Nagendra Bandar, managing partner and president, Wipro Enterprise Futures, told FE that Wipro's AI360 initiative, launched in July last year, has seen a 65% increase in artificial intelligence (AI) use cases. This growth reflects an industry-wide trend where enterprises are increasingly adopting AI technologies to enhance various business functions.
“Since launching our AI360 strategy last year, Wipro has
The company launched Wipro AI360, an AI-first innovation ecosystem that aims to integrate AI into all platforms, tools and solutions used internally and offered to customers, in July 2023. The company also announced that it would invest $1 billion in developing AI solutions over the next three years.
Wipro is incorporating AI services into its regular transformation deals while also pursuing AI-specific deals, Bandar said. The firm believes generative AI (GenAI) is pervasive and imminent across business sectors as clients better understand the technology's potential and limitations.
“We are seeing an increasing number of generative AI project delivery that incorporate the right level of 'human in the moment' and 'responsible AI' principles into their solutions,” said Bandar. “The early benefits are promising as generative AI tends to deliver better stakeholder experiences, revenue generation insights and cost optimization,” he added.
Wipro is monetizing AI use cases by integrating traditional AI predictions and insights with the productivity and efficiency that GenAI brings. This approach creates efficiencies, improves productivity, realizes cost savings and creates new revenue streams, Bandaru said.
“We're now at a stage where we can continue to replicate and scale that success, and we expect AI to become a bigger part of our business as other technology services become increasingly AI-enabled,” he added.
According to Bandar, AI adoption is gaining traction across industries, with healthcare, retail/consumer, energy, banking and insurance leading the way. In healthcare, GenAI is being used in contact centers to assist agents and in claims processing to speed up the process, he added. Financial services is using AI to detect and manage fraud and risk, while the retail industry is using AI to provide customized experiences for customers and manage the supply chain, he added.
Highlighting the rapid growth in interest in AI over the past six to 12 months, Bandar said: “This is due to advancements in technology. What was merely an aspiration three or four years ago is increasingly rooted in real-world experience, real-world applications. The output is now much more accurate and delivered much faster, so accessibility and accuracy are the main drivers.”
Resistance and challenges to AI adoption
Despite growing interest, some businesses are still hesitant to adopt AI. Key challenges include data preparation, integration with existing systems, implementation costs, and bridging the skills gap. Businesses need access to large, diverse, and high-quality datasets, and they need to process data securely and in compliance with privacy regulations. Integrating AI into traditional IT infrastructure is complex and costly, requiring significant investments in data, hardware, software, and skilled employees.
“Data privacy and security concerns are major barriers to enterprise adoption of AI, along with resistance to change and ethical, regulatory and legal considerations,” said Bandar. “We work with clients across industries to better understand the impact of these technologies on their business and build short- and long-term strategies for adoption,” he added.
