TCS Innovation Forum: Building a Resilient and Responsible Future

Highlights

Nearly 100 business and academic leaders attended TCS’ Innovation Forum event, held at the Cornell Tech campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island.
This year’s theme was ‘Innovating for a resilient and responsible future’.
The consensus: No one can predict the future. But no one can afford to be unprepared for it, either. So, the solution is to start envisioning multiple futures, then work backward.

Event horizon

It’s not your imagination. The combination of innovation and risk has delivered a business environment unrivaled in its complexity. That was the consensus of nearly 100 business and academic leaders attending TCS’ Innovation Forum event, held at the Cornell Tech campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Also, the consensus: this moment presents unique opportunities for human progress, on a scale not seen in the past 100 years. So, how do we take that complexity and turn it into innovation?

“Since its founding in 2006, the TCS Innovation Forum has become a meeting place for diverse people, companies, and institutions to come together to visualize the future,” said K Ananth Krishnan, TCS’ Chief Technology Officer. This year, the theme was ‘Innovating for a resilient and responsible future’, ideal for a venue that has become a showcase for big questions, such as the one above, and unconventional answers. Here are some of the highlights.

Adapt quickly and rise to the challenge of creating a more innovative, prosperous, and sustainable world.

Suresh Muthuswami
Chairman, TCS North America

Leadershipspeak

We’re at an AI inflection point. Get on board.

Generative AI is leading to a paradigm shift that is both awesome and daunting. The mandate is simple.

“Adapt quickly and rise to the challenge of creating a more innovative, prosperous, and sustainable world.”

–Suresh Muthuswami, Chairman, TCS North America

It’s time for a new, more responsible playbook

The playbook that sustained you through the last transformation won’t get you through this one. It’s time to re-examine the big enablers, and to focus on responsibility.

“We are talking about doing the right thing as individuals. We have consciousness that allows us to know the right thing to do. Organizations must embrace the consciousness of their people to be successful.”

–Amit Bajaj, President, Americas, TCS

Understanding builds resilience

“Rather than be overwhelmed by systems of record, organizations need to harness their tacit knowledge. To become more resilient, create visibility into tacit knowledge, master digital knowledge management, and then turn that understanding into action.”

–Dr Harrick Vin, Chief Services Innovation Officer, TCS

Agents will be our guides

Generative AI, and large language models in particular, has the promise to be the foundation of the knowledge super-structure of an enterprise. There is a need for a systemic ‘whole of enterprise’ approach to ensure this technology is consistent, reliable, secure, fair, and transparent. Agent-based models can enable that as a protective digital veneer around the technology. These agents operate in a collaborative manner to ensure the user’s outcome is met as well as operationalize a clearly articulated policy regimen. They mediate between users and the technology and ensure that the technology stays true to the promise.

“Agents are your coach, mentor, and guide every step of the way.”

–Sankaranarayanan ‘Shanky’ Viswanathan, Vice-president and CTO, Business Solutions, TCS

This is going to be big

Between 1870 and 1970, the world established our modern society. Now, with rapid advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, we’re on the edge of another precipice—or massive gains.

“The fuel behind this emerging future is really knowledge. Knowledge has always been the mechanism that has driven human development.”

–Frank Diana, Managing Partner and Futurist, TCS

Don’t predict the future. Prepare for it.

No one can predict the future. But no one can afford to be unprepared for it, either. The solution: Start by envisioning multiple futures, then work backward. “Ask yourself: What actions need to be taken now so that you are best-positioned for the future, no matter which version becomes reality?”

–Amy Webb, World-renowned Futurist and CEO, Future Today Institute

To change behavior, change the culture

And do it quickly. Take advantage of the tension between the long and short term to create change. Then leverage the perspectives of different generations and enable autonomous teams.

“When culture changes in a meaningful way, behaviors change with it.”

–Stephen Sorensen, Senior Vice-president of Technology Services, Application Engineering and Platforms, Johnson & Johnson

Say hi to your digital twin

In the premier of ‘Digital twins: Rehearsing the future’, attendees saw how virtual replicas, or digital twins, of real objects—including ourselves—can help us model, rehearse, and investigate versions of the future. See how TCS is exploring and building the digital twins of the future.

The need for speed

“At Wolters Kluwer, investment in digital twin capabilities helped our company virtualize a 130-year-old, paper-intensive process to ingest and process documents in only minutes, compared to a 24-hour-plus process for our customers. The digital twin approach has not only given Wolters Kluwer tremendous resiliency, but also created innovation by enabling us to move from one size fits all to a segmented offering by leveraging augmented intelligence.”

–Sandeep Sacheti, EVP, Customer Information Management and Operational Excellence, Wolters Kluwer Financial and Corporate Compliance