AI won't kill India's IT industry...: Anand Mahindra dismisses fears over AI replacing IT services

Artificial intelligence (AI) will reshape India's IT services industry rather than replace it, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Friday, dismissing concerns that AI could undermine one of the country's largest export sectors.

Speaking at Tech Mahindra's 39th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Mahindra addressed what he described as the biggest concern surrounding the rise of AI and argued that the technology would increase, not reduce, the importance of IT services companies.

"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. My answer however is clear. The role of IT services will not diminish. It will change, of course. And in many ways, it will become more important."

AI adoption

Mahindra said AI has evolved beyond being a productivity tool and is increasingly becoming central to how businesses operate.

"AI is no longer just a productivity tool at the edge of the enterprise. It is moving to the centre of how businesses design work, serve customers, manage risk and make decisions."

However, he said the real challenge lies in deploying AI across complex enterprise environments.

"But imagining what AI can do that's just the easy part. Making AI work reliably, securely and responsibly at enterprise scale that is much harder."

According to Mahindra, most enterprises still operate with legacy systems, fragmented data, complex regulations and technology debt. AI, therefore, cannot simply be layered on top of existing systems but needs to be integrated and governed in a way that suits each organisation's requirements. He said this is where IT services companies create value by helping businesses deploy AI effectively.

Human judgment

Mahindra also rejected the notion that AI would replace people entirely, saying businesses of the future would combine human expertise with artificial intelligence.

"Our view is that the enterprise of tomorrow will not be all-human or all-AI. It will be built on human judgment amplified by AI capability."

He also argued that an enterprise's long-term competitive advantage would come from its own data, workflows, judgment and domain knowledge rather than from access to a particular AI model.

India must build Sovereign AI

Mahindra also called for India to strengthen its indigenous AI capabilities, describing frontier AI as a strategic technology shaped by trust, regulation, national interest and sovereignty.

"India cannot be only a consumer of intelligence built elsewhere. It must also be a creator, shaper and trusted deployer of intelligence."

Drawing parallels with India's development of the PARAM supercomputer after being denied access to foreign technology in the 1980s, he said the same spirit should guide the country's approach to Sovereign AI. As AI reshapes industries, Mahindra said it presents a significant opportunity for Indian IT companies to help enterprises adopt the technology responsibly and at scale, positioning the sector for its next phase of growth rather than its decline.