French business process management company Teleperformance (now TP) has more than 1 lakh employees working in India. For him, India is the most profitable and fastest growing market. The company’s Chairman and CEO Daniel Julian, who recently visited New Delhi, talked about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the truth and ground reality related to it in a video interview with Surjit Das Gupta. He also discussed the contribution of India and other emerging markets to the teleperformance business. Highlights:
Many renowned companies of the world take the services of teleperformance. How are they using AI and digital technology? How is this affecting the balance between employees and productivity?
Our customers are growing cautiously when it comes to adopting and using AI technology. The 100 most valuable companies appear to be even more cautious. Many of them are worried about the complexities related to AI, the legal hassles associated with them, and the emotional needs of customers. As far as we are concerned, GenAI is helping by making information available faster and improving the level of communication with customers, but we do not think that AI will be able to completely replace humans. The balance between AI and human resources is important and while increasing the role of AI, we are increasingly prioritizing human involvement in customer services.
You have a lot of experience with the use of AI in companies around the world. Where do the companies stand in this regard?
Many things are being exaggerated for AI. Such things are happening more at the middle and senior management level, due to which companies are worried about competition and innovation. But the cases of deployment of AI and working on it in large organizations are very less. Widespread use of AI across all industries may take a few more years. It is true that many organizations are discussing the benefits of AI, but its actual use in large companies is still limited. AI is still in its early stages and its use on a large scale will require large investments from companies.
How much has the role of AI increased within companies, especially in customer experience management?
AI is being used less and is being discussed more. In many companies, work on even basic technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has not been completed. Our company is giving more importance to AI to improve internal processes like recruitment and training rather than completely replacing human tasks with AI. AI has its value but it is not currently being used much in customer experience management and we are still in the early stages of realizing its full potential.
How important is India in Teleperformance’s business plan?
Our group’s revenue is estimated to be around $11 billion and the US and Europe are our big markets. But in terms of production, the largest regions are India and the Philippines for English, Latin America for Spanish and North Africa for French. We also have a multilingual center for Asian languages in Malaysia. India is the largest region for us where approximately 1 lakh employees work. 20 percent of our total employees are here. India is not only a major center of our operations but is also one of the fastest growing regions for us. We have built a strong team of talent in India to drive digital integration and customer experience initiatives. We test them in India before trying them out in the world. India is our key center of excellence in digital technology and efficiency.
You said that you have more than 1 lakh employees working in India, but what is its contribution to your revenue?
India’s contribution to our total revenue is about 20 percent. Services in India are offered at slightly lower prices compared to markets like the US and Mexico. But India is an important source of profit for us due to the strengths of integrated digital and human resources. We are continuously expanding our presence in India.
What are your future business growth plans in India? How much more can the number of employees increase in India?
Over the last 12 months we have added 10,000 new people, taking the total from 90,000 to 1,00,000 lakhs. This trend is expected to continue over the next few years, although its pace may depend on how much digitalization impacts the workforce.
How does the competition situation look in a country like India? Are other countries also offering similar prices for services as India?
India is leading in customer experience due to its availability of talent, potential for business expansion and education system. Even in areas like Africa, English services are being provided at similar prices but they are not able to compete with India’s qualities and capabilities. There is very little scope for growth in the Philippines now, but India is full of potential due to its large population and service capabilities. Egypt is also growing rapidly, where there is great potential for English services. We have 25,000 employees working in Egypt. It is not as big as India but it is a fast growing market for us. Prices are higher in Egypt than in India but there is not much difference.
First Published – May 1, 2025 | 11:15 PM IST
