Wipro To Increase Automation Efforts; 10,000 Jobs Could Be Taken Over By Computers

If you’ve complained that your job at your service company was boring and repetitive, you might’ve been right.

Wipro is making a push to automate processes which will not require engineers in each of its 20,000 projects. It will allow more managers to identify work which can be automated away through machines. This move is expected to help Wipro save on costs and look to fundamentally alter the traditional model of deploying large number of engineers who did routine maintenance work.

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“Wipro is consolidating all its automation assets and capabilities under the Holmes brand and significantly increasing its investment in hyper-automation. Going forward, every strategic business unit, service line and delivery unit will have dedicated leaders for Holmes,” said a spokesperson for Wipro. “They will be responsible for adoption of the existing capability and ideation of new use cases.”

Holmes is Wipro’s Artificial Intelligence platform which it had launched 18 months ago. TCS and Infosys too have a similar intelligent automation platforms, called Ignio and Mana respectively. Both these companies deploy them through a centralized structure, which means their adopotion rates are low.

In the first six months of the current financial year, Wipro claims to have freed and redeployed over 4,300 employees in newer areas of work, on account of automation. The company expects that this number could rise to 10,000 by the end of the financial year.

Indian software outsourcing companies have had a tough 2016, and are facing challenges from changing technologies and increased competition. By automating away repetitive tasks, Wipro’s engineers will now be able to focus on more meaningful, substantive work. While it’ll require engineers to quickly pick up new technologies, it should also lead to more rewarding careers, and happier work lives.