Davos 2024: Have about 170 proof of concepts for Gen AI, says HCLTech chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra

Malhotra said an ecosystem is getting created around semiconductor manufacturing because of the push from the Indian government

HCLTech has around 170 proof of concepts for generative artificial intelligence (AI), and the company is working with various industries, said Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra in an interview with Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. This comes at a time when tech companies around the world are engaged in a competitive race to dominate the latest technology frontier.

"There are lots of conversation that we're having around data infrastructure, data strategy, cloud cybersecurity," Malhotra said.

The company is working on use cases and how they will be beneficial to customers, Malhotra said, adding that the company is upskilling its employees on generative AI.

When asked on the HCL Group's partnership with Taiwan's Foxconn to start a chip packaging and testing venture in India, Malhotra said it is still early days and a location is yet to be chosen.

"We have to watch the space and we have to see where the manufacturing, where the supply chains, where all of it actually eventually culminate because I think that's strategically very important for OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test)," Malhotra said.

She added that an ecosystem is getting created around semiconductor manufacturing because of the push from the Indian government.

The chip packaging and testing venture, known as OSAT in industry lingo, comes after Foxconn abandoned a joint venture with India’s Vedanta in July. HCL Group previously said it was holding active discussions with the Karnataka state government to set up an OSAT facility.

“Engineering and manufacturing is very core to the DNA of HCL, we've partnered for an outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing and it's still work-in-progress,” Malhotra said, who is also the trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

When asked on recent philanthropic endeavours, Malhotra said, the group has committed $15 million over five years with WEF to identify 50 "aquapreneurs", who are water focused entrepreneurs.

On the recently concluded December quarter for HCL Tech, Malhotra said the IT firm has had industry leading growth, "buoyed by the growth that we've had in software, the growth that we've had in our IT services, engineering services."

On January 12, India’s third largest IT services firm HCL Tech reported a 6.23 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit at Rs 4,351 crore for the third quarter of the current financial year.

The company reduced its revenue growth guidance for full year FY24 from the previous quarter at 5-6 % YoY in constant currency terms to now 5-5.5%.

"We have a certain growth rate that we've guided to the market, and over the next quarter, at least, we're going to stick to that," Malhotra said.

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