WEF 2015: Automation to cause temporary replacement of jobs, says Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka

DAVOS: As companies are moving towards automation, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka today said there would be temporary replacement of jobs and lower IT costs.

Sikka, who was speaking as a panelist in a session on 'Inclusive Growth in the Digital Age' at the World Economic Forum here, said that the companies should move towards automation as it would be better in terms of cost.

The session focussed on issues related to automation leading to job cuts, inequality in incomes and role of education in the digital age.

"Technology makes people more productive...their abilities are amplified with technology," Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of the over USD 8 billion IT services exporter, said.

While the Infosys CEO did not foresee a future where people would become "irrelevant", he noted that "there is temporary replacement of jobs".

MasterCard CEO Ajay S Banga, who was also part of the panel, observed that technology would "alter the job landscape" and emphasised the need for investments in infrastructure and skill developments.

Noting that a large chunk of the population was not part of the digital network, Banga said technology can help half of the population become more productive.

According to telecom firm Ericsson's CEO Hans E Vestberg, in the next five years, technology would spread at a "mind boggling" speed with nearly three times more population likely to be connected with Internet, while about 85 per cent population will have high-speed (3G and 4G) connections.

Observing that technology should serve the people, businesses and society, Vestberg said there is a need for more workforce especially in growing regions including in Asia.

Meanwhile, Sikka said also that the private sector was required to contribute towards development of infrastructure and education.

"I don't believe government can do it alone...they have to initiate the projects but the private sector has to contributer as well," he said.

Infosys, which was once the bellwether of Indian IT industry, has shown interest in taking over innovative companies and in areas like "automation and artificial intelligence".

Recently Sikka had said that his company was "interested in acquiring smaller companies, although you never say no to something that makes sense and a bigger scale as well".