Artificial Intelligence in BPOs

Machines to replace humans in IPsoft‘s BPOs

IPsoft, which relies on artificial intelligence to manage computer networks, is ready to disrupt the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry by using what it calls "cognitive technology" that enables machines to do the work of humans, the India-born founder of the New York-based company said.

"By Christmas you will see it in action in one of the largest media companies," founder and chief executive officer Chetan Dube told ET in an exclusive interview. IPsoft's cognitive technology assimilates information just like the human brain and processes it with reliability of computers to solve problems, he said. A global investment bank and a large media company will be among the first users of the cutting-edge technology, Dube said, but declined to identify the customers.

Going beyond call centres

Earlier this year, Infosys tied up with IPsoft to use the latter's technology to provide IT infrastructure management solutions to its global customers. Its autonomic artificial intelligence engine picks trends by analysing hundreds of pieces of information all at once to diagnose and solve problems on computer networks with minimal human intervention.

IPsoft expects cognitive technology-based solutions, which it is introducing soon, to go well beyond basic call centre jobs to include other services such as disease diagnosis or even medicine prescription, typically the domain of trained practitioners with specialised knowledge.

"If you think autonomics has changed the world, wait till you see cognitive technologies," Dube, 44, said. "It is not going to be just great; it is going to be a phenomenon." IPsoft was founded in 1998 by Dube, a former associate professor of mathematics at New York University. The company tops $700 million (Rs 4,500 crore) in sales, and counts Morgan Stanley and BT among its clients.

Its India head-office is in Bangalore, where it employs 800 staff and is in the process of opening a second campus. Dube, a computer science graduate from IIT-Delhi, has been arguing that the era of outsourcing simple manual tasks to low-wage countries is nearing an end and will be replaced by intelligent, selflearning machines doing the same job at a fraction of the cost.

IPsoft, he said, is at the forefront of such a "creative destruction" that will transform the "bloated" IT industry. Nearly two-thirds of all problems on computer networks are being solved by IPsoft with no human intervention at all, Dube said, resulting in cost savings of at least 30%. In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, corporations in the US and Europe have been looking for ways to reduce costs and such technologies have been driving greater outsourcing in infrastructure management business, making it one of the fastest-growing services lines for the industry.

Dube said the company does not require capital for its current needs, but it is considering the possibility of going public. Ernst & Young is advising it on a potential IPO that, if it happens, will take place within 24 months. The intent of going public would be to help the company expand and invest more in research to be able to bring about more innovative technologies, the CEO said. "Now we don't have to report quarter by quarter; we can chase the 15-year dream."