Happiest Minds forays into gen AI with new PDES unit

Indian IT services firm Happiest Minds Technologies announced on October 18 that it is foraying into the Generative AI space with the launch of its Product and Digital Engineering Services (PDES) business unit. The new unit will combine the firm's Product Engineering Services (PES) and Digital Business Services (DBS) units, offering generative artificial intelligence across multiple domains. 
 
Happiest Minds’ Group CTO, Sridhar Mantha, will lead the new unit, according to Executive Chairman Ashok Soota. Soota also mentioned that Executive Board Member Rajiv Shah will leverage the Analytics CoE led by Sundar Ramaswamy and the Generative AI BU led by Sridhar to provide holistic solutions to customers. 
 
Soota said that the company is making strategic moves to achieve its goal of $1 billion by 2031. These moves will establish a vertical structure and allow Happiest Minds to develop deeper domain capabilities. 
 
He added, “Given the rapid evolution in the Generative AI space, we decided to leverage the synergies of other digital technologies. The dedication of our proven senior leadership, including Sridhar, will contribute to the success of the unit.” 
 
The new entity will invest in advanced digital technologies and engineering expertise while enhancing the offerings and capabilities of its Generative AI Business Services (GBS) unit to accelerate customer digital transformation efforts and provide greater value, according to the company's regulatory filing. 
 
Sridhar Mantha, President & CEO of Generative AI Business Services at Happiest Minds, said, “So far, we have developed over 120 use cases across various domains and created tailored Generative AI solutions for more than 20 customers.” He added that with the establishment of the newly merged PDES BU, Happiest Minds aims to share learnings across customers and take a unified market approach to ensure the success of its land and expand strategy. 
 
The company reported its corporate results for the quarter ending in September on October 17. Consolidated profit was ₹58.46 crore, up 0.2% QoQ, and revenue reached ₹428.83 crore. 
 
This move comes as India's IT service providers focus on generative AI to counter a weak tech spending environment due to global macroeconomic headwinds. Generative AI, which was initially expected to impact code generation and enhance developer productivity, is now being used by IT companies for various functions and services. 
 
In September, Infosys expanded its partnership with US chipmaker Nvidia to offer AI models, tools, applications, and compute infrastructure. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported over 250 generative AI opportunities in the pipeline and trained over 100,000 employees in the field.  

The company's Chief Operating Officer (COO) N Ganapathy Subramaniam said at TCS’ Q2 earnings conference on October 11, the company has more than 250 generative AI opportunities in the pipeline and completed training over 100,000 employees in the field.
 
In August, Wipro launched a Center of Excellence on Generative AI at IIT Delhi, following its announcement to invest $1 billion in AI innovation. 
  
Tech Mahindra has also seen productivity increases across the board given the array of use cases. “The use of generative AI has resulted in a 25%-30% increase in productivity and significant cost savings for the company,” Kunal Purohit, chief digital services officer (CDSO) at Tech Mahindra told Mint in an interview published on 29 September. 
 
According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the global generative AI market was valued at $10.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $209 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 35% from 2023 to 2032. The Asia-Pacific region, particularly India, China and Japan, is predicted to experience significant growth in the Generative AI Market.