Wipro in biggest automation push since launch of Holmes AI platform

Bengaluru: Wipro Ltd, which launched its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Holmes 18 months ago, is now making its biggest push to embrace automation by allowing more of its managers to identify work which will not require engineers in each of the over 20,000 projects currently underway. This "bold" development, according to one executive who did not want to be identified will mean Wipro doesn't just save on costs (thereby arresting falling profitability), but fundamentally alters the traditional model of deploying armies of engineers to undertake maintenance work. To be sure, that could also mean that its current workforce needs to learn new technology skills swiftly to stay relevant. Wipro is in the process of appointing individual leaders in each of the six industry-serving segments (which the company calls strategic business units) and five solution offering verticals or practices, who will be entrusted with the job of automating mundane maintenance work. Until now, Wipro's chief technology officer K.R. Sanjiv, in consultation with various segment heads used to decide which projects could use Holmes.