Genpact opens its first AI center to help enterprises rethink workflows

Genpact’s first artificial intelligence (AI) innovation center has opened in London, doubling down on the firm’s efforts to earn the right to rethink enterprise workflows and unlock personalization.

The company is organizing its AI efforts around five guiding principles (see below). The first two bang the GenAI gong. The third and fourth (change and training) focus on people’s needs. And, of course, no self-respecting AI guidelines can be complete without the last one, emphasizing responsible AI.

Five principles play to Genpact’s strengths to stand out in the GenAI crowd

Genpact’s five principles for AI play to its heritage in process and focus on people and experience:

• Rethink workflows: Connect GenAI to business processes to rethink workflows and augment employees’ work.
• Unlock hyper-personalization: Combine GenAI with people’s knowledge, empathy, and ethics.
• Mindfully manage change: Create an environment where people feel safe to engage with AI.
• User-focused training: Build training to upskill people and drive deeper adoption.
• Responsible AI framework: Establish a framework that prioritizes transparency, accountability, and data privacy and eliminates bias.

The principles and a new innovation center build on HFS Horizons report success

The five principles are a solid stab at differentiating Genpact in an oh-so-cluttered market. Genpact was named a Horizon 3 Market Leader in the industry’s first competitive analysis of professional services firms and the value they create with enterprises adopting and experimenting with GenAI (HFS Horizons: Generative Enterprise™ Services, 2023).

The principles focus on rethinking workflows and unlocking personalization, aligning well with Genpact’s ability to combine business process orchestration with enterprise data management, as our Generative Enterprise Horizons report calls out. The opening of the London AI Innovation Center doubles down on the firm’s focus on AI-led innovation to transform customer experiences, which our report also identified.

London is the first of four AI Innovation Centers Genpact is launching. Centers will shortly open in Bucharest, Romania, and Gurgaon, India, with New York following fast and plans for more around the globe.

Our report also noted the need to scale employee skills, so we are delighted and impressed to see the third and fourth Genpact principles responding to that need. In the UK, Genpact has 500 skilled employees at the manager level and above and has pledged to add a further 500 in the next two to three years.

Exhibit 1: Lord Dominic Johnson cuts the ribbon at the opening of Genpact’s first AI Innovation Center

Source: HFS Research, 2023

The new London AI Innovation Center was officially launched on November 23, 2023, by Lord Dominic Johnson, Minister of State in the UK government’s Department for Business and Trade. The opening was attended by members of the British High Commission, soon-to-retire industry legend Genpact President and CEO Tiger Tyagarajan, and many clients (see Exhibit 1).

Clients are confused and need partners who understand the details of their business

Genpact presented a series of demos to clients, each applying GenAI, including fixing software, detecting financial crime, creating orders in the beverage industry, automating contents insurance pricing, and resolving price disputes in the consumer packaged goods industry.

While clients were impressed and immediately identified applications for use in their businesses, one questioned why Genpact was not already coming to them with such solutions. Another said Genpact should not wait for customers to approach Genpact with their business problems because customers did not know where they should best apply AI. Genpact points out that each solution presented at the innovation center is a response to a business problem first identified through Genpact hackathons and then taken to clients for development.

Enterprise leaders have always looked to their partners to help them imagine how to apply new technologies. In the case of the many unknown unknowns of AI, that demand is greater than ever. Innovation centers are one way providers and enterprises can work hand-in-hand to develop solutions. Genpact’s ambition is to bring intellects together regularly in its AI Innovation Centers. But right now, it seems clients want guidance on what will work for them, and that must come from service providers getting as close as possible to their clients’ needs.

The Bottom Line: Center offers access to innovation, and principles provide the people-powered route to scaling the outcomes.

Adding an AI Innovation Center in London offers Genpact’s UK customers the direct experience of Genpact’s commitment to the combination of process orchestration, data management, and AI innovation. Genpact must also ensure it uses the center to get closer to customer needs and help customers apply and benefit from its AI principles. The principles focus on helping leaders and employees upskill and come to terms with AI’s impact, which will make all the difference when scaling AI innovation in the enterprise.