Our focus is on Gen AI to drive revenue growth: Sudhir Chaturvedi, President of LTIMindtree

The fusion of LTI and Mindtree has forged a new trajectory within the IT services industry, heralding an era of cohesive singular entity - LTIMindtree. Sudhir Chaturvedi, President of LTIMindtree, sheds light on this transformative journey, spanning more than a year post-merger. Emphasizing their commitment to Gen AI, Sudhir articulates how this technology is steering revenue growth and reshaping operational efficiencies within the organization. The interview delves into the strategic approach adopted by LTIMindtree to integrate Gen AI and their insights on its acceptance across diverse verticals and geographic landscapes. Excerpts from an interview:

Since the merger of LTI and Mindtree, how has the journey been in establishing a singular entity within the IT services industry, more than a year after the integration?

The merger, officially announced as LTIM in November of last year, has seen significant progress over the past 12 months. Reflecting on this period, our growth aligns with industry averages, maintaining a healthy trajectory. Our margins consistently stay within the strong bracket of 16 to 17%. Notably, our order intake has surged to record levels—$1.4 billion in Q1 and $1.3 billion in Q2, marking a remarkable start to our disclosed order intake. Additionally, our pipeline stands at an all-time high of $4.2 billion, particularly highlighting substantial growth.

The merger was underpinned by three pivotal reasons. Firstly, the pursuit of scale benefits became a reality with our combined strength of approximately 90,000 employees. This collective force empowers us to operate seamlessly across industries, verticals, and geographies. Moreover, it enhances our ability to utilize our balanced sheet for larger endeavors. Notably, we've emerged as a prominent choice for deal advisors and industry analysts, positioning ourselves as a refreshing alternative to top-tier providers. This shift has been instrumental in addressing emerging tier-one fatigue observed in the market.

Secondly, leveraging cross-selling and upselling opportunities has been pivotal. The amalgamation of our clientele—previously with only 10 common clients pre-merger—has resulted in an expansive pool of customers. This synergy allows us to offer a comprehensive range of capabilities, spanning from core engineering competencies in ERP, data, and cloud services, to customer-centric practices encompassing interactive, low-code, and no-code solutions—essentially spanning "engineering to experience."

Lastly, our partnerships, especially with hyper scalars like AWS, Azure, and GCP, have substantially benefited from our increased stature post-merger. Our expanded presence has bolstered our relevance within their landscapes, turbocharging our partnership ecosystem.

In essence, the three primary objectives behind the merger have materialized, and the tangible outcomes of this alignment are becoming increasingly evident in our performance and market perception.

What are the primary focus areas for the core business presently and in the foreseeable future?

Presently, our main focus areas revolve around strategic cost reduction, core modernization, and experience transformation. Clients are currently heavily focused on cost reduction, driving our attention towards: Cloud Infrastructure Services for optimizing cloud-based infrastructure for improved efficiency. And Application Outsourcing Services to Enhancing application-based services for streamlined operations. Lastly Platform Operations to leverage technology to revolutionize operations and reduce costs in the BPO sector.

Moreover, industries like insurance, consumer goods, and manufacturing continue their significant core modernization efforts, including ERP work (e.g., SAP initiatives) and tech stack modernization (e.g., Guidewire, Duck Creek, Insurity, and Majesco in insurance). Lately, there's also a resurgence in experience-related spending like e-commerce and digital marketing, signifying a shift towards revenue-generating measures.

What’s LTIMindtree’s approach with Gen AI adoption ? Could you provide insights into acceptance of  Gen AI across verticals and geographical locations for LTIMindtree?

In a landscape where Gen AI often remains within the realm of Proof of Concepts and sample Use cases, LTIMindtree is breaking ground by delivering over 30 scaled projects for our clients. GenAI is an integral part of our comprehensive Enterprise AI suite offered to clients, aimed at fundamentally influencing client outcomes across three dimensions:

To accomplish this, we've crafted Canvas.ai as our flagship offering, investing between $40 to $50 million in this domain. Within our organization, we've established a dedicated unit, EnterpriseAI, singularly focused on AI. Presently, we're actively engaged in over 30 projects. Let me shed light on a few examples:

Accelerating revenue growth for clients

- For an American multinational consumer goods corporation, we've increased online product revenue by driving heightened website traffic. GenAI is being utilized to optimize website product page content by incorporating trending keywords.

- With a British multinational fast-moving consumer goods company, we've enhanced deal conversions by deploying a GenAI-enabled Sales Assistant. This assistant conducts competitive product pricing analysis, facilitates real-time queries using natural language, and assists the sales staff across global centers in multiple languages. This capability aids in improved deal conversions and swift decision-making.

Accelerating operational efficiency for clients

- Within a leading financial services and consulting firm, we've drastically reduced turnaround time by automating fund research report generation. GenAI automates 70% of the process, providing a first draft for final adjustments by fund researchers. This has expedited speed to market and lowered operational costs.

- For a prominent consumer goods company, Gen AI revolutionizes marketing designs by producing automated and cost-efficient product images for marketing materials using Stable Diffusion models.

Accelerating tech modernization journeys for clients

- We've facilitated app modernization for a leading insurance firm by leveraging GenAI to convert Cobol to 3GL, significantly enhancing app performance and efficiency.

- In a transformational move for a Fortune 200 company, we've employed GenAI-based co-pilots to convert large Stored Procedures into Java, enabling their modernization journey.

How are you managing the talent pool for increased adoption of Gen AI within the client facing processes of LTIM? 

At LTIMindtree, integrating Generative AI (GenAI) into our client-facing processes involves a strategic approach to managing our talent pool. Here's how we're making it happen:

We've established GARUDA, an internal platform entirely dedicated to GenAI enablement. Since its launch in November 23, GARUDA has become a bustling hub, attracting over 19,000 visitors. It's a rich resource center, offering challenges, blogs, research articles, leader speak videos, and personalized pathways—all geared toward empowering our teams with GenAI expertise. But it's not just about resources. We're actively training about 21,000 associates on the GenAI Primer pathway, including the Foundation Certification. Additionally, our GenAI Engineering Co-pilot training, conducted in four batches, has already benefited around 8,000 associates, providing them with specialized skills.

Our partnerships with industry leaders like Microsoft, IBM, and AWS have been pivotal. These collaborations have led to tailored training programs—Microsoft Al-Associates focusing on Developing Generative AI Solutions, IBM on Enterprise Generative AI with IBM WatsonX, and AWS covering Engineering GenAI solutions and Bedrock.

Engaging leadership is key to success. We've held dedicated GenAI workshops for about 230 leaders and an Executive Workshop attended by around 100 executives. It's all about ensuring our leadership comprehends the potential impact and nuances of GenAI.

In practice, we've integrated GenAI solutions within L&T and LTIMindtree. From optimizing recruitment processes by using GenAI for CV matching to deploying it for HR chatbots, project health monitoring, and legal reviews of Statements of Work (SoW)—we're demonstrating GenAI's diverse applications and value across various facets of our organization.