Latest news with #NitinRakesh
Forbes
06-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Learning By Sharing: How GenAI Can Be The Giving Tree
Nitin Rakesh is the CEO and Managing Director of Mphasis and coauthor of the award-winning book 'Transformation in Times of Crisis.' Our world is witnessing a wave of advancements, from the emergence of automation to the implementation of artificial intelligence. For senior leaders, this acceleration presents opportunities and challenges. While striving to adopt cutting-edge technologies, they are also attempting to ensure these align with business objectives and ethical standards. One of the most transformative yet polarizing of these technologies is generative AI (GenAI). While it promises new avenues for creativity, problem-solving and efficiency, it also raises apprehensions about its impact on typical decision making processes. In this sense, GenAI remains a bit of a paradox for business leaders, as it is both a source of curiosity and a cause for concern. While executives see its immense potential as a transformative tool capable of boosting creativity, streamlining operations and generating efficiency gains across functions, there is an underlying wariness about how it can disrupt established workflows. In the face of GenAI's dual nature, executives are navigating a critical challenge of how to integrate this powerful technology without losing the distinctiveness of human intuition. Rather than framing GenAI as a disruptive force to be managed, a more productive perspective may be to see it as a collaborator—an enabler of shared growth and continuous learning. When viewed this way, I believe GenAI can become more of a partner in learning and development with whom leaders can foster a mutually beneficial relationship mirroring the spirit of mutual giving. However, embracing this potential demands a shift in mindset. It invites leaders to move beyond passive adoption and toward active stewardship of the human-AI dynamic. This reframing introduces important questions: Are leaders thoughtfully measuring GenAI's contributions, not just in efficiency but in depth and relevance? Are they engaging with it in ways that reflect their own values and expertise—training it, shaping it and learning from it in return? And perhaps most importantly, is their ongoing interaction with GenAI expanding their capacity for insight and growth? AI is not an autonomous force—it is a reflection of the data, intentions and perspectives we bring to it. Its development is inseparable from human input. The real opportunity lies not just in what AI can do for us, but in how the human-AI relationship can evolve into one of reciprocal enrichment. Consider an iconic children's literature classic: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. In the story, the tree selflessly offers its apples, branches and eventually its entire trunk to the boy. This tale invites us to reflect on the nature of giving, taking and the balance of relationships. In much the same way, GenAI can be seen as a tireless provider—offering its computational power, adaptability and insights to organizations. Yet unlike the tree, GenAI does not give from a place of emotion or altruism. It responds to the quality of its inputs, the clarity of its training and the intentionality of its use. This analogy prompts a critical shift in how leaders approach AI. While it's tempting to focus solely on what GenAI can do for us—automating tasks, generating insights, fueling innovation—the more profound question is: What are we giving back? How are we shaping, stewarding and engaging with AI to ensure it grows in a direction aligned with human values and long-term impact? If organizations treat AI merely as an extractive tool, they risk building unsustainable dependencies. But if leaders approach the technology as a partner in co-evolution—offering guidance, expertise and ethical oversight—then GenAI becomes more than a resource. It becomes a trusted collaborator, capable of growing alongside the organization. Beyond GenAI's adoption, leaders must know its value, inspiring their teams to integrate AI into daily workflows. Evangelizing AI within the executive team is crucial to ensuring collective alignment, fostering a culture where AI is viewed as an augmentation of human expertise rather than a replacement. This requires a deep understanding of what GenAI can do, allowing leaders to define where it can have the most meaningful impact. For GenAI to truly benefit organizations, leaders must anchor its application in clear, measurable business objectives. Identifying the right problems for GenAI to solve and aligning its deployment with strategic goals ensures its use remains practical and value-driven. Governance is equally critical, ensuring that AI-driven decisions uphold ethical standards and comply with regulatory frameworks. Data quality, infrastructure readiness and an AI-savvy workforce further determine how effectively GenAI can be leveraged. The organizations that invest in these foundational aspects will be best positioned to turn AI into a long-term growth partner like the enduring relationship between the boy and the Giving Tree. When leaders take ownership and adopt an interactive approach, they create an environment of collaboration. Talented individuals are also drawn to such leaders—not just for their effectiveness but for their generosity and team-focused mindset. It is crucial that leaders actively coach GenAI so it evolves in tandem with organizational needs. By continuously refining and adapting its algorithms, leaders can make GenAI more iterative, refined, intelligent and thoughtful. Much like mentoring human employees, providing AI with feedback allows it to improve over time. For instance, organizations have enhanced customer service chatbots by training them on real user interactions, enabling them to respond with greater empathy and accuracy. These iterations ensure that AI evolves to handle more complex queries, improving both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. With each successive interaction, AI becomes better suited to the evolving needs of an organization. This illustrates the timeless relevance of Moore's Law, which predicts that computing power will double every two years. Just as computing capacity expands exponentially, so too can GenAI's ability to solve complex problems as long as it is actively coached. As AI models become more advanced, the need for a growing network of skilled, human trainers becomes essential for their continued improvement. The constant feedback and refinement will fuel GenAI's exponential development—enhancing its capacity to transform businesses. The key to thriving in this new era of AI is learning how to strike the right balance with thoughtful strategy. As organizations continue to work closely with GenAI, partnerships will evolve, leading to exciting outcomes. What will be crucial to keep in mind is that this exchange between human and machine fosters sustainable progress built on collaboration and just practice. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Mint
01-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Mphasis to lose FedEx business accounting for 8% of total revenue
Mphasis Ltd has lost one of its oldest clients, which accounted for 8% of the revenue of India's seventh-largest information technology services firm, after FedEx Corp. selected Accenture Plc to do much of its IT work. This loss presents a fresh challenge for CEO Nitin Rakesh to replace the loss in business in a challenging economic environment. Three people familiar with the development said FedEx, which accounted for $130 million of Mphasis's $1.61 billion in revenue for the year ended March 2024, will end its business arrangement with the Bengaluru-based IT firm by the end of the year after a ten-month transition period. At its peak in FY2024, FedEx accounted for $35 million of Mphasis's revenue in a quarter; business from the logistics giant is expected to be nought by the end of 2025. Also Read: TCS revenue from Tata Group companies nears $1 billion This development could significantly impact Blackstone's plans to exit Mphasis. In 2016, Blackstone spent up to $1.1 billion to acquire 60.2% of the shares of the promoter, Hewlett-Packard, becoming the majority owner of Mphasis. In 2017, Nitin Rakesh assumed the role of CEO. Over the last nine years, Blackstone has cut its holdings to 40.14%. A loss in business from FedEx could hinder Mphasis's overall growth in the current fiscal year, making it more challenging for the New York-headquartered private equity giant to sell its holdings. Mintindependently could not ascertain the reason behind FedEx ending its over two-decade-old business ties with Mphasis. Nonetheless, FedEx is the third-largest client of Mphasis after banking giants JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Charles Schwab Corp. Mphasis's five largest clients accounted for 42% of its total revenue last year, according to the company's disclosure. JP Morgan brought in 14% of Mphasis's total business, while Charles Schwab, FedEx and two others accounted for 28%, according to an executive. Mphasis did not answerMint's questionnaire on the FedEx account and said it continues to have a 'robust and expanding pipeline." Mphasis optimistic 'As you are aware, we do not comment on individual client contracts," said a spokesperson for the company on Friday. 'We have a robust and expanding pipeline, with overall growth reaching 86% year-over-year and 26% sequentially in the fourth quarter (Q4FY25), marking the highest quarterly increase in the past 12 quarters. We also have a healthy pipeline, with non-BFS (banking and financial services) jump of 99%, significantly contributed by logistics and travel. Our large deals pipeline also saw a significant surge, rising 40% sequentially and 154% year-over-year, reflecting focused execution." Emails sent to FedEx and Accenture on 28 May went unanswered. Mphasis reported a 4.4% revenue growth last year to $1.68 billion, followed by a 6.3% revenue decline in the year ended 2024. This comes at a time when two of its other rivals have also witnessed slow business with their largest clients: Sonata Software Ltd, which ended with $1.2 billion in revenue last year, andLTIMindtreeLtd, which ended with $4.49 billion in revenue. Also Read: Tech Mahindra appoints Santosh Jha to lead GCC push amid industry-wide shift Mphasis's issue with one of its large accounts comes at a time when a few of its peers, including Sonata Software and LTIMindtree, faced problems with their large accounts. Sonata said it was likely to record lower-than-expected revenue from its 'largest client" Microsoft Corp, for January-March 2025, as reported byMinton 4 May. The sixth-largest IT firm, LTIMindtree, admitted to getting lower revenue from Microsoft as it passed productivity gains to the tech giant. Microsoft fetched upwards of $50 million and $100 million for LTIMindtree and Sonata Software, respectively. Still, Mphasis's management appeared guarded in response to questions raised on revenue decline from a top client. Explaining it away 'The decline you're seeing is not linked to any one customer," CEO Rakesh told analysts in a post-earnings interaction with analysts on 24 January, when asked about the decline in business from its largest clients. 'Some of it was expected, but it's not just one customer-led. I don't think it is constructive to over-index the conversation on 'a customer.' As I said, right, we are aware of all the speculation and the rumours. 'The talk of FedEx ramping down or cutting its partnership with Mphasis was making the rounds since last September," said a Mumbai-based analyst on condition of anonymity. 'They are trying to offset the loss through another big logistics player." This decline from FedEx suggests that large multinational companies are reassessing their tech strategies in the wake of Gen AI and an uncertain macroeconomic environment caused by US President Donald Trump's tariff reversals. Also Read: Infosys-Cognizant trade-secrets battle nears end as Dallas court passes order Last year, Mphasis's 4.43% growth was the slowest among all its mid-cap rivals, includingPersistent Systems Ltd andCoforge Ltd, which grew 18.8% and 31.9%, respectively. Worryingly for Mphasis investors, it was the only mid-cap company to report a decline in headcount, even as its rivals expanded their workforce. Mphasis ended the year with 1,222 fewer people, having 31,442 employees. To be sure, Bengaluru-headquartered Mphasis has seen a decline in business from logistics and transportation companies since March 2023. Revenue from these companies, which accounted for 13.3% of the total at the end of March 2023, comprised 12.5% of overall revenue last year.
Techday NZ
19-05-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Kore.ai collaborates with AWS to boost AI adoption for business
has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services to integrate its agent AI platform and business solutions with a range of AWS services. The agreement will enable technology to work in conjunction with AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, and Amazon Connect, aiming to accelerate the adoption and deployment of AI tools for various business requirements. which was recognised as an AWS Innovation Award winner for "Generative AI/ML Market Disruptor of the Year" in January 2025, has focused on developing integrations that run on AWS infrastructure. These integrations are intended to support greater adaptability and scalability for customers, improving customer experience and operational efficiency. The Agent Platform, including solutions designed for work, service, and process automation, will also be available through the AWS Marketplace. This agreement provides AWS customers with additional ways to access, purchase, and implement offerings hosted on AWS. Raj Koneru, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of said, "We are excited to expand our collaboration with AWS, combining innovative AI agent platform and business solutions with AWS powerful cloud infrastructure. Through this strategic agreement, and AWS will bolster our existing collaborative efforts in product integration and go-to-market strategies, expediting innovation and the realisation of benefits for hundreds of our mutual customers. We are enabling global businesses to accelerate their AI adoption by simplifying the implementation of advanced AI technologies, helping them achieve transformative outcomes in today's rapidly evolving landscape." Under the terms of the collaboration, has joined the AWS ISV Accelerate Program. This enables to work closely with AWS sales teams on joint opportunities, making it easier for enterprises to deploy AI solutions via the AWS Marketplace. Both parties state that these programmes will further reinforce the partnership and support scalable adoption of enterprise AI. approach includes joining forces with partners to implement AI at enterprise scale. Nitin Rakesh, Chief Executive Officer of Mphasis, commented, "As a leading software services and consulting company, we help large enterprises around the world adopt AI technology in a safe, secure, and scalable way. We are proud to be a strategic implementation partner of and we feel especially confident knowing that foundation on AWS, delivering unmatched reliability and scalability." Chris Casey, Head of AWS Partnerships for Asia-Pacific and Japan, said, "As preferred cloud provider, we are excited to expand our collaboration and to reinforce our shared commitment to empowering customers in the AI era. The goal of this collaboration is to accelerate innovation and productivity for our customers by combining AWS cloud infrastructure with adaptable and scalable AI platform and business solutions." and AWS indicate that the ongoing partnership is intended to enhance business flexibility and unlock additional value for customers across multiple sectors by combining AI technologies with AWS's cloud services.
Business Wire
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Kore.ai Announces Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS to Accelerate Enterprise AI Adoption
ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- a global leader in enterprise AI, announces today that it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS). has integrated its agent AI platform and business solutions with AWS services like Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, and Amazon Connect. These integrations accelerate the deployment of AWS AI tools for a variety of business use cases. enters a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to integrate its agent AI platform with AWS services, accelerating the deployment of AWS AI tools for a variety of business use cases. Share Recognized as an AWS Innovation Award winner for "Generative AI/ML Market Disruptor of the Year" in January 2025, has developed sophisticated integrations with key AWS AI technologies. Their solutions complement AWS infrastructure by providing adaptable and scalable AI solutions that enhance customer experience and operational efficiency. The Agent Platform, including AI for Work, AI for Service, and AI for Process, is also available on the AWS Marketplace. This SCA aims to provide AWS customers with new ways to purchase and use agent platform and business solutions to be hosted on AWS. The collaboration brings together the benefits of and AWS, to help businesses deliver better, faster, and easier experiences for their customers and employees. 'We are excited to expand our collaboration with AWS, combining innovative AI agent platform and business solutions with AWS powerful cloud infrastructure,' said Raj Koneru, Founder and CEO of 'Through this strategic agreement, and AWS will bolster our existing collaborative efforts in product integration and go-to-market strategies, expediting innovation and the realization of benefits for hundreds of our mutual customers. We are enabling global businesses to accelerate their AI adoption by simplifying the implementation of advanced AI technologies, helping them achieve transformative outcomes in today's rapidly evolving landscape.' As part of the collaboration, has joined the AWS ISV Accelerate Program. Through AWS ISV Accelerate, will work directly with AWS sales teams on joint opportunities, making it easier for customers to adopt its AI-powered solutions via AWS Marketplace. These programs further strengthen the relationship between and AWS and create new paths for delivering enterprise AI at scale. 'As a leading software services and consulting company, we help large enterprises around the world adopt AI technology in a safe, secure, and scalable way,' said Nitin Rakesh, CEO of Mphasis. 'We are proud to be a strategic implementation partner of and we feel especially confident knowing that foundation on AWS, delivering unmatched reliability and scalability.' "As preferred cloud provider, we are excited to expand our collaboration and to reinforce our shared commitment to empowering customers in the AI era," said Chris Casey, Head of AWS Partnerships, Asia-Pacific and Japan. 'The goal of this collaboration is to accelerate innovation and productivity for our customers by combining AWS cloud infrastructure with adaptable and scalable AI platform and business solutions.' This collaboration underscores and AWS commitment to providing flexibility and unlocking greater business value for customers across industries. Access products on AWS Marketplace and to learn how to leverage these solutions with AWS products, contact the team About is a leading provider of advanced AI with over a decade of experience in helping large enterprises realize business value through the safe and responsible use of AI. It provides comprehensive offerings for AI work, process automation and customer service use cases coupled with an AI agent platform with no-code and pro-code tools for custom development and deployment at enterprise scale. takes an agnostic approach to model, data, cloud and applications used, giving customers freedom of choice. Trusted by over 500 partners and 450 Global 2000 companies, helps them navigate their AI strategy. The company has a strong patent portfolio in the AI space and has been recognized as a leader and an innovator by top analysts. Headquartered in Orlando, has a network of offices to support customers in India, the UK, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea, and Europe. Visit to learn more.
Economic Times
26-04-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Mphasis to focus on large AI-led deals, says CEO
Live Events Artificial intelligence-led deals are increasing the addressable market for IT companies despite the ongoing macro uncertainties surrounding tariffs, Mphasis chief executive Nitin Rakesh AI, the shape of large deals that were there two or three years ago have changed, Rakesh told ET on Friday, after declaring the company's financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2025. 'AI is changing what we are selling, how we are selling, who we are selling to and what we are delivering…Industry will lose revenues in one place and gain revenue in another place,' he Mphasis, large AI-led deals will be the focus. 'I think that $100-250 million is a great sweet spot for us…We have some mega deals that I call more than $250 million in the pipeline, but those take longer to close,' he company won deals worth $390 million in total contract value (TCV) including two large deals in the January-March period of fiscal year 2025, the highest in the last seven quarters. For the fiscal year, new TCV was $1.27 billion and 55% of this was results were in line with the ongoing IT industry trend of mid-tier companies outperforming their larger quarter saw Mphasis report its highest sequential revenue growth in three years, on the back of robust deal wins and healthy business in banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI) and technology, media and telecom (TMT) rose 8.7% from a year earlier and 4.2% sequentially to Rs 3,710 crore in the January-March quarter. Net profit grew 13.6% on-year and 4.4% from the previous quarter to Rs 446.5 IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services Infosys and Wipro have reported negative to low-single-digit revenue growth as clients went back to a cautionary approach amid confusion and uncertainties around tariffs and global trade, leading to inaction on deal to Rakesh, there is AI-led deflation in revenue across the industry and not every company will grow. But AI is increasing the kind of businesses that software service providers can go after beyond existing comes especially at a time when clients are focusing on digital transformation and cost-efficiency projects as they have tightened their spending on non-urgent or discretionary spending.'I think it's foolhardy to wait for that to happen. Waiting for discretionary spend is an endless wait. Spends will get reprioritised,' Rakesh added.'I have the opportunity to actually play in a larger addressable market…We are trying to expand the wallet share, not by playing the price game, but technology-led solution game,' he said.
