Tech Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra has pushed back against concerns that artificial intelligence will erode India’s information technology services sector, arguing instead that AI will make the industry more central to how enterprises operate. Speaking at the company’s 39th annual general meeting, Mahindra said the role of IT services “will not diminish” in the AI era but will change and “in many ways, it will become more important.”
Mahindra framed current anxieties around AI as part of a recurring pattern that has accompanied every major technology shift, from earlier waves of automation to the rise of the internet. He told shareholders that generative AI is creating “one of the largest opportunities the industry has ever seen,” particularly for companies capable of helping clients move from experimentation to scaled deployment. Most large enterprises still operate with legacy infrastructure, fragmented datasets and complex regulatory obligations, he noted, and cannot simply “layer” AI onto their existing technology stacks.
Mahindra said IT services firms will be essential in making AI “usable, trusted and valuable inside the enterprise” by integrating models with core systems, enforcing governance and ensuring compliance. He likened AI to a smartphone, suggesting that its true value lies not in the underlying hardware or model, but in the applications and solutions built around it. The future enterprise, he added, will be “neither all-human nor all-AI” but will rely on human judgment amplified by AI capabilities.
Mahindra also cast India’s positioning in AI as a strategic question, arguing the country cannot remain only a consumer of intelligence built elsewhere and must instead become a “creator, shaper and trusted deployer” of AI. He pointed to India’s history of indigenous computing projects, including the PARAM supercomputer, as evidence that constraints can catalyse domestic innovation and said the same mindset should underpin sovereign AI development. Tech Mahindra’s selection under the India AI Mission was described as a responsibility the company “takes very seriously,” underscoring its ambition to participate in national-scale AI initiatives.
On the operational front, Mahindra highlighted continued momentum in the company’s business, including margin expansion over multiple quarters and quarterly deal wins exceeding the billion-dollar mark. He introduced “Project Helix,” which deploys “Vector Squads” that combine human experts with AI agents to deliver domain knowledge, engineering depth and governance tailored to each client’s context. These units are designed to help enterprises move towards more autonomous operations while maintaining control and oversight, positioning Tech Mahindra’s services as a bridge between traditional IT outsourcing and AI-driven transformation.
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