Not seeing trade, tariff issues significantly impact decision-making by businesses: EXL CEO

New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Nasdaq-listed data and artificial intelligence (AI) firm Exlservice Holdings is not seeing any significant impact of global trade and tariff swings on its business or decision-making by companies it deals with, CEO Rohit Kapoor said.

Kapoor believes that businesses today are convinced of the benefits of outsourcing, which keeps them competitive in the global marketplace.

In an interview to PTI, Kapoor said the bulk of EXL's revenue comes from insurance, banking and financial services and healthcare clients, sectors that have been relatively unfazed by trade and tariff-related developments.

To a specific question on the extent to which trade and tariff issues are impacting business sentiment on the ground and how the company is navigating the situation, Kapoor noted that while the changes and swings have been extreme, the services space, per se, has remained relatively insulated.

"We are a hundred per cent services business, so for us the impact is actually a secondary impact which means our clients who might be involved in manufacturing or with goods are impacted by these tariffs and then in such situations they may curtail their spend or they may need to readjust their supply chains and work out different ways of being able to manage this," he said.

The impact, in that sense, is only secondary, for the company, Kapoor pointed out.

"We've been very fortunate that we've been able to target companies in insurance, banking, financial services and healthcare. And in these industry verticals, which are 80 per cent of our business, there is no real manufacturing of goods and no real trade impact that they see. Frankly, these industries haven't been impacted much, and so we haven't seen much of an impact on our business," he said.

Asked whether companies are worried about the possibility of the HIRE Act and whether that has impacted business sentiments, Kapoor said he has not seen any slowdown in decision-making and that companies have seen the benefit of outsourcing.

"They get better quality of service, and they get it at a size and scale that allows them to be able to be competitive in the marketplace, so we haven't really seen any decision-making slowdown because of the possibility of an HIRE Act coming in or (due to) the H-1B visa fee," he said.

In case there is any imposition of tariffs on the outsourcing of services, he said, "it can change things, and that's something which will be quite impactful". Kapoor, however, added that the US itself has a trade surplus on services.

On the H-1B visa issue, Kapoor said that the clarifications that followed the fee hike announcements helped clear the air after the initial "panic".

EXL's own visa applications are in small numbers, Kapoor said, adding: "So actually it's not a very significant and meaningful number for EXL and it doesn't have much of an impact (on us)". PTI MBI CS DRR