A survey by Cognizant Technology Solutions has revealed that Indian companies weathered the pandemic much better than most of their regional and western counterparts. Also, domestic firms, catalysed by the pandemic, are most bullish on embracing digital ways of working.

Indian companies generate 12 per cent of their revenue from digital channels today, the highest among all APAC countries, the survey said. Only 36 per cent of the companies in India (compared to the regional average of 44 per cent) experienced slightly negative to a very negative impact on their business performance in 2020.

According to the study, businesses in APAC and West Asia reached a point of clarity in terms of the real purpose of digital tools and made great strides in understanding what the human-machine balance of work should be.

The top three forces that will have a strong impact on work in India by 2023, the study said, are hyper-connectivity as billions of people, machines and devices become connected, concerns about security and privacy relating to business practices, and process automation. Human-centric skills will continue to gain prominence.

The top five skills that will become more important in 2023 than they are today: decision-making, analytical, learning, strategic thinking and communication.

Also, the report said, work will be transformed in three ways by 2023: jobs will become more specialised, there will be a need to work faster, and work will require greater technical expertise.

Machines at work

Machines will augment humans by taking over data-oriented tasks and providing insights for better decision-making, it added.

The top three tasks that machines will pick up by 2023: sifting large data sets to filter and identify errors or actionable items, evaluation of options/recommendations to take decisions and execution of routine, rules-based decisions based on data inputs.

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