Infosys to work on autonomous technologies at new Arizona centre

Infosys will hire 1,000 Americans by the year 2023 in the US state of Arizona, where India’s second-biggest software services provider is opening its next technology and innovation hub.

At this hub, Infosys will focus on areas including autonomous technologies, Internet-of-Things, full-stack engineering (meaning, all the different layers of software development), data science and cyber security, the Bengaluru company said in a press release on September 21. Infosys, which already has a presence in Phoenix, Arizona, will use the expansion to serve its clients in the US southwest more closely, Ravi Kumar, president, Infosys said in the release.

India’s top IT companies all have plans to increase local hiring in their biggest markets, including America, Britain and Australia. They are compelled to do so as the old outsourcing model that relied on delivery centres in India is crumbling. Their biggest customers are directly starting new projects on rented infrastructure and software offered by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft and others, and gradually migrating older systems onto the cloud as well.

The demand therefore is for software that can be quickly built and deployed to enhance new revenue streams. Cost savings by shipping jobs to Bengaluru is less attractive in comparison. For the Indian IT companies, these new kinds of software require much deeper knowledge of their clients’ businesses, which entails working much more closely with them.

From factory shop floors to personal transportation to retail stores, autonomous technologies are being built and tested for application at a rapid pace in the US. A centre to build and test such technologies could improve Infosys’s prospects of winning contracts in that field.

Local hiring of staff also placates critics, especially law makers, who see the Indian IT companies as facilitators of shipping local jobs away.

The expansion in Arizona is part of a plan announced in May 2017, to open open Technology and Innovation Hubs in the US and hire 10,000 American workers. To date, Infosys has hired 5,874 American workers against this commitment. Infosys’s new Arizona employees will include recent graduates from the state’s prestigious network of colleges, universities and community colleges, as well as local professionals who will benefit from up-skilling through Infosys’s world-class training curriculum, the company said.

“The number of jobs Infosys is bringing to Arizona is fantastic news for our citizens, especially given the commitment the company makes to continual training and education in technology,” Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, said in the same press release. “We are thankful for companies like Infosys who enhance our efforts to prepare the workforce for the future.”

The Arizona hub will help Infosys work even more closely with clients in the region to develop cross-functional solutions to pressing business challenges. These would be in such areas as machine learning, artificial intelligence, user experience and advanced digital technologies, including big data and cloud. The Hub will facilitate greater collaboration and advancement in important Arizonan industries such as hi-tech, manufacturing and financial services, the company said.
 
Infosys has previously opened two other hubs, one in Indianapolis, Indiana and another in Raleigh, North Carolina. Infosys has also announced a fourth, in Hartford, Connecticut, and a Design and Innovation Hub in Providence, Rhode Island.