TCS chairman N Chandrasekaran says GenAI to create impact not seen or imagined

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services company, chairman N Chandrasekaran has said that generative artificial intelligence or GenAI technologies will impact almost every sector and country going forward, according to the annual report 2024 released on Thursday.

“Enterprises have already invested in cloud, data infrastructure and large processing power which will aid AI/ GenAI. GenAI will not only improve productivity, but also create impact we hitherto have not seen or imagined,” Chandrasekaran said in his letter to shareholders.

“Across industries globally, there are multiple mega trends that are shaping priorities of businesses: AI, New Energy, Supply Chain and Talent. These transitions will require substantial investment in technology across industry sectors,” he added, sayingthat TCS is making significant investments and building capabilities with the rapid technological shifts.

In FY24 from April 2023 to March 2024, TCS also consolidated AI and Cloud expertise with the creation of the AI.Cloud unit.

CEO K Krithivasan also said that although still in the early stages of adoption, the use of GenAI is expected to transform every industry.

Amid a slowdown over the last fiscal year, TCS reported 6.8% growth in revenue at Rs 2.41 lakh crore and margins at 24.6% for FY24, with an all-time high order book of $42.7 billion in total contract value (TCV). This gives us optimism for the “medium to long term growth outlook”, the CEO K Krithivasan said.

On business outlook, however, TCS believes the uncertainty seen through last year is expected to persist for the next few quarters for the next few quarters. “Capex investments are projected to remain subdued as enterprises focus on maximizing returns from existing investments, resulting in muted spending on infrastructure, software, and services,” TCS said in its annual report.