business value that we commit as part of the deal to come in the first year of the deal itself." He also said the deal pipeline for the September quarter "looks very positive". 

 

Commenting on the US' recent outsourcing tax Bill, Srivastava said there would be a backlash. "But that one state influencing any kind of tangible outcomes in an industry like ours, I don't think it's just going to happen." Early this month, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno presented the Halting International Relocation of Employment, or HIRE, Bill, which proposed a 25% tax on outsourcing services from foreign countries to the US.

 

For a sector which deploys a major chunk of its employees to foreign countries, including the US, the outsourcing tax Bill was a near-term shocker. Srivastava said the industry has to expand beyond the US market, a region the industry has high exposure to. However, various experts, too, echo Srivastava's view; that the Bill is unlikely to pass through. 

 

When asked if clients' discretionary spending will improve following the recent interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, Srivastava took a cautious stance about giving a forecast. He, however, said, "We are seeing some green shoots in terms of discretionary spend coming back." 

 

On Friday, shares of Wipro closed 0.4% lower at INR 255.88 on the National Stock Exchange. Wipro is one of the top six large-cap IT players in India, with a market capitalisation of almost INR 3 trillion.  End

 

US$1 = INR 88.09

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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