With a keen eye on the intersection of AI, cloud, and enterprise strategy, Maryanne Baines has become a leading voice in cloud technology. Her work involves a deep dive into how global tech firms are tailoring their services for specific, high-value markets. Today, she unpacks Infosys’s recent strategic expansion in Switzerland, exploring how the new Zurich headquarters is more than just an office—it’s a deliberate move to embed advanced AI capabilities within the country’s robust industrial and financial ecosystems. We’ll discuss the practical impact of this co-creation hub, the tangible outcomes for Swiss businesses embracing generative AI, and how this investment aims to enrich the local talent pipeline and innovation landscape.
Your new Zurich office at The Circle is positioned as a hub for innovation. How does this specific location facilitate co-creation with clients from sectors like finance and life sciences, and what does that collaborative process look like in practice?
Positioning the new headquarters at The Circle is a very deliberate, strategic choice. It’s not just about having a Zurich address; it’s about creating an accessible nexus point for innovation. Imagine the frictionless collaboration that becomes possible when your teams are physically closer to key clients in demanding sectors like finance and life sciences. The process isn’t about emails and video calls; it’s about bringing clients into a dynamic space where they can work side-by-side with our experts. We can workshop solutions in real-time, ideate on digital transformation roadmaps, and build a tangible sense of partnership. This proximity fosters a deeper trust and allows us to immerse ourselves in their challenges, ultimately co-creating solutions that are precisely tailored to their unique operational realities.
With a focus on AI transformation using Infosys Topaz, what specific business outcomes can a Swiss client in the manufacturing or energy sector expect? Please walk us through the key steps for implementing this generative AI solution and measuring its impact on their operations.
For a Swiss manufacturer, the outcomes are incredibly tangible. We’re talking about a significant boost in operational resilience. Using Infosys Topaz, they can move from reactive maintenance to a predictive model, harnessing data at scale to foresee equipment failures before they halt a production line. In the energy sector, this means optimizing grid performance and ensuring stability. The implementation process begins with integrating our Cobalt suite of services to build a robust cloud foundation. From there, we deploy Topaz to analyze their vast datasets, identifying patterns and efficiencies that were previously invisible. We measure impact not just in cost savings but in measurable business outcomes—increased uptime, faster innovation cycles, and an amplified ability for their human workforce to focus on high-value strategic tasks rather than routine monitoring.
Infosys already had a significant Swiss footprint, including the Turbomachinery Center in Baden. How will the new Zurich headquarters centralize or alter your existing operations, and what new capabilities does it introduce that weren’t present in your other Swiss locations?
This move isn’t about replacing our existing presence but rather about creating a strategic center of gravity. The Turbomachinery Center in Baden is a perfect example of our deep, specialized expertise. The new Zurich headquarters acts as the connective tissue, the hub that brings together these specialized capabilities with our broader AI-first vision. It provides a central command for orchestrating large-scale digital transformation journeys that might draw on expertise from our teams in Baden, Geneva, and elsewhere. The new capability it introduces is this powerful, centralized innovation ecosystem. It’s a formal space designed for cross-industry collaboration and for engaging with policy makers and academic partners in a way that our more functionally-focused offices couldn’t facilitate on their own.
You maintain partnerships with academic institutions like ETH Zurich and run the ‘Little Scientists’ STEM program. How do these initiatives directly feed your talent pipeline, and can you share an anecdote of how this collaboration has led to tangible innovation for a client?
These partnerships are the lifeblood of our long-term success in the region. They are absolutely critical for our talent pipeline. By engaging with prestigious institutions like ETH Zurich, we get early access to the brightest minds in engineering and technology, ensuring our teams are infused with fresh, cutting-edge thinking. The ‘Little Scientists’ program is about cultivating that spark of curiosity even earlier. By aiming to reach 1,000 students in its first year with multilingual coding courses, we are investing in the next generation of innovators. While specific client anecdotes are sensitive, I can say that a recent project involving complex data modeling for a financial services client was significantly accelerated by insights from a research collaboration with one of our academic partners, leading to a breakthrough in their risk assessment capabilities.
Switzerland is seen as a global center for engineering excellence and responsible business. Beyond creating jobs, how will Infosys actively contribute to this ecosystem? What specific programs will you implement to support policy makers and ensure inclusive digital growth?
Our commitment goes far beyond just occupying a new building and hiring staff. We see ourselves as active participants in strengthening the Swiss ecosystem that Dr. Nik Gugger rightly praised for its excellence. Our new headquarters is designed to be a platform for deeper collaboration with policy makers, where we can share global insights on technology trends and help shape frameworks for responsible AI and inclusive digital growth. We will be actively engaging with industry partners and academic institutions to launch joint initiatives focused on digital upskilling. The goal is to ensure that as we help businesses transform with AI, we are also helping build a workforce and a societal structure that can thrive in this new digital-first era, ensuring the benefits of technology are distributed broadly.
What is your forecast for enterprise AI adoption in Switzerland over the next three years?
I foresee an aggressive, yet thoughtful, acceleration. Swiss enterprises are traditionally cautious, prioritizing precision and responsibility, which is why the initial adoption of generative AI has been measured. However, over the next three years, we will move past the experimentation phase and into scaled implementation. The focus will shift from general-purpose chatbots to highly specialized, industry-specific AI agents that drive core business processes in manufacturing, banking, and life sciences. Companies will leverage offerings like Infosys Topaz not as a novelty but as a fundamental tool for improving operational resilience and harnessing data at scale. The key will be demonstrating clear, measurable business outcomes, which will unlock further investment and cement Switzerland’s role as a leader in applied, responsible AI.
