IBM Software sees 30-40% productivity gains among developers using GenAI
For Dinesh Nirmal, who heads IBM Software, one of his mandates is to infuse GenAI in all the products that IBM builds while also using GenAI to increase developer productivity at various labs across the globe.
Nirmal believes that one of the biggest benefits GenAI brings is automation, which leads to optimisations and productivity gains. He shares that IBM Software has seen productivity gains of 30-40 per cent in some of its software development segments.
“Software development has multiple aspects to it. It is not just code generation. In areas like code documentation, explanation, or generating test cases, we are seeing 30-40 per cent optimisation and productivity gains,” he told Business Standard in a virtual meeting.
Nirmal says that IBM Software Labs is integrating GenAI into every single product portfolio that IBM has. “We are also using GenAI for developers to write codes. Now developers can write hundreds and thousands of lines of code that they could not write last year. It’s an augmentation tool to really help the productivity of developers. This means that it enables developers to get more code into the market and also deliver more applications. For me, it’s more about productivity and augmentation of humans rather than replacement,” he said when asked if the fear of GenAI doing away with developers is real.
IBM Software Labs in India are located in Ahmedabad, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune.
Nirmal gives an example of how GenAI is being infused across its labs in India. “Our Kochi Labs is focused on a set of automation products like Watsonx Orchestrate. Ahmedabad is focused on bringing GenAI into our security products,” he added.
He also shares that a very high percentage of developers at IBM Software India labs are well versed in GenAI. “That is why we have brought a lot of core missions to India.”
Despite all the buzz around GenAI, Nirmal shares that the actual adoption and deployment of GenAI have been very low. “If you look at the adoption of GenAI, and I am not talking about proof of concepts, but a proper deployment of GenAI, then less than 10 per cent of enterprises have really deployed it into their production environment,” he added.
The reason is simple, he says, as there are a lot of things that an enterprise needs to worry about that an end user using ChatGPT does not have to worry about.
“While the tech cycle is moving fast, the deployment of GenAI in enterprises is going to take time, that’s the reality. This is because a lot of the models also need to be vetted out. If I go to Hugging Face, there are 6,000 models available; as an enterprise, how do I choose any one is a complex issue,” he said.
IBM announced the launch of its GenAI Innovation Center in Kochi, which will allow enterprises, start-ups, and partners to explore, experience, and build generative AI technology. As organisations transition from AI experimentation to deployment for adding business value, they often find AI projects too complex or difficult to integrate due to limited skills or expertise. To address this challenge, the GenAI Innovation Center will provide organisations with access to IBM experts and technologies designed to help them build, scale, and accelerate the adoption of enterprise-grade AI.
First Published: Jul 09 2024 | 8:54 PM IST