Puneet Chandok, President Microsoft India and South Asia believes that AI is an important thematic conversation for Indian companies to stay relevant and gain significant ROI in the future. Speaking to businessline on the sidelines of the global Microsoft AI tour that made a pit stop in Mumbai, Chandok spoke in length about the early adoption of AI and how Indian firms can leverage its potential.
We are at a time when companies are facing a tough economic climate, yet, tech cycles are becoming smaller and companies need to constantly invest in innovation like AI to stay relevant, how are your clients finding the balance?
I think clients are looking at two kinds of investments. The first is about real ROI and impact and other conversations are looking at the future. So for the first part, we have the work we are doing from a cloud perspective. For the second part, conversations are going on even if they are thematic level. I’m yet to come across a board or a CEO or a top leadership team that is not curious and excited about what’s the potential of AI for their customers, for their own business and for the employees. We did a study which said for every dollar being spent on AI, customers are getting 3.8x in dollars back. And there are three sets of use cases or ideas. First is enhancing daily productivity. In the US, we’ve seen half an hour of productivity improvement per user per day. The second is using AI to truly reinvent customer experience. Lastly, AI will have a major role to play in product innovation, creating tech products suited exactly for customers.
India is one of the fastest growing markets for Microsoft, outpacing other global markets, do you think this run rate is sustainable?
We don’t comment on country-specific growth but I don’t see any reason for slowdown . We feel excited and encouraged by our most recent (global )earnings results released. There are a couple of highlights that I would punctuate. Microsoft Cloud revenue was $33.7 billion, up 24% Y/Y (up 22% CC). Within that Azure and other cloud services revenue was up 30% Y/Y (up 28% CC), ahead of expectations, driven by strong demand for our consumption-based services. This growth included 6 points of contribution from AI services, demonstrating our continued AI leadership. Office 365 Commercial revenue grew 17% Y/Y (up 16% CC), with seat growth of 9%, driven by small and medium business and frontline worker offerings, as well as growth in revenue per user. We ended the quarter with over 400 million paid Office 365 seats.
What is the early adoption that you have seen of AI, and what do expect the AI adoption to be in the next 2-3 years?
We’ve seen massive adoption in B2C consumer-focused industries. Myntra, for example, is exploring AI to enhance the shopping experience. Genpact is working with us on AI to drive impact and innovation for their customers. Infosys is also working with us. Even on the enterprise side, we have seen a lot of momentum. We’ve seen a lot of conversations from banks and insurance companies. Lots of conversations about how we reimagine customer experiences to streamline our processes. So across the board, I’m seeing adoption. I would categorize 2023 as the year for conversations and 2024 for adoptions.
Indian companies are also looking into AI, how are you seeing local innovation in AI?
Innovation in AI is not just coming for Indian enterprises but SMB startup digital businesses are all thinking about AI in a very meaningful way. It is not just about building AI tech like LLM from scratch but rather using AI to enhance productivity like using Microsoft copilot.
What do you think India-specific use cases for AI are, that will enhance the quality of life here?
The best example of this, is I keep going back to what Microsoft is doing with Indian farmers, bringing information about relevant policy at the state and federal levels to them. There is a litany of information out there that they cannot access efficiently. With AI, they can get relevant information in over 20 languages, just by using the simple voice app. We are also training over 3 million government officials on applications of AI and digital literacy.
With the innovations in AI, what do you think of the talent cohort around this?
Nearly 60 per cent of global talent for AI is coming from India. I think the general idea is that we have to constantly re skill and upskill and realise ignorance is an illusion when it comes to AI.