EPAM Systems' next act: AI at the core, says new CEO Balazs Fejes

New CEO Balazs Fejes says clients are moving from AI trials to full-scale execution, reshaping demand for engineering and transformation services

EPAM Systems, the NYSE-listed product engineering services firm, is betting on artificial intelligence (AI) to drive its next phase of growth.

 

Newly-appointed president and chief executive officer (CEO) Balazs Fejes said the company is repositioning itself as an AI-driven organisation. This comes as clients across industries move from experimentation stage to large-scale execution of AI projects.

 

“At this point, we are experiencing organic growth. The demand for build and transformation capabilities, which are built upon our differentiated engineering capabilities, has returned to EPAM. The focus will be on how we are going to scale up and finish the year,” Fejes told Business Standard.

 

Fejes, who was in India last month as part of his global tour, became the CEO on September 1.

 

He was previously the chief revenue officer and president of global business at EPAM.

 

The NYSE-listed company has more than 62,000 employees, of whom nearly 12,000 are based in Gurugram, Hyderabad and three other locations across the country.

 

For the April-June 2025 quarter, EPAM Systems reported revenue of $1.35 billion, up 18 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y).

 

It increased the revenue guidance growth rate for 2025 to remain between 13 and 15 per cent. This growth, Fejes had then said, would continue as the company’s clients prioritise their AI-readiness and preparatory actions.

 

Going forward, the company will need to be more client-centric in its approach, as the nature of demand has changed with the introduction of AI, he said.

 

“Right now, we really need to listen to our clients as their needs are shifting really fast. It is crucial for us because the client's needs at this point are manifesting themselves in business transformation. AI is no longer an internal focus of the organisation,” Fejes said.

 

The AI-transformations across geographies are being driven by clients who want to race ahead, and make transformational changes in their companies instead of it being led by particular sectors, he said.

 

He added that the business information and learning segment was being disrupted the most due to AI and large-language models-led changes.

 

For EPAM, clients and companies of all sizes have begun thinking of new projects by keeping AI as the focus, rather than adding the technology as an afterthought.

 

Although most digital-native companies have taken the lead in AI transformations, larger companies are now also catching up and have moved to the execution phase of AI projects. They transitioned from the experimentation phase two years ago, he said.

 

“People are done experimenting. They are now in execution mode in different areas, such as applying AI to the software developer life cycle, re-engineering it, making it a reality, and actually delivering efficiency. And that's happening across our client base,” Fejes said.

 

In markets such as India, the company has grown on the back of the growth in the number of global capability centres (GCCs), he said, adding that GCC clients in India are also adopting a more AI-native approach to work.