Dive Brief:

• The CEO of leading Indian IT services outsourcer Infosys encouraged employees to welcome automation and become more innovative or face becoming "obsolete by the tidal wave of automation and technology-fueled transformation.”

• Vishal Sikka made the request in his New Year’s message to all Infosys employees. "We will not survive if we remain in the constricted space of doing as we are told ... By standing still instead of moving forward decisively, we will face the brunt of the disruptive forces, as our industry has already started to see," Sikka said.

• Infosys is India’s second largest IT firm. The Indian IT market has witnessed dramatic changes over the last few years as AI and other technologies have automated many of the duties previously outsourced to them, prompting Sikka’s concerns about his company’s survival should workers choose to maintain the status quo rather than innovate.

Dive Insight:

The United States is currently the largest market for the outsourcing industry, which is dominated Infosys and other India-based companies Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro. But outsourcing to India has become less popular due to the changing business environment and the growing role of IT within more businesses. 

Average revenue growth for India’s top outsourcing firms by market value was expected to slow to 13.3% year-on-year in the quarter that ended June 30 — down from 18.6% growth in the same period last year, according to Reuters data.

Meanwhile, the incoming Trump administration has threatened to tax companies that outsource jobs overseas, which could do additional damage to India’s IT outsourcing companies.