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Andres Angelani has led and grown digital services operations at what he calls “every T-shirt size of company,” in a career that has spanned Argentina, the UK, and both coasts of the US. The current CEO at Wizeline helped Globant expand from a fledgling Argentina-based organization into a global IT powerhouse over twelve years. For another seven years, he led what is now Softvision through its acquisition by Cognizant, a large Fortune 500 professional services company.
Angelani is coming up on one year at Wizeline, and the CEO says his company and his industry are in the middle of a massive disruption.
“The services industry is changing and is going to continue to change quickly because of AI,” the CEO explains. “The industry is rushing to outcome-based, productivity-centric commercial models to justify themselves as readiness experts for AI. I say readiness because AI is still in its infancy at this moment.”
That is to say that everything from hardware sellers to data centers are selling a future that we haven’t experienced yet. Angelani says it’s only when software steps in to drive the new AI revolution that the true AI revolution will begin. In the meantime, Wizeline is helping its clients prepare in the industries it knows best, like media and entertainment, financial services, retail and CPG, and healthcare.
“You learn tolerance and patience, because as an immigrant, you don’t often have the power in a lot of situations.”
Andres Angelani
After nearly a year at Wizeline, Angelani likes the direction the company is moving in, but his transformational efforts are only in their nascent stage. The CEO says new service models will require Wizeline to be more aggressive in a normally very conservative IT services landscape.
“The market is asking us to do more,” the CEO explains. “The traditional professional services model isn’t going to cut it long-term. We have to have some skin in the game. We need to create new components, methodologies, and accelerators to meet the market. For us, that means augmented agents.”
Virtual assistants that use AI, Angelani says, can round out already high-performing teams and make them even stronger. It’s not about replacing human team members but supplementing the work of a team with a cost-effective and high value-add.
“Augment” is the key word here, as Angelani says he’s still skeptical, at least right now, of AI’s ability to replace human teams outright. “We need to have our clients’ best interests at heart,” the CEO says. “In critical use cases like healthcare or financial services, what are you going to do with no human intervention if a model hallucinates? We’re not in the business of replacing teams right now. We’re in the business of making small teams perform like much larger teams.”
This shift—from a product-driven company to an AI readiness expert—requires fast evolution. To lead such change, Angelani believes curiosity and awareness of what makes a company culture unique are essential.
“You have to understand what culture you’re entering so that you can learn how to positively influence it and use the best parts of it to evolve,” the CEO explains. “And it can’t all be solely your energy, because that will kill you. You need people to be excited to come on the journey with you.”
It’s also important to understand culture because sometimes, you may realize there’s no way to change it. Some lifts are beyond the scope of one individual. If a company culture seems antithetical to your own leadership, you have to determine whether a transformation is even possible and whether it’s worth the effort.
Angelani has learned to drive innovation across multiple countries and cultures. The leader is frank about both the learning curve and power imbalances that can often accompany someone trying to find success in a culture that isn’t their natural one.
“You learn tolerance and patience, because as an immigrant, you don’t often have the power in a lot of situations,” the CEO explains. “Adaptation is hard, but I grew up in a country with a great deal of volatility. I know how to grow in that environment, and if you’re going to evolve internationally, you have to be comfortable with a degree of uncertainty. It’s part of growing as a person and as a leader.”
The CEO’s best teacher early on may have been his father, a model of resilience and reinvention. Angelani says his father’s successful business career also included several ups and downs. The future CEO saw an entrepreneur who took his shots. When Angelani’s father’s risks didn’t come to fruition, he dusted himself off and built something else.
“It can’t all be solely your energy, because that will kill you. You need people to be excited to come on the journey with you.”
Andres Angelani
Angelani understands the importance of being resilient. He’s seen the human spirit overcome temporary hardships enough times to know that almost anything is possible with the right mix of belief, effort, and maybe a touch of luck.
