Reacting to the 12,000 TCS job cuts, former Tech Mahindra CEO says ‘Sholay days’ of Indian IT are over

IT industry veteran and former CEO of Tech Mahindra, CP Gurnani, said layoffs at TCS indicate a period when headcounts in Indian IT firms hold no significance, but an output and outcome-based business model.

'Sholay days' of Indian IT sector are over

While speaking to CNBC-TV18, he said, "The focus on the Sholay dialogue 'Kitne aadmi the' or judging the Indian IT industry based on headcount - that period will be over."

"We will have to rewire ourselves to focus on output and outcome-based business models, outcome-based pricing, and more importantly what it does for business and customers, instead of looking at IT and systems in isolation," Gurnani said.

However, he opined that while some routine jobs may be removed, many more will likely be created as a result of artificial intelligence (AI).

"If you see the job openings at these companies, they have only increased since the previous year. This is because they need more AI engineers, more data scientists, prompt engineers and people who can collapse few functions of an organisation," he said. "There is no point of having an HR organization. Ultimately, it will become how do I serve my employee. That means it is a data centric organisation, with a human touch," he added.

According to an exclusive report by Moneycontrol, CEO K Krithivasan said that TCS is removing 2 per cent of its staff, approximately 12,000 employees, to become more agile and future-ready.

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Who is CP Gurnani?

Now the founder and CEO of Singapore-based AI firm AlonOS, CP Gurnani, had been the CEO and Managing Director at Tech Mahindra for over 19 years. He has headed leading organisations prior to that. Presently, at AIonOS, Gurnani intends to shape an AI-native future, where technology solves real-world challenges and people lead the transformation. He strongly believes that the Indian IT industry must now lead with outcome-based thinking and purpose-led innovation.

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