N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, has expressed a bullish outlook on the transformative potential of AI, especially its capacity to drive growth within the sector despite concerns about job displacement. Murthy shared a notable revelation regarding his personal adoption of AI tools, specifically stating that he utilises OpenAI’s ChatGPT for drafting speeches and preparing lectures.
He underscored how this generative AI tool has significantly streamlined his preparation process. “Earlier…it would take…about 25-30 hours to prepare a lecture…but with ChatGPT…in a matter of five hours, I could improve the draft,” Murthy stated, highlighting a substantial five-fold increase in his personal productivity.
Addressing the widespread concern about AI’s impact on employment, Murthy offered a reassuring perspective: “This whole fear that technology will take away jobs is not right. It will create a different kind of job.” He elaborated on his experience with ChatGPT, noting, “For example, what I found in using ChatGPT for my speeches was the following: the smartness is in providing the requirement definition for my speech. The smartness is in asking the right question.”
He believes that AI will empower professionals to tackle more complex challenges. “So, what will happen in the future is our programmers and analysts will become smarter and smarter in defining better and better requirements, more complex requirements. They will solve bigger problems, more complex problems. So, I am very positive about how AI will only enhance the growth rate of our industry,” he said.
Murthy said that AI should be viewed as an augmentative tool, capable of enhancing human capabilities rather than solely replacing them. He believes the software industry’s growth will accelerate if leaders strategically integrate AI to improve productivity and quality.
Recalling his early career building reusable code skeletons in the late 1970s, Murthy noted that AI now enables programmers to automate similar frameworks at scale. “Once the skeletons are produced by AI, then it becomes extremely easy for the mass programmer, for the large number of programmers, to produce high-quality code, high-quality programs,” he added.
Murthy drew a parallel to the introduction of computers in Britain’s banking sector in the 1970s, which initially faced opposition from union strikes. He recounted how, following discussions between union leaders and experts, it was explained that computers would enhance productivity, allowing employees to complete work efficiently and improve their work-life balance. This shift, he noted, ultimately led to jobs multiplying by a factor of 40 to 50 in the banking sector in both the UK and the US. He expects AI to do the same in this century.