Mahindra Group forms AI division to benefit its businesses

The Mahindra Group has created a focused division on artificial intelligence (AI) to help companies in the conglomerate benefit from new-age technologies, a senior official has said.

The idea is to consolidate all the work on AI in a single office to benefit all the businesses, Bhuwan Lodha, the chief of the newly created division, told PTI.

"We have set up at a group level ... we have set up an AI division, which is tasked to make our businesses successful with AI," Lodha, who took over the responsibility earlier this month, said.

To start with, the division is drawing talent specialising in AI from all the group companies, Lodha, who used to be the chief of digital in the flagship auto business, said.

Lodha said in the last one-and-a-half to two years, AI has become very important and there is a lot of excitement about its possibilities which has led every company to launch experiments on the technology.

"AI projects became side hustles for every IT team in every company. Now we are bringing it mainstream," he explained.

The new AI division will build the right AI solutions for all the group companies, Lodha said, pointing out that there are possibilities across the sectors like auto, real estate and hospitality in which the group is present.

It will also get the best of the solutions available globally, including work done by startups or even universities, to the group, he said.

When asked about the role to be played by Tech Mahindra in the division, Lodha said the division cannot hire the number of domain specialists that Tech M has and will partner with the group's IT services arm.

The AI division's objective is also to consolidate talent and build a pipeline of proficient workers, he said.

Moving into the division will also give a career path to the talent and also ensure that they will find the work exciting as they contribute to multiple entities across different sectors, he said.