‘Gen AI should be a partner, not a replacement, in decision-making’

India with its formidable technology talent has emerged as a favourite of global corporations to set up Global Capability Centres (GCCs). In a recent report by industry body Nasscom, the country is home to 1,523 GCCs by the end of FY23. This number is likely to touch 1,900 by 2025. Global financial services major, Fidelity is one of the early entrants to India, which started operations of its GCC in 2003. Fidelity Investments India has two centres - Bengaluru and Chennai - with a total employee count of around 7,000. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Vijai Kishan Radhakrishnan, Head of Personal Investing, India, & Regional Chair, Fidelity Investments India said that the company is driving technology innovations across the spectrum for its global parent. From re-platforming of the company’s brokerage business to launch of app for new-age investors, Indian GCC has taken the lead for Fidelity’s various innovations in product and services space. The Indian centre has a strong data science practice with more than two decades of experience. The GCC is also collaborating with the fintech ecosystem in India in various areas

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are making waves in the technology industry. There is a sense that the scope of automation is high at GCCs (Global Capability Centres). What are your views on the generative AI tools and how Fidelity Investments India is planning to leverage such tools?

I can’t comment on GCCs (Global Capability Centres) as such as we don’t have a view on what other GCCs do. But I can say that we are not a large operation shop in India. Our focus is largely on technology with less presence in operations. What we believe that what is happening in the industry should add value to the decision-making process and not to replace the decision-making process. That’s where we are focussed on. We are not actively pursuing this (generative AI) as a strategy. Yes, there are teams who are looking at it. We have a very large data science and analytics practice and the team is focusing on those problems that are worth solving. Our focus is on what is adding true value and if it is adding true value, then there are teams that are working on it.

Can you throw some light on the innovation aspects that Fidelity Investments India is currently working on?

We have a very matured data science practice and we are here longer than most others in this space. Globally, large percentage of our data science practice is in India, supporting business functions. Within Fidelity, we have two research-based arms. One is Fidelity Centre for Applied Technology. What this centre does is that it is looking at futuristic technologies. We are always looking at the long play that can make long-term impact. We also have a research arm within that which looks at industry trends. Another arm is Fidelity Labs, which is our internal ecosystem to incubate. The ideas can come from within the company. The Fidelity Labs incubate ideas, see if there is a viable market place for it and build the product if there is a right fit. In India, both these arms operate in our portfolio. They are looking at both partner ecosystem, and partnership with the academia among others. We are looking at data as asset. That asset is going to be used for better serving our customers. We have a centralised team which look at these assets.

What are the fundamental focus areas in terms of technology of Fidelity Investments India? Can you give some idea on this aspect?

We have multiple businesses. In India, the opportunity to create cross-functional partnerships is high within our businesses. Leaders come together to see what best practices can be replicated. Similarly, we have different kind of customers such retail customer, institutional investors and others. But there are interesting use cases that can be replicated across all our customers. There are certain areas where we have developed key competencies. We are investing more on those areas. For instance, we are rebuilding large part of our brokerage platform. That is driven out of India. We launched a new age app-based investing platform- Plynk for new-age investors. That whole platform is being built out of India. One the biggest advantages, we have over competition is the trust which our customers have on us. This legacy is unquestionable. So, large scale re-platforming, and building new product and solution are the two areas driven out of India. In addition to these areas, we are also looking at newer areas in data science and analytics among others.

Attrition in the technology sector was very high in India post pandemic. How were the things with you? How is the overall attrition level now?

Our attrition is low. We always trend below what the market is trending at. What we found that the average tenure of our employees is higher as compared to market trend. We have kept our attrition rates low even during the post pandemic period when the demand for talent was high. We represent all businesses in India what we have in the US. So, we are pretty much a microcosm of the enterprise. That enables us to provide better career opportunities to our staffers. We have a very good percentage of people taking up new roles within the company. We coach and mentor our employees. That helps us to maintain low level of employee attrition. When we started up way back in 2003, it was a cost arbitrage centre like any other GCC. But, over time, we have gone up the value chain. We track our innovations very closely. We have 52 patents from Indian centres.

Fidelity India has presence in two cities- Bengaluru & Chennai. Is there any work division between these two centres?

When we started out in Chennai, it was a business continuity centre. Now, Chennai has operations, technology and has a small team on analytics. Chennai also works as our training centre. We hire from campuses and Chennai is the hub of training. So, business wise, all segments have presence in Chennai. Bengaluru is the bigger centre in India. As we have access to more talent by having two centres at different locations, we intend to continue like that.

Will you look at expanding the employee count in the coming quarters? Can you give us some view on this aspect?

Right now, we are not looking at expanding our team size. We are at a point where we have the opportunity to optimise our portfolio. Total employee count is around 7,000 people in India. We have added around 1,000 people in the last one-two years. In 20 years, we have grown organically. Now, we are looking at areas where we should focus on for creating more value.