HCLTech bags new deal from Husqvarna Group; Accenture and Unilever partner for AI

HCLTech bags new deal from Husqvarna Group of Sweden

Indian IT services company HCLTech and Swedish manufacturer Husqvarna Group have extended their IT and digital transformation partnership.

Under the new five-year agreement, HCLTech will leverage its AI, digital, engineering and support services to enhance the resilience and stability of Husqvarna Groups’ IT environments through hyper-personalised, adaptive, AI-based solutions and a collaborative governance framework.

According to HCLTech, this contract has also been Vested certified. The Vested approach to drawing up contracts, based on the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business Administration’s research, fosters an environment of innovation that improves service, reduces costs and unlocks business value for the parties involved in the contract.

Accenture and Unilever form AI partnership

Accenture has entered into a strategic initiative with Unilever to leverage the latter's AI research and implementation of technologies that enhance productivity, drive efficiencies, and accelerate disruptive and AI-powered innovations at scale.

The two companies will explore new applications to scale generative AI; for example, assets from Accenture’s AI Navigator or its proprietary “switchboard,” which allows a user to select a combination of models to address the unique business context.

This initiative will leverage the industry solutions and accelerators within Accenture’s previously announced $3 billion investment in data and AI. As part of these efforts,

Accenture will connect Unilever with its top data and AI experts, and help capitalize on Accenture’s ecosystem partnerships, ventures, and strategic investments within its Center for Advanced AI, which includes more than 1,450 pending and issued patents in Accenture’s AI solutions and learnings from more than 300 generative AI projects.

Clover Infotech opens Oracle centre of excellence

Clover Infotech has launched its Oracle-focused global centre of excellence (CoE) in Pune. The 200-seater centre will house the talent including subject matter, domain and technology experts with extensive experience in Oracle.

The partnership of Clover Infotech and Oracle is more than two decades old. According to a statement, the CoE is a natural extension to strengthen its partnership and offer the highest quality of service excellence and operational seamlessness to Oracle customers all over the world. Clover Infotech is rapidly expanding across India, Middle East, and North America and has recently won a host of Oracle deals including four fusion deal wins in the last four months.

Zscaler highlights the security risks of GenAI tech

Cybersecurity company Zscaler in a new research suggests that organisations are feeling the pressure to rush into generative AI (GenAI) tool usage, despite significant security concerns.

According to its latest survey, “All eyes on securing GenAI” of more than 900 global IT decision makers, although 92% of organisations in India consider GenAI tools like ChatGPT to be a potential security risk, 95% are already using them in some guise within their businesses.

As Generative AI tools take centre stage in India's digital economy, organisations in their pursuit of staying competitive strategically leverage GenAI to drive innovation and productivity. However, the survey spotlights key challenges such as 100% of respondents considering the lack of resources to monitor the usage and 75% admitting the lack of skills or talent to implement or use GenAI tools like ChatGPT effectively.

Even more worryingly, 22% of this user group aren’t monitoring the usage at all, and 36% have yet to implement any additional GenAI-related security measures – though many have it on their roadmap. With 75% of respondents in India anticipating a significant increase in the interest of GenAI tools before the end of the year, organizations need to act quickly to close the gap between use and security.