'AI Is Happening Whether You Like It Or Not': Info Edge Founder

"If you're young, focus on your job and your career. Learn five to 15 useful AI tools.
"Because the older generation in many organisations won't adopt them as quickly. They won't experiment as freely. They won't move as fast.
"And if you become AI-enabled, you become more productive. More valuable. More relevant," says Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani.

Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani emphasised that artificial intelligence is both a threat and an opportunity, adding that it will create new jobs.

Artificial intelligence, he insisted, "is relentless. It is happening whether you like it or not."

Bikhchandani, who participated in a session at the AI Impact Summit that began in New Delhi on February 17, said, "AI is both a threat and an opportunity. Some jobs will be lost and many will be created. The way forward is to upskill and learn AI platforms," said Bikhchandani.

There are thousands of small clients at the bottom of the revenue pyramid. They matter but individually; they don't generate enough revenue to justify a full-time human sales call. Sending a person to follow up with each of them simply doesn't make financial sense.

So what did they do? They deployed an AI-powered voice bot.

It calls clients automatically. It speaks naturally. In fact, it's so advanced that most people can't even tell it isn't human. And suddenly, a previously underserved segment is being served.

Work that wasn't getting done is now getting done. Not because people were fired but because AI increased productivity. It allowed the company to reach a market that was earlier economically unviable.

"That," Bikchandani suggests, "is AI at its best -- expanding the pie."

AI and career advice

He narrated a personal anecdote about when he was fresh out of business school and had joined his first company after completing his MBA.

The marketing team was filled with graduates from the best institutions -- seniors from earlier batches. But there was one difference, he recounted; his batch was the first at IIM-Ahmedabad to have personal computers integrated into the curriculum and they had actually learned how to use them.

He said that in the marketing department, there were only a few PCs -- mostly reserved for secretaries. Senior managers didn't use them. Many didn't know how. But he did.

He also knew how to use early presentation software. While others were still creating slides by hand on overhead transparencies, he was building digital presentations.

Suddenly, the youngest person in the room became indispensable. Not because he was smarter. Not because he was more experienced. But because he was fluent in a new technology that others had ignored.

"That," Bikchandani implied, "is what AI feels like today."

Sharing advice for the youth, Bichandani said that one does not need to build large language models.

"You don't need to solve global policy problems. If you're young", he says, "focus on your job and your career. Learn five to 15 useful AI tools. Because the older generation in many organisations won't adopt them as quickly. They won't experiment as freely. They won't move as fast. And if you become AI-enabled, you become more productive. More valuable. More relevant."

"AI, he insists, is relentless. It is happening whether you like it or not. If you don't do AI, AI will be done to you," he said.