In the last couple of weeks, many Indian IT companies released their quarterly results, with most of them disappointing market expectations. However, there is one relatively small IT company, based out of Bengaluru, which claims to have not been affected by market turmoil. 

Happiest Minds Technologies Limited, a Bengaluru-based digital transformation and IT solutions company has reported impressive financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended March 31, 2023. The company’s net profit accelerated by 27.5% to Rs 231 Crores for FY23, while its revenue grew by 23.7% backed by a superior EBITDA margin of 26.2%.

While announcing the result, Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds said “We have been seeing that many of our peers, against whom we benchmark ourselves, have announced that they are facing a huge crackdown, and their audience pipeline has reduced. However, we have not seen any of this. In fact, we are only seeing a marginal shift in revenue in Q4.”

Although most IT companies are still hesitant to adopt generative AI, Happiest Minds is already investing in the technology. The company believes that generative AI has the potential to improve efficiency and productivity, and they are already exploring ways to use it in their business. 

“We have been working on generative AI for about three or four years now,” said Joseph Anantharaju, Happiest Minds’ CEO, Product engineering services. “We’ve been using BERT models for a while, and when ChatGPT came out, we instantly started working on what solutions we could build on top of it.” However, Joseph believes that it is still the early days of generative AI, and the company is still figuring out how it will work and coming up with use cases. 

However, Joseph said that ChatGPT can help customers get started quickly by identifying and training a model for a specific use case. This can free up customers’ time so they can focus on more strategic tasks, such as architectural design and quality assurance. “ChatGPT can also automate some of the mundane tasks involved in software development, such as code generation and testing. This can lead to productivity gains and cost savings,” said he. 

“On the generative AI front, I believe there will be productivity enhancements by using tools like Codex or Copilot to automate parts of the cogeneration process, testing, or integrations,” he said. “This may give people more time to focus on architectural design considerations, enhancing the overall quality of the product platform they are building, and adding value to customers.” 

Financials 

In the quarter ended March 31, 2023, revenue in constant currency grew by 1.3% QoQ and 17.6% YoY. Operating revenues in US$ stood at $46 million, while total income was 38,643 lakhs, EBITDA was 10,062 lakhs, and PAT was 5,766 lakhs. 

For the full year, the company’s revenue in constant currency grew by 23.7%, with operating revenues in US$ at $178 million. Total income stood at Rs 1,450 crores, EBITDA was Rs 379.9 crores, and PAT was at Rs 230 crores.

Happiest Minds is also planning to add another 1,300 employees to its workforce. As of March 31, 2023, the company reported 4,917 employees– a net addition of 306 headcount for the quarter. 

No Layoffs

In the wake of IBM’s recent announcement that AI will replace thousands of jobs at the company, many tech firms are bracing for layoffs. However, Happiest Minds is bucking the trend. The company believes that AI has the potential to revolutionize the way organizations work, and they are committed to using AI to improve their business without laying off employees.

 “We are already using AI to automate some of our internal tasks, such as HR and report generation,” said Joseph, Happiest Minds’ CEO. “This frees up our employees from mundane tasks so they can focus on more creative and strategic work.” Joseph went on to say that AI has the potential to revolutionize the way organizations work. “AI can help us to automate tasks, make better decisions, and improve our customer service,” he said. 

Joseph believes that the decision of whether to lay off an employee depends on the company’s philosophy on which it works. He said that the company has not laid off any employees since the inception of the company. “We are always looking for new ways to use AI to improve our business, however, we believe that our employees are our greatest asset,” he said.