Infosys, one of the biggest IT players in India, has been increasing focus on automating its day-to-day operations. With regards to the same, the company has released 8,000 to 9,000 employees in the last one year, reports ET. This development was made public by the company’s human resources head Krishnamurthy Shankar at an event in Bengaluru.
Speaking on the same, Shankar continues to add,
We have been releasing about 2,000 people every quarter and also training them in special courses that will help them in their new assignments.
He further mentioned that the automation of their processes in expected to increase in intensity over the coming years. Thus, it will lead to more people being released from their duties and assigned a fresh new task. He said that the humongous number of employees released last year are now working on more advanced projects. There have only a mere 66 departures, which is a surprising development for Infosys.
As for the first batch of released employees, the company has trained them in machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). It is now placing its focus exclusively on building smart AI products as the costs have come down drastically. Earlier, Infosys didn’t focus on these technologies because of the humongous amounts of expenditure on computing hardware.
While the process of reassigning workers may have pinned onto automation of operations but it might also be due to a shaky fiscal year. This can be corroborated by taking a peek at the number of pupils who joined Infosys last year. The number comes to 5,700 in the first 9 months of this fiscal year. Whereas the had been hiring a lot more people, around 17000, in the same period for the previous fiscal year. And Infosys is expected to continue the said practice in the coming months as well.
The IT behemoth has recently also been courting startups on a global scale to drive investments into them. While Infosys has invested more than a few million dollars into new-age technology startups such as Unsilo, Waterline, TidalScale, among others. It has recently launched its new artificial intelligence platform called “Mana.” It helps automate repetitive routine tasks and use the spare time for higher thinking and developing creative solutions.
Other technology behemoths in the country, namely TCS and Wipro, are also feeling the heat of slowdown in the market. At Wipro, nearly 3,200 employees have been released through the process of automation. They are targeting the reassignment of 4,500 employees to focus on more innovative work.
