Infosys' NR Narayana Murthy highlights human skills AI cannot replace
Narayana Murthy, who has witnessed several waves of technological disruption, argued that the ability to learn consistently outweighs shifts in technology.
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As generative AI transforms the workplace, Infosys founders NR Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, and chief executive Salil Parekh have emphasised that human skills such as empathy, collaboration, interaction and learnability will remain essential.
Speaking at the 25th anniversary of Infosys’ flagship internship programme, InSTEP, the leaders reflected on how these qualities will define success in an AI-driven future.
Narayana Murthy, who has witnessed several waves of technological disruption, argued that the ability to learn consistently outweighs shifts in technology, as per a report by Moneycontrol. “The most important attribute for every successful professional is what I call learnability,” he said. “Learnability is the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and use them in solving new unstructured problems. What is important is not so much the change in technology, it is the human beings, human relationships, and teamwork.”
Nilekani, who also spearheaded India’s Aadhaar digital identity initiative, stressed that technology’s advance only reinforces the value of human connection. “Notwithstanding all the technology that is coming, human interaction, human collaboration, human relations, those will actually become even more important,” he said. He added that empathy, teamwork and leadership remain beyond the reach of machines, and urged professionals to rely on “first principles thinking” when approaching challenges.
Parekh, who has led Infosys since 2018, positioned InSTEP as both a talent pipeline and a leadership engine. In the last five years alone, around 300 former interns have joined Infosys in client-facing and technology roles, with the number growing by 5–10 per cent each year.
Comparing the company’s current re-skilling drive in AI to the earlier digital transformation wave, Parekh said: “Everyone is becoming more AI-focused, and we will continue with that.” He added that Infosys’ early investments in data and cloud have strengthened its AI capabilities at scale.
