How software maker GlobalLogic tackles AI, sustainability and talent acquisition

Indian software company GlobalLogic announced the acquisition of Uruguay-based IT consulting and software company Hexacta for an undisclosed amount earlier this year as part of its regional expansion plans, including into Mexico.

GlobalLogic, in turn, was acquired by Hitachi in 2021 for US$9.5bn.

Juan Bello, VP and head of Latin America, talks to BNamericas about the regional outlook, green code and the contribution talent makes to the company.

BNamericas: How well has GlobalLogic integrated into Hitachi?

Bello: It's one of the largest operations and industrial technology groups in the world. And it obviously brought us backup and the ability to invest and plan investments with a flexibility we didn't have before. Second, it brought access to a market that was previously far away for us, which is mobility or smart automation of electrical networks.

By combining big data or artificial intelligence technologies, we gained the possibility of generating software that has a greater decarbonization impact.

BNamericas: And which segments of the global financial market could GlobalLogic target?

Bello: Today we are around 1,800 people in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, creating digital products for the Latin American market.

The transformation of the financial sector continues and has accelerated. A perfect storm is hitting, with emerging APIs [application programming interfaces], which make it possible to talk about open finance ... plus, many governments implementing open standards.

The combination of this technology with artificial intelligence has come a long way in the last three or four years.

We see an acceleration of innovation in the financial sector and an ecosystem of companies is being generated. And with the trend toward embedded finance, financial products are being marketed by companies of any type. Today any retailer can add a “buy now and pay later” button, and behind that is an API of some bank providing a loan.

So the model is different. It is not a non-financial company selling a financial product, but the potential of the connected ecosystem is beginning to be seen.

BNamericas: What will it take for the API market to become massive?

Bello: Regulations are one of the main challenges. Regulatory entities advance at disparate speeds. Regulations for financial interaction and cooperation through APIs are very advanced in some countries with open banking and in others regulators say they’re interested but don’t get into details.

We believe that regulators will necessarily opt for certain [international] security and interconnection standards. Today we can innovate faster than regulations are being created and be ready by the time they are finalized.

BNamericas: How does generative AI change your products?

Bello: On the one hand, it sustains a change in the software industry that’s been happening for some years, which is that software development platforms require less effort from programmers. The tools come with wizards that help write the code.

Artificial intelligence can’t create software for us. We have to design, we have to understand the structures that need to be created, how the business rules work … but the impact is weaker because the reality is that when creating digital products, the design must be consistent, the architecture must be consistent.

Now, on the applied AI side, it allows us to create products that weren't viable before, for example, a personal financial manager. This was science fiction six years ago.

It is also allowing us to generate code that consumes less energy, is greener code.

It is important that we consider the carbon footprint of the software we are building. So, one initiative we are exploring is the use of new technologies so that the software we are delivering to our clients is much cheaper in terms of consumption.

BNamericas: Could you expand on green software?

Bello: Yes. It's important because we've gotten used to unlimited memory or unlimited processing power and it's logical that it happens to us because technology has advanced to unimagined limits, but it's not free. It has a processing cost, and that cost is measured in energy.

We need to have this responsibility. For example, an average search by generative artificial intelligence has a computational and, ergo, energy cost roughly equivalent to 1,000 traditional browser searches. So, we must be aware of the energy consumption of our source code.

BNamericas: Do clients demand greener code?

Bello: It's incipient. In Europe, next year, companies will be required to report consumption of resources and emissions through a formal sustainability scheme. Then, energy consumption begins to be very relevant when reporting results.

We hope those practices and policies will spread to the Americas and other parts of the world. Today, some clients in Latin America are measuring and becoming aware of the carbon impact of their operations.

It is, in fact, a very interesting business opportunity for those of us who develop new technology.

BNamericas: What are GlobalLogic's growth expectations in Latin America?

Bello: This year we are integrating a company we bought earlier in the year, Hexacta, and that is allowing us to expand in Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, as well as having a more solid software creation, design and engineering team.

Latin America still has a lot of growth potential. We understand that we are going to grow very strongly in Mexico, Colombia and probably Peru, and the expectation is to sustain this growth, not only in the number of clients or billing but also with the possibility of generating quality work.

Our growth is surely going to be a combination of organic and inorganic growth.

BNamericas: What inorganic growth opportunities are you eyeing?

Bello: What we are looking for is very strong talent in some specific technology niches, technologies that allow us to accelerate development: artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data. We have a strategy behind the acquisitions, but, as you can imagine, it is very closely guarded.

Our focus is to detect talent, brilliance in companies.

BNamericas: How much do you expect to grow in the region?

Bello: We are quite restricted when it comes to giving projections, but I can tell you that although the market saw a couple of difficult quarters affected by geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions, we continue to grow in the region at a sustained pace. We’ve seen many years of sustained growth. Today's growth is a little slower than previous years, but we are still on the right track.

The region is growing economically as a whole, with differences between countries, but it continues growing.