Wipro to split India, West Asia business

Steps up focus on AI, automation

Wipro chief executive Abidali Neemuchwala has split the information technology (IT) major's India and Middle East (West Asia) business in two. And, carved a separate hyper automation group by consolidating the Artificial Intelligence (AI) assets such as Holmes that would be headed by its chief technology officer, K R Sanjiv.

The backdrop is the government push for a 'Digital India' and the move towards a less-cash society. So, the company's India region would now be an independent entity with its head reporting directly to Neemuchwala. He has appointed Sreenath A V, currently head of Wipro's global Oracle Practice, to head the India region.

Pandurang Desai will continue to head the Middle East region. He will report to Anand Padmanabhan, who will assume this role in addition to his current charge as global head of the ENU strategic business unit.

The split of India and West Asia regions into separate business would be effective April 1, Wipro stated.

The Bengaluru-based IT major is betting on automation and AI to drive new business and productivity for its clients. And, has stepped up investments here, with a separate hyper automation group. The business, to be headed by Sanjiv, would consolidate Holmes, the AI platform, and other automation intellectual property.

Says Neemuchwala: "I believe the future of work is going to be very different from the way we do it now. For any task we need to do for our clients, we'll look at eliminating the process or the task altogether. What we can't eliminate, we'll look at hyper automating by using robotics and AI. And, what we can't hyper automate, we'll then crowdsource." He'd said this in an interview with analyst firm HfS last month.

Wipro joins rival Infosys in looking at building the company's AI offerings as a standalone business, independent of the traditional services, to help build next-generation applications for customers.

Wipro also said two senior executives are quitting the company - Soumitro Ghosh, President, India & Middle East Markets, plans to retire after 28 years of work and Anurag Srivastava, Senior Vice President and Business Head - Business Outcome Services, who is pursuing opportunities outside of the company.