Infosys to redeploy AI productivity gains into growth, not job cuts: Nilekani

“The AI revolution has also created an extreme sense of urgency in our customers for legacy modernisation, eliminating data silos, addressing AI-identified cyber vulnerabilities, and in general reducing and eliminating the technical debt accumulated over decades,” he said.

He described the current phase of AI adoption as an “age of orchestration”, saying that many companies are struggling to move from pilot projects to large-scale deployment because of legacy systems and organisational challenges.

“Moving from pilot to scale is where most enterprises stall,” Nilekani said, adding that businesses need to redesign processes and operating models instead of simply adding AI to existing systems.

According to him, the key challenge for enterprises is not the technology itself but the decisions surrounding its use.

“What separates enterprises that unlock AI value from those that do not is rarely the technology they choose. It is the quality of the decisions made around it: organisational readiness, data integrity, governance, and pace,” he said.

Nilekani also said that AI would increase demand for human skills rather than replace them.

“What still matters is first-principles thinking: learning the underlying concept before reaching for the tool. The demand for human capability grows, not shrinks,” he said.

Citing projections from the World Economic Forum, he noted that by 2030 around 92 million jobs could be displaced while 170 million jobs could be created, resulting in a net gain of 78 million jobs.

Infosys employed 3,28,594 people globally at the end of FY26 and recruited more than 20,000 college graduates during the year, according to the annual report.