Name: Baskaran Subramaniam & Anubhav Mehrotra | HCL Tech
Uploaded: 2024-06-11T16:00:00.000Z
Duration: 16 min 51 s

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Baskaran Subramaniam

Senior Vice President, Financial Services, Americas

HCLTech

Anubhav Mehrotra

Senior Vice President & Insurance Head, Americas

HCL Technologies

AWS and HCLTech collaborate on integrated solutions for financial institutions

The rapid evolution of technology, especially in cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence in financial services, has fundamentally reshaped the landscape for the industry.Industry giants are increasingly adopting a collaborative approach to leverage these advancements, aiming for more integrated and efficient solutions. This synergy among technology providers and financial institutions drives innovation while navigating stringent regulatory landscapes, according to Baskaran Subramaniam (pictured, left), senior vice president of financial services, Americas, at HCL Technologies Ltd

play_circle_outline Exploring the Crucial Role of AWS Financial Services Symposium in Advancing Cloud and Generative AI Innovation

play_circle_outline Partnership between HCLTech and AWS

play_circle_outline Need for constant re-skilling and organizational change management

play_circle_outline Hope for future production use cases and scale benefits for customers

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Baskaran Subramaniam & Anubhav Mehrotra | HCL Tech

Baskaran Subramaniam

Senior Vice President, Financial Services, Americas HCLTech

Anubhav Mehrotra

Senior Vice President & Insurance Head, Americas HCL Technologies

>> The AWS Financial Services Symposium presented by theCUBE. Good morning nerd fan, and welcome back to New York City, one of my favorite cities on the planet. We are here at AWS Financial Services Symposium. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE. We have got a power-packed day of 15 different interviews, but our next segment here is with some superstars from HCLTech. Please welcome to the show, Anubhav and Baskaran. Thank you so much for being here.

>> Thank you.

>> Thanks for having us.

>> It's my pleasure. It's kind of you to show up. What does this event mean for you guys? How is this to be here? You're around all your friends, all your AWS Financial Services friends, your partners. Tell me a little bit about the day and why HCL is here. We'll go to you.

>> First, I start with, it's great to be here in New York. Yeah. AWS is one of HCLTech's key partners. It's one of our largest ecosystem partners, very important in everything that we take to the market at HCLTech. If you think about the kind of innovation that cloud is bringing to the enterprise, to the market, to our customers, we want to be at really the forefront of that change. And our partnership with AWS means a whole lot in making that happen for us, whether it's on the cloud, data, generative AI, and all of those things. So I think this is a very exciting day for us to meet partners, customers, hang out together, and really talk about what cool stuff we want to do next.

>> Yeah, so let's dig in there a little bit. You mentioned, and I love this because I think, and you can confirm or deny this, but one of the things I think is really cool about the AI era we're in right now is large enterprise companies are collaborating in a way that is a little more integrated, I think, than some of the other technological revolutions we've seen because, to your point earlier, better together. So why are your shared customers better off when HCLTech and AWS come together? Why is that magic? Yeah, go for it.

>> Absolutely right. In today's integrated environment, there is lot more technology components are getting integrated and getting cross-leverage. So from that perspective, you look at any new technology trend like GenAI needs lot more compute power. And that is where coming in in terms of services and engineering organization like HCLTech, along with AWS, like a cloud provider, coming in together makes it lot more powerful message for the customers. And the way we look at it is that it is not only HCLTech and AWS coming together, but also the customer also coming along with us as a triparty is making a whole lot of difference in the marketplace. And that enables a faster leverage of new things like GenAI and implementation of them, be it proof of concept, pilot, and rolling it to production. So that is the way we look.

>> I love that. So it's not just better together from a partnership perspective, but really having those customers-

>> Ecosystem together. Yeah.

>> What are customers saying to you? I imagine they're so excited. Are they overwhelmed? Where are they at in their journey? That

>> So that is an interesting question, right?

>> Yeah.

>> In terms of any particularly financial services is heavily influenced by regulators. Unlike your retail industry or any other industry verticals, financial services, be it banks or capital markets or insurance, which Anubhav can speak about a lot, this is heavily governed by their regulators and with the... Big time, yes. And that too, with the last 12 months, what has happened in the industry with high interest rate leading to many other things happening in the financial services industry.

>> Very much so.

>> So it has to be driven... It is heavily guarded and governed by the regulators. Because of which, what is happening is that financial services industry particularly is adopting the GenAI kind of trends faster, but with lot of caution. What I mean by that is there are a lot of proof of concepts going on. Listing how they are getting rolled into production is take a little bit of a time because of this guardrails which are in place.

>> I love that. Going fast, but cautious. It's like an F1 car essentially at this point is where we're at, is an analogy that comes to my mind.

>> That's a very good analogy you brought in Formula One car, but faster and guarded because there is a safety car in front of them.

>> Right. Oh yeah. Okay, so actually, let's dig in there because I really like this. Do you feel like... You deal with regulators all the time? Do you feel like the regulation is going to be able to catch the cadence here and speed up a little bit? Because financial services is not known for being the fastest be honest about that.

>> I think it's inevitable that they will. There needs to be a happy balance because there are some real risks that one needs to be cognizant of, whether it's to do with data privacy, it's to do with IP, it's to do with hallucinations and the language models themselves, and the implications that they might have on the users that are going to be using some of these generative AI applications. So I think that there are some real risks that need to be worked through, but it's inevitable that a happy balance will get struck. It's true that financial services are the most heavily regulated or one of the most highly regulated industries in the world, but it is also true that the way we see it, they will be one of the biggest beneficiary industries from generative AI. So there's a big price to go after, but to do it responsibly, Formula One, make haste, but slowly.

>> I love this. We're just going to be on the racetrack this whole segment.

>> Yeah, but I think that it's inevitable that a happy balance will be struck, and that's when you'll start seeing a lot of the proof of concept that Baski spoke about getting into production at large scale, because where the benefits are. You asked earlier what our customers are saying to us. In the very beginning, the questions to us were really about how real are the benefits. And can you put your money where your mouth is? Can you reduce development efforts by 30%? All sorts of numbers were thrown about early days, but I think that there is a lot more pragmatism now because customers have been through a cycle of proof of concept. So they understand the benefits, but they also understand where some of the challenges are going to be, and so there's a lot more pragmatism that is coming as we move to more production use cases.

>> I like it. We're really hanging out in this cautious but fast zone. This is great. So it feels like we're on the precipice of a paradigm shift to a degree, as we go into prod when it comes to GenAI in the financial services industry. How is the experience going to change? What's going to be different or more seamless for the end user, for your customers?

>> So if you look at financial services industry, while it is cautious, guarded and things like that, but they... Financial services industry is one of the most innovated industry. They continuously innovate, be it in terms of trade speed, response, settlement, many other things, part of it. So what is a kind of thing is going to do or doing it is that eliminate the mundane work, which is trade surveillance, looking for-

>> The boring stuff.

>> Yeah, exactly. The boring stuff, which is repeated tasks on this thing, they are going to be taken away from the humans, this. Thereby, it is going to eliminate the lacuna in the system, one, eliminate any manual errors, for example, risk associated with those things in this part of it. What it makes, another part is it releases great amount of human capital to look at innovating newer things, focus on customer experience, focus on how the business can be improved further and further. So that is what is going to happen in this entire cycle and that we are already seeing those things on this part of it, be it on a contact center service agent, making their job much easier, for example. So those are all the things which will impact the end user at the end of the day. And also, it'll also result in reduction of cost of business. Some part of it'll be passed on to the end customer as well.

>> So we're all going to benefit.

>> Yep.

>> Everyone's going to have a better job, customers are going to have more seamless experience, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

>> Yeah. But it is... On the counter thing is, at the end of the day, humans are humans. In the short run, there will be a share factor, scare factor-

>> Exactly....

>> till the time they are getting more opportunities to upskill and do better things. So that duration of transition time, we need to take care of it as an organization for our employees.

>> Yeah. How do you advise customers on managing that? This is a bit of a shift internally for folks. And I can imagine there's a little bit of apprehension. All change comes with a little bit of apprehension. What's your advice there?

>> I think our customers have become far more used to rapid changes in technology. If you really think about what's been happening in the technology landscape, for sure over the past 10 or 15 years, there was cloud and then there was spectator revolution, and now there's this big chain AI revolution. And each of these have called for a different unique set of skills that teach the cup to bear. And I think what we are telling our customers is that this need for constant re-skilling is... It's an existentialist mode in which you have to be... Re-skilling is not something that you're one and done.

>> Right. Right.

>> Because the rate-

>> It's iterative....

>> of change is going to keep coming at you really, really fast. And therefore, where HCLTech, for example, is helping our customers, so we've built out labs where customers can come understand what some of the options are from a generative AI and cloud and data, all of that coming together point of view, how some of the use cases can be brought to bear. And along with that, we are also building several scaling and re-skilling options and capabilities for our customers, not just on a one-off basis, but something that they can do on a far more sustained basis. And that's where people like HCLTech come into the picture.

>> And that's why you're such an important partner for some of your . You can guide them on that path. Yeah, please.

>> If I had to add on that ,

>> Yeah....

>> we stand by what we talk. So what we do is organizational change management is a very important aspect.

>> That's right.

>> What Anubhav talked about in terms of skilling and re-skilling, what we do is to show to the customers our own organization, we continuously re-skill. For example, 50,000 engineers already, we are leveraging the, for example, Amazon queue kind of programs in this thing, and re-skilling them in this thing. And we showcase that assess itself as a change management proof case to our customers by how we leverage Amazon, for example, and re-skill our engineers so that they can be productive and there will be more stickiness within the organization. And also, it is bringing in value to our customers. So when we show that kind of proof cases, that helps our customers organization also to look at their own change management, their own employees to be rescaled and things like that. So that is how we educate the customers, create awareness in that cycle.

>> Yeah, it's like your, you're all arms linked together, getting through it, figuring out, navigating. No, it makes a lot of sense. You two have been working together for almost two decades-

>> Decades, yeah....

>> at the same company. I have to ask, HCLTech obviously doing something great from a culture perspective, what's kept you both there for 20 years?

>> I think it's a fantastic place to work, right?

>> Yeah.

>> The thing that really works out if you ask me is, one, we're in the technology world where, as I was saying, the pace of change is so rapid, no two days are the same.

>> Right.

>> So you always feel like you're doing something new and cool, and that keeps us really engaged and motivated. I think also the culture of the organization, which is very, very focused on how it can enable all its employees to really add value to customers. And that's the key focus that does everyone's got, so everyone feels very involved. You feel like you're valued. And I think that goes a really long way in keeping us where we are. So it's a great place to work, I think.

>> Yeah, I love that. Feeling valued is such an important part in a sense of purpose when it comes to our

>> Exactly that....

>> careers. Do you agree?

>> Absolutely. And just to give you some context to that is that I have been personally, I didn't join HCL, for example. I was rebadged from Dogger Bank into HCLTech 24 years back on this thing.

>> Okay.

>> So it was a very, very refreshing space when I came in into HCLTech, this. And if you look at that, we call HCLTech as not only a safe home for employees, but it's a growth home for the employees. And the fundamental principle with which we work is that if the employees are taken care, and if they are happy and if they are able to fulfill their passion, they will take care of our customers. So that is the whole philosophy around which we work, and that has helped all of us. And we, all of us have grown and doing good things, yes.

>> I wasn't expecting the warm fuzzies from this segment here. This is actually a really nice... Yeah, this is awesome.

>> Absolutely.

>> Yeah. Wow. Well, thank you both so much for spending the morning. I have one final question for hope. So when we're having this interview a year from now, what do you hope to be able to say then that we can't say yet today in terms of where we're at?

>> I think the one thing I'd like to be able to say then... As I said earlier, we are moving with our customers and with our partners, AWS, at a stage where we are moving from POCs and success on POCs into more production some of the use cases we got. Our customers have made significant investments on generative AI. AWS has made significant investments. We're making significant investments in that space. Where we'd like to be a year from now when we come back and have this conversation is to be able to talk about some use cases that went into production at scale and delivered and delivered scale benefits to our customers. I think that's something that we'd like to talk about a year from now because that's the goal that all of us, like he said, customers, AWS, HCLTech put together, that's the goal that we all have, so perhaps that's what we'd like to talk about a year from now.

>> I love it.

>> Oh, absolutely. It's three parties coming together, HCLTech, AWS, and the customer, not in any particular order, but three of us coming together and talk about the in-customer experience impact and the business impact for our customers. So that outcome, if we can talk about, that will be a good success for this entire partnership, as well as the technology adoption itself.

>> I love it. Well, I can't wait to have that conversation with both of your wonderful smiling faces-

>> Yeah....

>> next year when we're here. This has been awesome. Thanks for

>> Thank you. Thanks for having us.

>> Absolutely fantastic.

>> Thank you. Thanks very much.

>> Yeah, my pleasure. And thank all of you for tuning into our fantastic power-packed coverage here at AWS Financial Services Symposium in New York City. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.

Baskaran Subramaniam & Anubhav Mehrotra | HCL Tech

>> Thank you.

>> Thanks for having us.

>> I love that. So it's not just better together from a partnership perspective, but really having those customers-

>> Ecosystem together. Yeah.

>> What are customers saying to you? I imagine they're so excited. Are they overwhelmed? Where are they at in their journey? That

>> So that is an interesting question, right?

>> Yeah.

>> Very much so.

>> I love that. Going fast, but cautious. It's like an F1 car essentially at this point is where we're at, is an analogy that comes to my mind.

>> That's a very good analogy you brought in Formula One car, but faster and guarded because there is a safety car in front of them.

>> I love this. We're just going to be on the racetrack this whole segment.

>> The boring stuff.

>> So we're all going to benefit.

>> Yep.

>> Everyone's going to have a better job, customers are going to have more seamless experience, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

>> Yeah. But it is... On the counter thing is, at the end of the day, humans are humans. In the short run, there will be a share factor, scare factor-

>> Exactly....

>> till the time they are getting more opportunities to upskill and do better things. So that duration of transition time, we need to take care of it as an organization for our employees.

>> Right. Right.

>> Because the rate-

>> It's iterative....

>> And that's why you're such an important partner for some of your . You can guide them on that path. Yeah, please.

>> If I had to add on that ,

>> Yeah....

>> we stand by what we talk. So what we do is organizational change management is a very important aspect.

>> That's right.

>> Yeah, it's like your, you're all arms linked together, getting through it, figuring out, navigating. No, it makes a lot of sense. You two have been working together for almost two decades-

>> Decades, yeah....

>> at the same company. I have to ask, HCLTech obviously doing something great from a culture perspective, what's kept you both there for 20 years?

>> I think it's a fantastic place to work, right?

>> Yeah.

>> The thing that really works out if you ask me is, one, we're in the technology world where, as I was saying, the pace of change is so rapid, no two days are the same.

>> Right.

>> Yeah, I love that. Feeling valued is such an important part in a sense of purpose when it comes to our

>> Exactly that....

>> careers. Do you agree?

>> Absolutely. And just to give you some context to that is that I have been personally, I didn't join HCL, for example. I was rebadged from Dogger Bank into HCLTech 24 years back on this thing.

>> Okay.

>> I wasn't expecting the warm fuzzies from this segment here. This is actually a really nice... Yeah, this is awesome.

>> Absolutely.

>> I love it.

>> I love it. Well, I can't wait to have that conversation with both of your wonderful smiling faces-

>> Yeah....

>> next year when we're here. This has been awesome. Thanks for

>> Thank you. Thanks for having us.

>> Absolutely fantastic.

>> Thank you. Thanks very much.