Tata Group Working on100 Generative AI Projects, Says Chairman Chandrasekaran

The Tata Group is currently working on 100 generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) projects that are significantly improving customer experience, productivity, and efficiency in its retail and manufacturing businesses, according to Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd.

At Tata Consultancy Services Ltd’s (TCS’s) 29th annual general meeting (AGM), Chandrasekaran highlighted the growing impact of GenAI across various industries, despite some uncertainties it brings.

Key Uses of GenAI in Tata Group

• E-commerce: GenAI is being used to create product catalogs, offer conversational shopping experiences, and provide personalized offers.
• Manufacturing: GenAI helps shopfloor workers troubleshoot complex equipment in their native languages, improving productivity. It is also used to analyze large documents, such as tender documents, to reduce the sales cycle significantly.

Chandrasekaran, who became chairman of Tata Sons in February 2017, emphasized the significant role of GenAI in these sectors.

Tata Group’s Business Overview

Tata Sons, the holding company of the group, owns shares in over two dozen Tata Group firms, which had $150 billion in revenue by March 2023. Under Tata Digital, the group offers groceries and food.

GenAI, which includes innovations like ChatGPT, can create various content forms, including text, audio, and video. Since ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, companies have viewed AI as both an opportunity and a disruptive risk.

At the AGM, GenAI was a major topic, with 20 of the 30 shareholders of TCS questioning the management about its impact on the company. TCS reported $29.1 billion in revenue last year, with a 4.1% increase in dollar revenue and a 24.6% operating margin.

Future Growth and GenAI Projects

Chandrasekaran expressed confidence in growing TCS faster than last year, despite the company’s policy of not providing specific guidance. CEO K. Krithivasan previously mentioned that this financial year would be better than the last.

TCS is the only major Indian IT services firm providing a metric to measure GenAI’s growth, reporting $900 million in GenAI project value last year. TCS returned ₹33,174.2 crore to Tata Sons through dividends and a share buyback in FY24. Since going public in August 2004, TCS has returned ₹2,31,394 crore to Tata Sons.

In comparison, Accenture Plc, which is twice the size of TCS, reported winning $1.1 billion in GenAI projects during the first half of its current fiscal year. Accenture noted that GenAI is the fastest emerging technology to reach $1 billion in sales.