Anand Das, Digital and AI Officer (Engineering) at TVS, urged enterprises to move beyond small AI wins and treat it as a core business strategy, emphasizing orchestration of people, processes, and technology.
Artificial intelligence has quickly shifted from a buzzword to a boardroom priority. Yet, most enterprises are still celebrating isolated victories, automating a workflow here and deploying a chatbot there, while a select few are using AI to transform industries and claim market share.
In his keynote, Anand Das, Digital and AI Officer at TVS, urged business leaders to move beyond pilots and proofs of concept, and to embrace AI as a strategic weapon. His message was simple: companies that win with AI are not those tinkering at the edges but those embedding it into the very fabric of their organizations.
Learning from Global AI Leaders
Das highlighted examples that challenge conventional wisdom. Google, once a near-monopoly in search, now faces competition from a start-up called Perplexity that leverages AI to carve out a small but growing slice of the market. In the automotive world, China’s BYD has dethroned Volkswagen at home, propelled by its ability to harness AI in design and R&D to bring vehicles to market at unprecedented speed. These cases, Das argued, show that AI is not just a tool for efficiency; it is a lever for strategic growth.
“Enterprise AI is intentional. It is strategic. It is not just about buying software and tools, it’s about orchestrating people, processes, and technology,” he told the audience.
Rethinking the CIO’s Role
For traditional enterprises, the most significant shift may not be technological but organizational. Das underscored the changing nature of IT roles: solution architects, product managers, and engineers must evolve from designing systems to integrating AI into ecosystems. CIOs, meanwhile, must ensure that the AI strategy is owned at the C-suite level and is tied directly to business objectives. Without this alignment, AI risks becoming a patchwork of disconnected experiments.
Building for Flexibility and Scale
Das also warned against over-reliance on a single AI vendor. Instead, he advocated for modular infrastructures that allow enterprises to shift across cloud & AI platforms like AWS, Microsoft, or Google Cloud without disrupting continuity. Scaling AI, he argued, requires investment in layered architectures that cover everything from databases and monitoring to governance frameworks, ensuring resilience, managing risks, and delivering a sustainable ROI.
Managing Costs Without Killing Innovation
AI’s potential comes with a price tag. Das was candid about the expense, noting that success hinges on cost discipline. Choosing the right models, optimizing deployment, and leveraging caching strategies can keep costs in check while preserving the runway for experimentation. And experimentation, he stressed, is essential: without it, enterprises risk missing the innovations that separate winners from laggards.
The Road Ahead
Das closed with a clear call to action: experiment boldly but responsibly, champion sovereign AI for critical use cases, and recognize that enterprise AI is not just about tools, but about orchestrating people, processes, and technology.
In a landscape where many are still celebrating AI’s “early wins,” his message stood out: the companies that will lead the next decade are those already scaling AI as a market weapon. AI is no longer a side project. It is the strategy.
“Enterprise AI is intentional. It is strategic. It is not just about buying software and tools; it’s about orchestrating people, processes, and technology,” Das emphasized.