‘Why do leaders forget humans are not a problem?’: HCLTech ex-CEO slams AI-led layoffs, says people lead innovations

Vineet Nayyar, founder of Sampark Foundation and ex-CEO of HCL Technologies has criticised the rounds of artificial intelligence-led layoffs by companies, noting that all innovations and revolutions have been human led and that people are not a problem or commodity to throw away, NDTV Profit reported today.

Speaking to the publication about his book ‘Humans First, Machines Second’, Nayyar made the case for AI being assistants to humans rather than a replacement.

“No revolution happened in the country without humans leading it, no innovations happened without humans leading it. Then why do leaders forget that humans are not a problem? Humans are not a commodity to be thrown to dogs. We have to understand the responsibility of being humans,” Nayyar told the platform.

AI to give edge, become common like calculator, internet: Nayyar

The philanthropist further told the site that he sees AI becoming a common commodity similar to calculators or the internet, instead of a differentiator in and of itself. He added that people who use it to solve previously unsolvable problems will have an edge in their respective industries.

He further said that knowledge in the AI age has become commodified, but the space must now move towards prioritising application of knowledge instead of pure transference. Here, he feels that MSMEs have leverage and scope to use AI as a tool to reimagine goals and achieve more.

“Most large companies in India are trapped in legacy business, transformation will take a lot of effort, skills, guts and money by the board. They are moving slow, you (MSMEs) can move fast. Focus on how you can reimagine customer delight, customer delivery, expand your market share because this technology is available. Technology will be commodity, trust me on that,” Nayyar believes.

‘Must retain positivity … and not losing it to nonsense of AI’

Nayyar further pushed the idea that it is important for people to look beyond corporate messaging that claims humans need AI and “not believing in themselves”. He added that companies have stopped investing in people and started viewing them as problems.

“We all have to do something to retain that positivity of being an Indian, being a human and not losing it to the nonsense of AI,” he said. To this end, Nayyar suggested that corporates should motivate and inspire their workers to innovate — rather than measuring productivity.

“Human beings need to be inspired to climb Mount Everest every day. Instead of measuring productivity, find ways to inspire them, motivate them, invert the organisation, have appraisal done by employees like in HCL, that's the magic trick, it's not AI, it's not a finance guy, or analyst,” he suggested.