(Corrects figure in last bullet point to 13-15 pct)
* Q2 net profit at 30.96 bln rupees vs 29.20 bln estimates
* Maintains FY2015 sales growth outlook of 7-9 percent
* Focus on new technologies such as artificial intelligence
* Sees attrition rate down at 13-15 pct in next couple of qtrs
By Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Anya George Tharakan
BANGALORE, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd wants to revive growth through automation and artificial intelligence, its chief executive said on Friday, boosting investors' confidence in India's second largest IT exporter after it posted a forecast-beating quarterly profit.
Chief Executive Vishal Sikka was brought in earlier this year to chart a new strategy for Infosys, once a trendsetter for India's more than $100 billion IT outsourcing industry but which has struggled in recent years to retain staff and market share.
Infosys often appeared torn between chasing high-margin projects and low-margin bread-and-butter IT deals. Sikka, however, said Infosys' future now lay in new technologies, and that it would look into acquisitions to expand into those areas.
"We believe we can get back to that consistent profitable growth as well as achieve great growth and once again become a bellwether of the Indian IT industry," Sikka told reporters at the company's sprawling Bangalore headquarters.
"Each of our services will be renewed on the basis on innovation, on the basis new technologies like automation, artificial intelligence-based technologies ... there can be a next generation services company that we can transform into."
Investors cheered Sikka's plans, helping to send Infosys stock up by as much as 7.1 percent on Friday in Mumbai, outpacing the benchmark stock index which was down nearly 1 percent.
The stock is also on track to post its biggest single day gain in more than a year after Infosys posted a higher-than-expected 28.6 percent rise in its second-quarter net profit and unexpectedly announced it was issuing bonus shares and an interim dividend.
"This is exactly the kind of technology leadership we had been saying Infosys needs. We had anticipated a confident Infosys under him and that seems to be coming through," said Ravi Menon, associate vice president at Centrum Broking Ltd.
The shift into artificial intelligence and automation would be a leap for Infosys, which currently offers services that include remotely managing computer networks and writing software code.
Infosys has not done a large acquisition since it was founded in 1981 by seven engineers who pooled $250. The company has cash and cash equivalents of about $5.4 billion at the end of September, its earnings statement shows.