Business Leaders Must Make Employees Part Of Sustainability Initiatives: Rajesh Varrier

In conversation with Rajesh Varrier, SVP and Head of Microsoft Business at Infosys. 

Edited Excerpts:

AI is already being used all over the world to drive innovation. For our readers, could you explain why artificial intelligence requires humans to govern the decision-making process?

AI is trained using data. Sometimes, this data on a standalone basis could drive incorrect decisions. A simple example, if I always use my credit card for INR transactions, and then one day I do a USD transaction, the AI algorithm will flag it as potential fraud, and the credit card company will call me to check if the transaction is valid. That human intervention is often necessary to ensure that the context beyond what the data represents is taken into consideration in decision making. 

A rational evaluation of data becomes essential to build ethical and human-centric angles into the algorithms. At Infosys, we rely on a multi-disciplinary, research-based approach to building algorithms. 

Also, how can we ensure that users can depend on AI-based decisions to be neutral and objective? AI systems must be transparent enough for AI modelers to trace back the factors that led the system to make the decision. The more relevant the factors we use, the more accuracy we achieve. It becomes critical to be aware of the data risks and the practices against security risks. The IEEE 7000 is the first standard put in place towards achieving Responsible AI to ensure safety and privacy of the society at large. 

AI will significantly enhance human lives only when human beings ensure that the AI models learn the ‘right’ things and that the algorithms are ‘fair’ from a human perspective.

In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, a hybrid work model seems to be the way forward. What is the importance of upskilling the modern workforce to get them ready for this new era?

The digital imperative for organisations has become overtly upfront. Irrespective of industry, every organisation is now obligated to relook at their business through the digital lens. They must consider bringing in the capabilities that the latest digital technologies promise, whether AI, Machine Learning, or Blockchain, to ensure that the experiences you deliver to your customers and your employees are world-class.

To be able to do that, it has become critical that your employees are up-to-speed as far as adopting latest technologies are concerned. It becomes essential to educate them, to understand how the new technologies function, how they can interact with them, leverage them, and maximise the value they deliver. 

The need to upskill is relevant not just for the technical teams but also for the business workforce as they make strategic decisions on understanding which technologies can support the changes they desire to bring in the desired customer experience to stay competitive and be the best in class. Therefore, upskilling is inevitable. Lastly, technologies are changing rapidly, some as fast as every few months. It becomes critical to keep pace with these changes to avoid missing the bus by bringing in skill dexterity by enabling employees and helping them use the necessary digital tools in their work. 

At Infosys, we have created an always-on learning platform, Lex, which offers learning on the go and is a constant companion for upskilling. It allows our employees to stay current with the latest technologies through continuous learning and evaluation. In fact, we offer the same upskilling capability to our clients through a cloud-first, mobile-first solution, the Infosys Wingspan, that enables organizations to focus on training their talent to be ready for tomorrow.

How is Infosys enabling enterprises to drive connectivity and collaboration in a hybrid workforce? 

We help enterprises humanise their workplace experiences with a design-led approach and human-centric solutions so that their employees feel connected, empowered, and motivated to work in collaboration with others. We do this in several ways. 

We provide cloud-enabled collaborative apps that assist employees to do their jobs better and with ease. These apps allow team members to meet, call, chat, and work together on activities and documents without making it necessary for them to switch work context or applications. This allows them to remain in the flow of work, thus elevating productivity. 

We use workplace analytics and insights to continuously innovate and find new ways to create connections between relevant workstreams and ecosystems. Our solutions help integrate the physical and digital environments to support seamless interactions between team members. We use AI-based persona-driven functionalities to add convenience of pulling up the right information or the right expert that an employee may need. 

The Infosys Digital workplace services enables our clients to deliver a secure, mobile experience to their employees anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Our cloud-first and zero-trust-based approach enables seamless experiences across physical and digital environments. It builds secure connectivity and digital collaboration capabilities for an increasingly hybrid and global workforce.

Our hyper-personalised employee experience platforms and services ensure employees have access to relevant information anytime and can collaborate in a digital environment with others to successfully complete work.

How can businesses build a culture of sustainable smart spaces to keep up with the changing work environment?

For sustainability and smart spaces to keep up with the changing work environment, it is critical that organisations not only look at it as part of their ESG agenda but also make it a part of the organisational value system and the culture they represent and stand for. Change management is needed from day one to ensure end-to-end adoption and cultural change, starting from leadership buy-in down to user-level empowerment of sustainability targets.

Employees today are not content to sit on the sidelines. They seek purpose and meaning in their work and their lives. An opportunity to contribute to the company’s sustainability goals is often seen as rewarding. This does not mean an occasional drive to clean the neighbourhood but using the corporate infrastructure to make a difference to the community around us on a continuous basis. Business leaders must make employees part of the sustainability initiatives around smart spaces through gamification, giving them green credits for participating in various sustainability initiatives around e-waste, food wastage in cafeterias, ride-sharing or use of EVs, and other similar programs.