AI is quietly reshaping Indian industries

What once felt futuristic is now foundational — seamlessly transforming how products, people, and performance connect.

Bengaluru: There’s a quiet revolution sweeping across boardrooms in India. Not the kind fuelled by marketing buzzwords or overnight disruption, but a deeper, more deliberate shift. It’s in the dashboards of supply chain leaders, the lesson plans of edtech platforms, the fraud filters of fintech firms, and the screens of autonomous vehicle labs. Artificial Intelligence (AI), long a strategic ambition, is now being operationalised — often invisibly — across industries.

For India Inc., the AI conversation has moved beyond pilot projects and “what ifs.” Now, it’s about scale, trust, and competitive differentiation. Despite AI’s growing presence, C-suite leaders are aligned on one thing: the goal is not to replace humans — it’s to empower them.

Vijay Balakrishnan, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Godrej Enterprises Group, says AI has reshaped shopfloors. The organisation is clear that it is not trying to automate its workforce. “We have embraced a human-centric approach to digital transformation following our Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) philosophy, where AI is designed to augment human capabilities, not replace them.”

Aisles and analytics

Sanjay Mittal, Senior Partner and Industrial Sector Leader, IBM Consulting India & South Asia, sees a similar augmentation mindset playing out in India’s retail sector—this time, on the shopfloor and the screen.

AI, he notes, has become the invisible bridge linking apps, aisles, and analytics. By unifying customer data across physical stores and digital platforms, retailers can now offer hyper-personalised experiences—from product suggestions to dynamic shelf layouts.

“The omnichannel world is the perfect setting for AI,” Mittal says. Yet localisation remains a frontier challenge. Buying patterns vary across geographies and communities, making AI’s job more complex. IBM’s ‘Pillars of Trust’ framework—centred on explainability, fairness, privacy, and transparency—aims to keep these systems ethically grounded.

The retail sector is feeling the AI acceleration, especially in the battle for personalisation.

According to Puneet Mansukhani, Partner, Digital Advisory and Sector Head – Retail and Head- Global Retail – Digital & Technology Transformation, KPMG India, AI is bridging the once-siloed online and in-store experience. From dynamic pricing to computer vision-enabled footfall analytics, retailers are moving toward a future where the AI knows you before you walk in. “But the challenge remains in fragmented data and legacy systems,” Mansukhani cautions.

Technologies like computer vision and RFID scanning are tracking footfall, shelf engagement, and dwell time to create heatmaps — turning store activity into insights that improve merchandising, staffing, and inventory management. Without clean, connected datasets, even the best AI engines are just guessing.

Prescriptive logistics

In logistics, the transformation is palpable. Kapil Mahajan, Global Chief Information & Technology Officer - IT, Allcargo Logistics, notes that AI is now powering the shift from reactive supply chains to prescriptive logistics.

“The era of reactive supply chains has run its course,” he says, adding that synchronising air, sea, rail, and road transport is no longer a data problem; it’s an intelligence problem.

As Mahajan notes, the transformation is only possible with disciplined data governance, and logistics-specific AI trained to handle real-world complexity — from port congestion to last-mile delays. Education, too, is seeing AI move from dashboards to real-life impact — not just in pedagogy, but in the everyday support systems that learners rely on.

Personalised learning

At Great Learning, Chief Technology Officer Vinod Venkatraman says AI is no longer a backend tool — it’s now central to the student journey.

Their AI mentor, GLAIDE, provides real-time support — resolving doubts mid-assignment, offering project guidance, and even simulating mock interviews.

But AI still needs guardrails. It needs continued feedback and human oversight to become more intuitive and effective. That’s why, even as automation scales, mentors remain key to deeper learning. “AI handles scale and speed while our mentors bring the emotional intelligence and experience that elevate a learner’s journey,” he adds.

Predictive intelligence

If education platforms are using AI to unlock human potential, the cybersecurity sector is racing to protect it. As digital threats grow more elusive and shape-shifting, AI is now being weaponised not just by defenders, but by adversaries too — calling for sharper algorithms, faster detection, and stricter oversight.

Sharda Tickoo, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Trend Micro, believes the next frontier of cybersecurity will be shaped by predictive intelligence — systems that detect threats before they occur by reading patterns and vulnerabilities in real time. “This revolution will allow organisations to move from reactive security paradigms to proactive, prevention-oriented paradigms,” she says. But speed, she warns, cannot come at the cost of scrutiny. “Ultimate decisions, particularly those that affect systems or individuals, must be left to humans.”

AI agents

In the automotive world, Tata Elxsi is looking ahead to Agentic AI — systems that not only automate tasks but make autonomous decisions in dynamic environments.

“The next frontier involves AI agents that can plan, execute, and self-improve with minimal intervention,” says Biswajit Biswas, Chief Data Scientist at Tata Elxsi.

But scaling AI isn’t just technical — it’s cultural.

“Data silos, legacy integration, and workforce upskilling remain barriers,” Biswas notes.

Precision lending

In the financial sector, AI is no longer confined to back-end fraud checks or underwriting algorithms. It’s emerging as a frontline tool for inclusion.

At Axio, Prasanna Nirmal Kumar, Chief Credit Officer, sees this shift as a chance to reimagine credit for the underserved. “It enables digital loan approvals through regulated channels—without the friction of traditional processes,” he notes.

The company’s proprietary machine learning models analyse behavioural and transactional data to craft repayment plans tailored to each borrower’s profile. By factoring in income, spending patterns, and financial capacity—not just credit scores—Axio aims to offer precision without prejudice.

Tech-enabled health checks

AI is steering healthcare toward its most ambitious frontier yet: prevention.

“We are moving toward a model where AI can flag health risks before symptoms appear,” says Masaharu Morita, Founder and Programme Director at NURA, AI Healthcare Screening Centre, India.

At NURA, AI-assisted screenings are no longer novelty—they’re expectation. “People are increasingly confident when technology assists in health checkups, especially when it leads to quicker results and more accurate insights,” Morita says.

But with growing reliance on AI comes a parallel demand for ethical rigour. Morita advocates anticipatory regulation—where certification, bias control, and privacy safeguards are built in.

Enbasekar D, Co-founder & CTO, MediBuddy explains that AI is undergoing a profound evolution and is soon becoming mainstream. "These systems will move beyond assistance to autonomously executing tasks—from managing operations to enhancing customer experiences—fundamentally changing how businesses operate," he says.

Legal processes

As artificial intelligence finds its way into legal processes, Indian courts face new questions about technology’s place in the justice system. The legal community is watching closely to see how these debates will shape future rulings.

"Indian courts are yet to establish definitive jurisprudence on the admissibility and evidentiary value of AI-generated evidence or decisions. While they have cautiously explored the utility of AI for administrative tasks, they have so far stopped short of delegating any decision-making authority to AI systems," says Gaurav Sahay, Founder Partner, Arthashastra Legal.

AI is no longer a moonshot. It is embedded across India’s core sectors — from manufacturing and mobility to finance, education, retail, and healthcare. What sets this phase apart is not speed, but intent.