Business Speech

Course: Foundation Course in Communication

 Business Speech
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Topic: Importance of up skilling in IT Industry
Audience: IT Trainees with less than 1 year of Experience in various centers of TCS in India
Speaker: Learning and Development Manager for Unit
Objective: Motivate trainees to join Continuous Learning Program and take up IT certifications
required by their current and future roles in the organisation
Delivery: Webinar over Zoom
Time: 10 am on 09-Sep-2020

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Good morning everyone, hope you all are doing well and looking forward to Corporate Life in
this new normal post COVID19 lockdown. Most of you must have heard about Artificial
Intelligence, popularly known as AI and Machine Learning again popularly known as ML. These
are the buzzwords in the IT industry.
But a July 2019 article written by Gil Press a senior Contributor in Forbes magazine reads “Is AI
going to be a jobs killer?” This spent chills down the spine of many a professionals. The number
of jobs which AI and machines will take away has been a topic of discussion for various
researches since 2013. Oxford Economics have mentioned that up to 20 million manufacturing
jobs worldwide will be lost to robots by 2030.
McKinsey Global Institute goes on to say that between 40 million to 160 million women
worldwide may need to transition between occupations by 2030, often into higher-skilled roles.
Having said this obvious question which must have aroused in minds of many of you must be
how does this relate to my job as an IT professional in India? Will I too lose my job? What is it
that I need to do to keep my job and progress in my career?
Now let’s look at some of these questions in next few minutes and then we will open the session
for questions and interaction.
Every cloud has a silver lining and where there is a potential threat there is a hidden opportunity.
Being into IT industry we now have greater opportunities in the field of AI and ML. Not only do
we have to automate many a manual processes we have to improve the extent of automation
which is already in place. COVID19 pandemic and social distancing norms have put more stress
on automation and doing more things online. Use of Robots till date was mostly restricted to
high technology operations but sooner or later it may make an entry into routine operations.
Time has come for IT Professionals not be content with their existing skill sets with respect to
technology stack such as JAVA, Web Development, ERP and Big Data which had been flavor of
the past decade but one has to reskill for next decade. It is about time we look at Google AI
Platform, TensorFlow, Microsoft Azure and our own homegrown AI platform “Ignio” to propel
the growth.
While as a forward looking company we are looking at various opportunities in the field of AI
and ML for exponential growth. What we expect from our young talent is re skilling in the
software and platforms around these areas. Gone are the days when we used to say once you join
TCS you can retire from TCS and it is a quasi-Government job. Time has come wherein even a
school going children are learning AI and ML online and developing small applications which
are useful in day to day life. So any one of us who is not putting our right foot forward and
adopting new technologies is likely to be left behind.
With this context in mind, I encourage all of you to constantly keep looking at Training calendar
published for your unit and enroll into courses which challenge you. We have recently added
many new courses at all levels such as Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced. Courses on R,
Python and other AI and ML tools are available free of cost for our associates. In addition to this
we have online projects available for you to put your newly acquired skills to test. If any of the
associate is interested in appearing for online certifications from Google or Microsoft they can
do so with approval from their immediate supervisor. As a Learning and Development manager,
I and my team are committed to continual upgrade of knowledge within our unit and I expect
you to make most of this opportunity to make your career fly.
Thank you, now we open the session for questions and interaction.