← CIO Leadership Live
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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to CIO Leadership Live. My name is Lucas Marion. I'm a senior writer with Computer World magazine. I'm here at the CIO 100 symposium and awards show in Scottsdale, Arizona and I have with me Navid Anwar from HGS, a services and consultancy, global presence I believe. Big organization. You're a senior vice president of strategy and consulting. It's great to have you with us. Thank you for having me. Ask you about some of the projects you've had going on especially in terms of technology, artificial intelligence. Is there something you're particularly passionate about that you'd like to tell me about?
- [00:41]
B
So let me tell you a little bit about AGS first.
- [00:43]
A
Okay.
- [00:44]
B
So we are. Our parent company is Hinduja Global Solution. Hinduja Global Solution is US and we are owned by Hinduja Global Family and and our parent company has a presence in about 17 different sectors. So we are very good at eating our dog food. And HGS itself is about $700 million in revenue. And we do have a very large portfolio. We do different kind of services and managed services, professional services. Historically we are a call center BPO organization. We have grown organically and non organically and today we have about close to 30 plus thousand employees globally. We have a presence in US UK we have a presence in emerging markets like Middle East. We have presence in Jamaica, Philippines and of course our offshore arm is in India. So that's where we are. So we have a pretty strong resources skill. Our architecture sits in US which is very relevant today. What do we carry as part of services? Of course AI is one of our product that we are working on. Cybersecurity is also. We have.
- [01:52]
A
Yeah, I mean you're multinational.
- [01:54]
B
Absolutely. So we're able. And the most important thing is any can anyone can deliver the AI, they can bring the tools, they can script it, they can do the coding. The most important thing is we have a very strong reference architecture with industry verticals. So we do pretty good performance with within BFSI manufacturing, retail for instance. We have couple of, without mentioning the name, we are developing some AI based solutions solution for anti money laundry compliance within the banks know your clients. So we're building a lot of products around that as well. Right. And along with AI then the cyber security kicks in. So we have a pretty strong. As a matter of fact my chief security information officer is attending, he's one of the awardees, he will be in the attendance and we do have other people from industry verticals here as well to talk to the clients as well. So industry vertical expertise is the most important thing from us, the way when we talk to our clients, we can bring a reference architecture along with it.
- [02:54]
A
What have your digitization efforts been like and what are some of the greatest challenges right now?
- [02:58]
B
So the greatest challenges is, you know, it's an ever changing technology.
- [03:02]
A
Right.
- [03:02]
B
Things are changing in a very, very fast pace. So you're meeting different kind of clients with different kind of problems. Right. So solving the problem is obviously the key thing. You have a scenario where you come into a company that have made a progress, they have adopted all the right tools and skill. Now they went into merger and acquisition scenario, they just acquired a company and they have their own set of tools, they have made their own progress. So now right there, you have to kind of start over again and then you have to advise your client what is the best next steps for them to sustain the same level of progress they're making at the same time getting the right ROI on their progress. So these are the kernels. It's more specific to who your clients are. Right. But you will typically see more challenges in healthcare life sciences because there's a life, you know, issue there, highly regulated, highly regulated compliance issues. And that goes for BFSI as well. Right. So regulatory issues needs to be aligned properly. Right. And anytime when you're dealing with legacy and trying to move that to net new, that's a challenge of its own.
- [04:09]
A
Right.
- [04:10]
B
And then you're dealing now with a different generation in corporate culture. So those are the things. Right. And so you need a good strategist who have a good vertical background, alignment. And that's what we thrive in. Right. So very consultative, strategic approach technology. And then of course, we are surrounded by some very good partner alliances who help us kind of grow together, create solutions together.
- [04:32]
A
And we're talking about the vendors here of the technology themselves. You're in charge of strategy and consulting. So this is a natural question, bringing the workforce along with this rapid pace of change. Talk to me a little bit about the skills gap that you're experiencing in upskilling employees.
- [04:51]
B
Absolutely. So skill gap is mostly the two ways to look at. One is on our side as to be the 1 service provider, we have to constantly align ourselves with the new technology, new innovations, and enhance our skills. Which means that, you know, to have a very strong partnership network, so we basically invest a lot on it. That's our priority. Then for the client, we need to go. And you cannot go into a client and say eliminate everyone. Right. So right now I have one bank in Canada in mind where we're Trying to educate them around AI. They felt that they're not that just the average employee. Their senior leadership is not at par with really what to do with AI.
- [05:28]
A
They're not alone.
- [05:29]
B
Exactly. So we are out there to trying to basically bring them up to speed. What is the right strategy? What is the right way to do it? Let's evaluate your business. How do you conduct business? For instance, if you take for one of the financial institution that has the insurance claim issue like what is the right way to automate? Right. What is the right. And education is just not about technology skill set education is also about what is the right amount of automation that fits your environment. I mean if you overdo it, it doesn't have a return on investment because you're just making it more complex.
- [06:00]
A
Right.
- [06:01]
B
You know, I can give you a few examples of it but take too much, too much time. But so our focus is when you upskilling the skills you need to see is what is the right mapping, what are the skills that needed and how much you can do. With an existing workforce where you can train. And of course with compliance being number one pretty much in most of the industries nowadays, you need to make sure that you have a certified individual because everything is auditable right now.
- [06:28]
A
And that's one thing I want to ask you about. What kind of skills do you look for? Are you looking more toward the soft skills? I know that a computer science degree doesn't have the value it once did compared to somebody who has the certifications and the people skills, the ability to work to be good managers or to be communicators or what are you looking for.
- [06:51]
B
So it's a fair mix in sense. Like you're definitely looking for people who are socially aware, right. They are paying attention to what's happening in the industry, right. What is working and what's not working. You know, nowadays, you know you make an error the next day it gets reported, right. So that's one thing. So you need people, generally speaking, street smart people who are social media aware. They're paying attention right thing. They're paying attention to the innovation. You can skill almost everybody as long as you have a basic education. You've been in industry, you understand industry vertical. I go back to it as an education itself because you cannot service anybody without knowing what that industry competitor is doing. So you need to bring people up to speed. There's a technical skill enhancement that you have to do that will go through a route of certification stuff that you have to do. That's fine. And most good People are who educate themselves. Lot of training and materials are now available. You can ask GPT chat, right. I mean many venues to do it. But actually it's the coaching.
- [07:59]
A
Yeah.
- [07:59]
B
And it's, that's where the most work. So when we bring people in, into our environment, we have a process to get in. We do bring sometime people at the internship level. We bring in junior people, we have them shadow us. So there's a process in place for us. But when I'm looking for someone, I'm just looking for someone who has a good awareness of a cross what's happening. They have some use cases that someone can talk about. Use case could be merger and acquisition. Use case would be an overall transmission. Do they really understand the meaning of that? Transmission and use case. If you get that, I can train you technically.
- [08:34]
A
Well, that's, I mean that's what I'm seeing out there and I'm hearing is when you said street smarts, I'm hearing that a lot the certifications are important but a lot of those soft skills are really important.
- [08:45]
B
Soft skills are very relevant and understanding your audience is extremely important. That's why I keep bringing up the alignment to industry verticals.
- [08:55]
A
Right. If there's one piece of advice that you can offer companies in their digitization or AI efforts, what would it be?
- [09:02]
B
So my advice would be you always going to need a partner because you all are good at your day job, you know what to do, you know, daily process operation. But when you onboard a partner, make sure you screen them. Right. Do they have a vertical alignment? Don't look for hard technical skills, look for how versatile they are, how many use cases they deal with. Right. And if you need someone from a third party to evaluate, do that. Right. Look at the overall performance metrics. Right. I mean those are the key things. Right. And don't try to do too much within small period of time. We have this thing in ags we call it, we sign up anything no more than 90 days period because it's an iterative process. We come in, we take a smaller use case, we prove it to you, that works. We give you enough opportunity to test it, validate it and then grow on top of it. So not try to chew on a much bigger pie.
- [09:57]
A
Do in a iterative process prove your mettle first.
- [10:00]
B
Exactly.
- [10:00]
A
Before you allow them to take on the larger project. I like that. What's the biggest technology related obstacle right
- [10:06]
B
now in your organization so in the overall organization is. I think it's an alignment of minds. Right. You know, you have the Workforce Gen Z entering into the corporate America with one mindset. You have folks who, for lack of a better word, I'll say some legends like you in the industry who have the experience. Right. Of doing this a lot so that your alignment becomes and where to meet and where to start the progress, where to do and the adoption. Right. Yeah. Early adoption can be bad, but you need to start having some level of adoption. Right. And I think that's where when I see the biggest problem is people are still reluctant to adopt the right set of technology.
- [10:55]
A
Right. Okay, I got a fun question for you. Okay. What's your favorite tech gadget or application right now? So it can be professional or personal?
- [11:05]
B
You know, quite honestly, I like using GPT chat. Right. But I don't rely on it. I try to use whatever information I get out of it and then on top of it, I try to use my own common sense.
- [11:17]
A
Yeah.
- [11:17]
B
I don't rely on any automation or any AI at 100% because there's a feeling and a personal emotion is missing. So I try to align that. So I still consider myself a best gadget, quite honestly.
- [11:30]
A
ATR has taken over the world yet.
- [11:32]
B
Right, exactly. So the best gadget, I still find it to be the social networking, talking to friends, the old school. I still find the gadget wise. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of gadgets, you know, like, you know, there are, there are appliances you can like, you know, and then there's a technology things that you have out there, you know.
- [11:51]
A
Sure.
- [11:51]
B
I mean I'm not a big fan of agent AI presence everywhere personally, but there has to be a balance.
- [11:59]
A
Well, in fact, from what I'm hearing, a lot of those agents aren't even agents, they're posing as agents. So they're not actually automated, they're applications that look like agents. Are you seeing that out there? Quite a bit.
- [12:10]
B
Yeah. There's a look and feel look in majority of the cases where the agent is being invoked, there's a lot of friction also at the same time, I mean you typically make a call to a pharmacy. There's a lot of room for improvement. Is AI is helping tremendously at helping making things. At the same time there's a room for improvement, there's a room to clean up, there's a room to enhance it more and try at a larger scale. I mean if I call my bank or if I call my insurance company, I mean I can give you all the scenarios. This week I went through flooding in my house. Right. Dealing with insurance company, car accident and you would think the AI will solve everything, but no, at the end of the day, I need a human to jump in and show some emotion, his physical presence and common sense to complete the task. So the biggest thing I would say is that don't eliminate the human presence. I mean, we see these big articles all the time coming in and announcement that, hey, Oracle is reducing their workforce by 30% and maybe it looks good in the books for now, but in the long run, I don't think we should just eliminate the human presence. From my perspective.
- [13:17]
A
Well, the next thing coming down the pike is AI self preserving. I don't know if you've heard of
- [13:22]
B
any of that, but that is through emails and yeah, you know, the interesting thing is that recently I just read there's a company in India, they're creating a AI lifeguard where they're going to basically scan the entire swimming pool and they're going to do the heat mapping on your body and then the lifeguard is just going to sit there with a couple of, you know, agents and, you know, basically is the person still breathing? Yeah. And then they try. I mean, to me that's an innovation. To me that makes sense.
- [13:52]
A
You're right. You can't keep your eye on all the bodies in the bowl.
- [13:55]
B
So the efficiency is here. You're not eliminating a lifeguard, you making it more secure, you're making it more safe. And that's what the AI does.
- [14:06]
A
She's not too concerned about AI replicating itself or finding back doors out.
- [14:10]
B
I mean, it all depends. I mean, you know, I would love to have an AI housekeeper. Right?
- [14:14]
A
Yeah.
- [14:15]
B
I mean, I would love to have an AI landscaper one day who can come and do my lawn. I can't quote exactly who just said it. They said in next two to five years you will have five essential things in your house. You will have a housekeeper, you have a gardener. And I don't know how true it is, but this is where we're going with it, right?
- [14:35]
A
I don't know, I'm just seeing a movie ending to this. That doesn't feel good know.
- [14:39]
B
Exactly.
- [14:41]
A
Look, thank you so much for taking the time and I hope you enjoy the rest of this show.
- [14:46]
B
Absolutely. We're looking forward to participate and we're here to meet with people, share ideas and this is what it's all about. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much.