Vishal Sikka highlighted that Infosys is focusing on new technologies like artificial intelligence.
Highlights
- Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka arrived office in a driverless cart today
- He said the driverless cart was built by Infosys engineers in Mysuru
- Infosys today reported better than estimated earnings for Q1
Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka rode the future to work this morning. He arrived at his company's Bengaluru headquarters in an autonomous or driverless cart which, he said was built by Infosys engineers in Mysuru. The IT major has announced its first quarter earnings today posting a better-than-expected
net profit of Rs 3,483 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, helped by key client wins. Dr Sikka said that strong execution helped Infosys come out with strong earnings in the June quarter. Despite pressure on several fronts, Infosys reported margin of 24.1 per cent in June quarter, he said, adding that "really proud of our team's strong execution and great performance in Q1."
"Who says we can't build transformative technologies?" he had tweeted as he arrived with COO Pravin Rao in the cart that's all the buzz today. The autonomous vehicle, he said, is a symbol of cutting edge technology and is meant to train other employees on technologies like artificial intelligence.
Equipped with sensors, these driverless vehicles are capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Advanced control systems help these vehicles identify navigation paths, as well as obstacles and road signage.
"It is our indigenously built autonomous golf cart. We are very proud of it. It was built entirely in our campus in Mysuru by our engineering services team and you know the future is about autonomy… The future is about automation Technology and AI technologies and every vehicle manufacturer is moving towards this," Dr Sikka told NDTV.
Infosys, its CEO said, is strongly focusing on new technologies like artificial intelligence and next generation analytics.
His company celebrated the cart too, tweeting
In April, Infosys launched a platform called Nia to "help clients embrace artificial intelligence". "Nia continues to be central to all our conversations with clients as we work with them to transform their businesses," the company said.
Revenues of India's second biggest IT services exporter came in at Rs 17,078 crore today. Importantly, Infosys raised its dollar revenue guidance, cheering the markets. Global financial services major Morgan Stanley expected Infosys to post net profit of Rs 3,335 crore on revenues of Rs 17,119 crore in the June quarter. In the March quarter, Infosys had reported a net profit of Rs 3,603 crore on revenues of Rs 17,120 crore.
Infosys raised dollar revenue guidance to 7.1-9.1 per cent for the year, against its April forecast of 6.1-8.1 per cent. Markets cheered Infosys earnings with the stock rising over 2 per cent as compared to flat broader market.
The revenue guidance hike assumes significance despite stagnant global IT spending. Global IT research firm
Gartner on Thursday further lowered its 2017 IT spending growth estimate to 2.4 per cent from the 2.7 per cent earlier. The research firm had first predicted for a 3 per cent growth in worldwide IT spends, which got revised down to 2.7 per cent in January this year.
(With Agency Inputs)