‘AI initiatives must closely align with organisation’s business objectives’: Dywane Allen – Artificial Intelligence News

The US-based IT services and consulting major Unisys views its India operations as crucial in supporting products and solutions for clients worldwide. Currently, India accounts for a quarter of its total workforce, and approximately 40% of the global work is executed here. While the company is rapidly expanding its presence with new offices in various cities, it is also hiring and upskilling its workforce for the AI era. Dywane Allen, SVP & CTO, Unisys, speaks to Sudhir Chowdhary on their skilling efforts in building future-ready talent. Excerpts:

How is India’s workforce leading the innovation charter for Unisys globally?

The India market is vital to Unisys’ operations and plays a major role in driving innovations for our clients on a global scale. Currently, India accounts for a quarter of our total workforce, and approximately 40% of our global work is executed there. This is largely due to the technical expertise found in the region as well as India’s vibrant digital economy, which makes it a global leader in cloud computing and AI breakthroughs.

What are the challenges you see in skilling India’s tech workforce with AI disruption?

India’s job market is undergoing significant transformation due to rapid technological innovation, globalisation and shifting economic trends. And the demand for AI talent in the region is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 15% by 2027. This places considerable pressure on India’s workforce to be AI-ready and keep pace with the technology’s evolution – especially as organisations are still determining how best to leverage the technology.

We see how AI can touch everything within a global organisation, from employee recruitment and onboarding to the way people work. While it has the power to enhance productivity across industries, boosting collaboration and automation, employees need clear direction on how and when to use new tools. So, the challenge for leaders, in India or in other regions around the globe, is striking a balance through upskilling talent to AI adoption, to implementation and measurement. This requires organisations to strategically plan how to use AI and enable their employees to take action.

What kind of AI and tech upskilling do you undertake?

We take great pride in providing employees with career growth opportunities, and upskilling our talent organisation-wide to be a strong, tech-enabled workforce is a priority. At Unisys, we offer all employees foundational AI and technology training tailored to their job roles and levels of seniority. Additionally, we constantly evaluate how technology may be changing and adjust our offerings to provide a mix of online and instructor-led training, ensuring employees understand how to use AI and other emerging technologies and the impact of these tools on their roles.

In India, we are committed to fostering the next generation of technical talent through our annual Unisys Innovation Programme (UIP), which features a competition and connects young engineers with industry experts to develop creative technology-centric real-world solutions. The programme just concluded its 16th year, which attracted a remarkable number of entries, resulting in more than 890 project submissions from 12,760 registrants. Additionally, we have successfully established partnerships with over 200 universities, which often lead to job opportunities for students post-graduation.

Agentic AI is the new buzzword. Do you see it as a big opportunity for Unisys and its clients?

Many may confuse agentic AI with other forms of GenAI or chatbots that they routinely use, but this technology has many distinct and powerful capabilities that could revolutionize how organizations operate and how people work. Unlike other forms of AI, agentic AI operates with autonomy, can make decisions independently and pursues objectives with purpose – much like humans do.

By analysing situations, learning from experience and adapting to new conditions, agentic AI can effectively manage and modernise organizations’ technology and cloud infrastructures. Agentic AI systems can operate independently, executing tasks and making decisions without continuous human input. It is designed to achieve specific objectives, often involving complex, multi-step processes, and can learn from experiences and adjust behaviour to improve performance and outcomes. Thus, this technology can increase overall productivity and help transform processes. With this understanding of the technology’s overall prowess, Unisys can help clients balance adoption with optimisation, depending on what’s in the best interest of their business. This kind of autonomy could help clients to fill talent gaps, supplement existing teams and help drive competitive differentiation.

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