Indraneel (Neel) Mitra

Ahead of last week's India AI Impact Summit, one of the largest conferences, Vinod Khosla, respected VC and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, sparked a debate with his prediction that IT and BPO services will disappear in the next five years due to AI. The Indian IT services industry has already seen a $50 billion market capitalization loss in 2025 due to growth uncertainties. Recent AI plugin launches with prospects of automation raise questions about the necessity of traditional IT services, as Agentic workflows begin to replace conventional IT systems. Phil Fersht elaborated on this topic, referencing a blog by Vijay Vijayasankar, emphasizing that the transition will not be straightforward due to procurement inertia, buying behavior, and the continued need for human involvement. Moreover, it will be an evolution just like for all other industries, rather than a collapse. Phil says: Vinod is correct about the velocity of change, while Vijay highlights the constraints that exist. It is clear that IT and BPO companies must adapt to capture budgets shifting toward Agentic applications rather than relying on SaaS or traditional app development. While I agree with all above, I would like to add that securing AI budgets is not straightforward. A notable trend is that enterprises are increasingly inclined to conduct AI development in-house, driven by employee enthusiasm for building AI skills. AI app-dev is not mundane work to outsource, it is becoming a core and critical competency to develop inhouse. This shift towards in-house development means less reliance on outsourcing. Additionally, traditional IT and BPO service companies need to adjust their expectations regarding profit margins, as maintaining high profits of 20+ percentage is no longer feasible. One former CEO of an IT services giant reiterated that profit margins is the first priority of the IT services companies. This is a critical time for research and development, skill-building, and competitive sales and they become often a victim to aggressive expectations in profits. I discussed the above debate and more from the AI Impact Summit, the Gemini 3.1 Pro launch, and the rise of Personal Agents in the latest episode of The AI Files. Please check it out and share your perspectives! Jaime Basilico #TheAIFiles #GenAI 🎞️ YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/enUN4PDK 🎧 Apple Podcast: https://lnkd.in/eAxumKFw

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Robotics and Physical #AI are accelerating automation while creating high-value jobs and strengthening local manufacturing. In this session, explore how Indian researchers, startups, and SMEs are using platforms like NVIDIA Isaac and Omniverse to build the next generation of manufacturing ecosystems in this session featuring Amit Goel — Head of Robotics and Edge Computing Ecosystem, NVIDIA. https://bit.ly/4qKZ9CP 📅 February 18, 2026 | 9:30 -10:25 am IST #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026

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Robotics and Physical #AI are accelerating automation while creating high-value jobs and strengthening local manufacturing. In this session, explore how Indian researchers, startups, and SMEs are using platforms like NVIDIA Isaac and Omniverse to build the next generation of manufacturing ecosystems in this session featuring Amit Goel — Head of Robotics and Edge Computing Ecosystem, NVIDIA. https://bit.ly/4qKZ9CP 📅 February 18, 2026 | 9:30 -10:25 am IST #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026

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IBM CEO Arvind Krishna offers a compelling perspective on the current state and future trajectory of #AI in a recent interview. Challenging the prevailing "AI bubble" narrative, Krishna articulates that the market's strength lies in its profound impact on enterprise value creation. He suggests that AI's real utility is being realised through concrete productivity improvements and business transformation, rather than speculative valuations alone. The interview also provides candid insights into past strategies, with Krishna describing Watson's healthcare initiative as "inappropriate" due to its overly ambitious scope. This reflects a key lesson for businesses: focus on specific, solvable problems rather than attempting broad, general solutions. Looking forward, IBM is making significant investments in quantum computing, positioning it as a pivotal technology for the next generation of computing power. This strategic move underscores IBM's long-term vision beyond current AI trends. What are your thoughts on Krishna's take on the AI market – is it truly grounded in enterprise value, or do you still see elements of a bubble? #AI #BusinessAutomation #Productivity #QuantumComputing #EnterpriseTech #IBM https://lnkd.in/gjUUaxWE

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The GPU market is changing. Established players aren’t the only ones playing the game anymore.   New architectures, emerging hardware, and smarter orchestration are reshaping the playing field.   Kearney's latest article by Sridhar Narasimhan, Archit Johar, Bhavtosh Jadeja and Abhilash Jain explores what this shift means for leaders and what you need to do next.

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Friends and Colleagues... The story below resonates. In this era, the lesson is simple: show up with what you’ve built. Not a perfect deck. A working prototype. Here’s a hard truth I’ve learned — and it’s painful watching others miss it: The quality of any technology output — especially AI-driven decision intelligence — is a function of iteration speed. The teams that win are not the ones chasing every single iteration as a perfect cycle. They’re the ones compounding iterations. The faster you can build → test → refine → redeploy, the better the outcome. Quality emerges from velocity. It’s not about polishing the first version. It’s about accelerating the cycle. We’re in the middle of a once-in-a-generation building window. AI has collapsed the cost of prototyping and building. An imperfect, functioning system demonstrates more conviction than 50 slides ever will. I’m not dismissing communication — relationships and narrative still matter. But right now, builders win. The people who bring something real into the room — even if it’s rough — will outpace those who are still refining messaging. Seize this moment. Otherwise, while you’re optimizing presentations, while someone else is optimizing product. Let’s build — and show up with it.

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