The Artificial Intelligence-first business strategy adopted by Infosys is working well for the company despite unresolved ethical and IPR issues around the technology, Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani has said.

In his address at Infosys' 42nd Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, Nilekani said the company has to be more efficient while nurturing readiness for growth, given its performance in challenging scenarios created by inflation, interest rates, geopolitics, demand volatility and supply chain dislocations.

"Several practical, ethical and intellectual property-related issues, when it comes to AI, remain unresolved. We also know that the motto of scaling AI in the enterprise is far from simple. And yet, the AI-first strategy we're embracing is already working for us," Nilekani said.

Infosys had long ago donated funds to the development of OpenAI, but holds no stake in the platform after it became a for-profit entity.

Responding to a shareholder's query, Nilekani said AI has the potential to make a big improvement in the productivity of people.

"You can derive more benefit from AI like automatic code generation. So, definitely, productivity will go up. We believe that it will be used to amplify the productivity of existing people," he said.

Also read: ‘Intelligence’ hunt. Indian tech majors building AI rival to Sam Altman’s ChatGPT

AI in software development

Infosys MD and CEO Salil Parekh said the company has started using AI in various processes within the company, including software development.

"The receding pandemic brought an end to one set of challenges, but its aftermath has created new ones. The cocktail of inflation, interest rates, geopolitics, war, demand volatility, supply chain dislocations, and the shift from efficiency to resilience and security -- all morphing quickly and without warning, is upon us. This makes doing all we can to be efficient in the present, as well as nurturing readiness for growth in the future," Nilekani said.

He said the board has approved a dividend of Rs 17.5 per share, taking the total to Rs 34 per share.

"The company has returned approximately 86 per cent of free cash flow to shareholders over four years starting FY20," Nilekani said.

Infosys said it returned $3.1 billion last year to shareholders, comprising $1.7 billion as dividends and $1.4 billion through a share buyback programme.

Also read: Majority of manufacturing enterprises adopt AI, analytics for business processes: Report

"The total dividend paid for FY23 amounts to Rs 34, which is a 9.7 per cent increase over FY22. With this, the company has announced a total dividend of approximately Rs 14,200 crore for FY23," Nilekani said.

He said the company recruited over 50,000 college graduates, bringing the total headcount to over 3.4 lakh, 39 per cent of whom were women.

At the AGM several shareholders questioned the board about the company not taking the tender route for buyback, which could have benefitted them with higher returns.

The Infosys board, in its meeting on October 13, 2022, approved the buyback of equity shares from the open market route through the stock exchanges, amounting to Rs 9,300 crore, at a price not exceeding Rs 1,850 per share.

The buyback was completed in February at an average share price of Rs 1,539.06 apiece.

The company signed 95 large deals worth Rs 980 crore, of which 40 per cent were new deals.

The AGM agenda included approval of Parekh’s appointment as a director; he is liable to retire from the directorship at the ensuing meeting, among others.

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