18 July,2026 11:10 AM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Anand Mahindra. File pic
Allaying fears that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would undermine India's IT sector, Tech Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra has stated that AI has the potential to reshape the industry, and that the IT sector's role will evolve to become even more critical as enterprises increasingly adopt AI.
Mahindra pointed out that every major technological shift has sparked fears about layoffs and disruption, but AI should instead be viewed as a catalyst for the next phase of growth for the industry, as per IANS.
Addressing shareholders at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday Mahindra said India cannot only have a passive role of being a consumer but look to create, shape and deploy intelligence, as per PTI.
"At the very outset, let me tackle the elephant in the room - which is the prediction that the rise of Artificial Intelligence will kill IT services in India. Every major technology cycle creates such anxieties," he noted, while adding that "the role of IT services will not diminish".
"It will change, of course. And in many ways, it will become more important," he said.
Comparing AI to a smartphone, Mahindra said its true value lies not in the technology itself but in the applications, connectivity and enterprise solutions built around it, and companies like Tech Mahindra enable businesses to turn AI into a practical tool that delivers real business value, according to PTI.
Mahindra said it's easy to imagine what AI can do but ensuring that it works reliably, securely and responsibly at enterprise scale is much harder.
According to Mahindra, most enterprises operate with legacy systems, fragmented data, complex regulations and technology debt, and AI can't simply be placed on top of this "complexity".
"It has to be integrated, governed and shaped around each enterprise's context. And that is why companies like ours matter: to make AI usable, trusted and valuable inside the enterprise," he said.
The real differentiator, he said, will be an enterprise's proprietary data, workflows, domain expertise and business judgment, which he described as its "alpha", as per PTI.
On Friday, the Tech Mahindra reported a 28.4 per cent rise in consolidated net profit for the June quarter at Rs 1,465 crore.
Despite the volatile business environment, Mahindra said the IT firm has delivered margin expansion for ten consecutive quarters, while quarterly deal wins have exceeded USD 1 billion in successive quarters, as per PTI.
According to Mahindra, the enterprise of tomorrow will be built on human judgment amplified by AI capability.
"To bring this vision to life, your company has embarked on Project Helix. Through this programme, Vector Squads will interweave human expertise with AI agents, like two strands of DNA, combining domain knowledge, engineering depth, governance and responsible AI practices around each client's context," Mahindra said.
Frontier AI is not just a commercial technology, but increasingly a strategic capability, shaped by trust, regulation, national interest and sovereignty, he said.
Citing PARAM supercomputer's case of technological constraints leading to indigenous breakthroughs, Mahindra said India's strength lies in its ability to be nudged by denial-driven innovation.
He said the same spirit should drive sovereign AI through domestic capability, trusted collaboration and self-reliance, as per PTI.
Mahindra said AI will challenge old models, but it will also create one of the largest opportunities the industry has ever seen, which is to help enterprises and nations convert intelligence into trusted impact.
(With Agency inputs)
