The enterprise AI landscape experienced a significant shift in June 2025 when Phaneesh Murthy—the veteran executive whose leadership transformed Infosys from a $2 million startup into a $13.5 billion global powerhouse—joined Covasant Technologies as a Non-Executive Director on its Advisory Board. This appointment represents far more than executive musical chairs. It signals a calculated investment in what Murthy sees as the next fundamental disruption in technology services: autonomous AI agents that execute complex business processes with minimal human oversight.
A Strategic Inflection Point in Enterprise AI
Murthy’s career reads like a prescient roadmap of technology industry evolution. During his tenure at Infosys in the 1990s, he pioneered the Global Delivery Model that revolutionized IT service delivery worldwide, helping scale company revenues from under $2 million to over $750 million. Later, as CEO of iGATE from 2003 to 2013, he introduced the iTOPS (Integrated Technology and Operations) model, fundamentally shifting the industry toward outcome-based pricing rather than traditional time-and-materials billing structures.
His move to Covasant Technologies—a company that positions itself as an emerging leader in “Agentic AI-led services as software”—marks another calculated bet on industry transformation. Unlike the broad-based service portfolios of traditional IT giants, Covasant focuses specifically on autonomous AI agents that can “think, act, and scale operations to drive efficiency, innovation, and enterprise growth.”
Recent market developments underscore the timing of this appointment. In September 2025, Covasant launched its AI Agent Control Tower (AI ACT), a governance platform designed to address what the company describes as the “chaotic rush to deploy countless, disconnected AI agents” across enterprises. This launch came amid industry statistics showing that 80% of organizations in India are actively exploring autonomous agents, with nearly 50% prioritizing multi-agent workflows.
Cutting Through AI Implementation Chaos
What distinguishes Murthy’s assessment of the current AI landscape is his pointed critique of superficial implementations. “The industry is flooded with AI hype. Everyone has a chatbot!” he observed, drawing sharp distinctions between experimental AI tools and substantive enterprise automation. “But very few are building what Covasant is: autonomous AI agents with human in the loop, that can actually run a supply chain, manage a financial audit, or solve other real-business challenges across domains, flawlessly.”
This perspective reflects a deep understanding of enterprise technology adoption cycles. Current market research indicates that the global IT services market will reach $1.50 trillion by 2025, with IT outsourcing accounting for $588.38 billion. However, much of this growth represents traditional service delivery models rather than the autonomous agent frameworks Murthy champions.
Covasant’s approach addresses a critical enterprise pain point: AI fragmentation. As CEO Srikanth Chakkilam explained during the AI Agent Control Tower launch, “Every day, enterprises are witnessing a relentless race to proudly announce the launch of AI agents by the hundreds, each built by legacy IT service providers for a narrow business task.” This proliferation creates what industry analysts term “Shadow AI”—ungoverned autonomous tools operating without centralized oversight or adequate security frameworks.
From iTOPS to Autonomous AI: The Evolution of Outcome-Based Services
The foundation for Murthy’s Covasant appointment lies in business model innovations he pioneered two decades earlier. His most transformative contribution came during his tenure at iGATE, where he introduced outcome-based pricing models that linked provider revenue directly to client business results, rather than hours worked. This innovation transformed iGATE from a company with negative 20% operating margins into a $1.2 billion revenue business achieving 25% operating margins, while enterprise value surged from approximately $70 million to $4.8 billion over 11 years.
The iTOPS framework represented more than operational efficiency—it fundamentally realigned vendor incentives with client success metrics. Where traditional IT services charged for effort, Murthy’s model charged for results. This approach has gained wider acceptance as enterprises increasingly demand value-focused partnerships rather than conventional staffing arrangements.
Covasant’s “Services-as-Software” model represents the natural evolution of this philosophy. Where iTOPS combined human expertise with operational efficiency, autonomous AI agents execute complex business processes with minimal human intervention while maintaining compliance frameworks and delivering measurable outcomes.
Portfolio Strategy: Multiple Advisory Roles Reveal Broader AI Vision
Murthy’s simultaneous advisory positions across multiple technology companies provide insights into his innovative thinking about enterprise AI deployment. His concurrent roles with InfoBeans, CriticalRiver, and now Covasant Technologies suggest a deliberate portfolio approach to understanding different aspects of digital transformation.
At InfoBeans, Murthy focuses on enhancing sales effectiveness and go-to-market strategies for a company positioning itself as “AI-first.” His guidance has proved pivotal as InfoBeans develops deeper relationships with Fortune 500 clients and explores high-value service lines including Salesforce and AI/ML solutions. “I am excited to be advising a fundamentally sound organization which has great potential and is run by very competent founders who are authentic people,” Murthy stated regarding his InfoBeans appointment.
At CriticalRiver, his influence has accelerated operational discipline while building toward potential IPO pathways, with the company sharpening its focus on high-growth areas including data science, AI, and cloud services.
Strategic Implications for the Enterprise AI Market
The convergence of these advisory roles illuminates broader trends in enterprise AI adoption that extend beyond individual company strategies. Current market projections show India’s enterprise agentic AI market growing from $132.6 million in 2024 to $1.73 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 53.9%.
However, unlike consumer AI applications dominating headlines, enterprise AI requires sophisticated governance frameworks, compliance mechanisms, and integration with existing business processes—precisely the challenges Murthy encountered while pioneering outcome-based service models decades earlier.
“This is about building the next great enterprise technology company, not just another services firm,” Murthy emphasized when explaining his decision to join Covasant Technologies (Amazing Workplaces, 2025). This distinction between technology companies and traditional service providers reflects his understanding that sustainable competitive advantages in the AI era will emerge from proprietary capabilities rather than labor arbitrage models that defined previous IT services growth phases.
His emphasis on Covasant’s focus on specific verticals—healthcare, BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance), manufacturing, and media communication—mirrors his historical approach of achieving maximum impact through focus rather than broad diversification. This vertical specialization strategy enables deeper domain expertise and more measurable business outcomes, critical factors for enterprise AI success.
As enterprises increasingly demand practical AI solutions that deliver quantifiable business results rather than experimental technologies, Phaneesh Murthy’s involvement with Covasant Technologies suggests the industry may be approaching the next maturity phase of AI adoption—one focused on autonomous agents, comprehensive governance frameworks, and outcome-based value creation rather than technological novelty alone. In a market projected to reach $44.02 billion in India by 2029, this positioning could prove prescient once again.