AI-First Strategy Working For Infosys Despite Ethics Issues: Nandan Nilekani

The Artificial Intelligence-first business strategy adopted by Infosys is working well for the company despite unresolved ethical and IPR issues around the technology, Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani said on Wednesday.

In his address at Infosys' 42nd Annual General Meeting, Nilekani said the company has to be more efficient while nurturing readiness for growth, given its performance in challenging scenarios created by inflation, interest rates, geopolitics, demand volatility and supply chain dislocations.

"Several practical, ethical and intellectual property-related issues, when it comes to AI remain unresolved. We also know that the motto of scaling AI in the enterprise is far from simple. And yet, the AI-first strategy we're embracing already working for us," Nilekani said.

Infosys had long ago donated funds to the development of OpenAI but holds no stake in the platform after it became a for-profit entity.

Responding to a shareholder's query, Nilekani said AI has the potential to make a big improvement in the productivity of people.

"You can derive more benefit from AI like automatic code generation and all that. So, definitely, productivity will go up. We believe that it will be used to amplify the productivity of existing people," he said.

Infosys MD and CEO Salil Parekh said that the company has started using AI in various processes within the company, including software development.

"The receding pandemic brought an end to one set of challenges but its aftermath has created new ones. The cocktail of inflation, interest rate, geopolitics, war, demand volatility, supply chain dislocations, and shift from efficiency to resilience and security -- all morphing quickly and without warning is upon us. This makes doing all we can to be efficient in the present as well as nurturing readiness for growth in the future," Nilekani said.

He said that the board has approved a dividend of Rs 17.5 per share, taking the total to Rs 34 per share.

"The company has returned approximately 86 per cent of free cash flow to shareholders over four years starting FY20," Nilekani said.

Infosys also informed that it has returned USD 3.1 billion last year to shareholders, comprising USD 1.7 billion as dividends and USD 1.4 billion through a share buyback programme.

"Total dividend paid for FY23 amounts to Rs 34, which is a 9.7 per cent increase over FY22. With this, the company has announced a total dividend of approximately Rs 14,200 crore approximately for FY23," Nilekani said. He said that the company recruited over 50,000 college graduates, bringing the total headcount to over 3.4 lakh employees, of which 39 per cent were women.

Several shareholders during the AGM asked the board about the company not taking a tender route for buyback, which they felt could have benefitted them with higher returns.

Infosys board, in its meeting on October 13, 2022, approved the buyback of equity shares from the open market route through the Indian stock exchanges, amounting to Rs 9,300 crore at a price not exceeding Rs 1,850 per share.

The buyback was completed in February at an average share price of Rs 1,539.06 apiece.

The company signed 95 large deals worth Rs 9.8 billion, of which 40 per cent were new deals.

The AGM agenda included approval of the appointment of Parekh as a director, whose office of directorship is liable to retire at the ensuing meeting, among others.

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