AI now bringing us customers we would never have won otherwise: M&M's Anish Shah

Artificial intelligence is no longer just helping Mahindra & Mahindra improve productivity. It is also bringing in new customers and generating incremental revenue, Group CEO and Managing Director Anish Shah said on Thursday.

He outlined how the auto-to-farm conglomerate is deploying AI across product development, manufacturing, finance and customer service.

"Just using AI, these are customers that we would likely not have got otherwise, and that's incremental revenue that comes in leveraging this technology," Shah said during the company's post-earnings media briefing.


The comments come as M&M reported a 34% year-on-year rise in consolidated profit after tax to Rs 5,455 crore for the June quarter, while revenue climbed 28% to Rs 58,188 crore, driven by robust performance across its automotive, farm equipment and services businesses.

Shah said AI is helping the company compress engineering timelines, improve customer service and speed up lending decisions, while also lowering customer acquisition costs.

One of the most significant gains has come in vehicle development. Tasks such as predicting drag coefficients through simulations, which earlier took 8-12 hours, can now be completed in around two minutes, allowing engineers to focus more on product development.

"Now it can be done in two minutes, and that allows teams to focus more on building better cars, doing them faster, and our goal is to reduce time for product development, which translates to... revenue and cost," he said.

Across its businesses, M&M has deployed AI at multiple customer touchpoints. The company said 2,600 workshop staff now use AI-powered assistance to diagnose vehicle issues and resolve customer complaints faster. In financial services, 65% of loan files are currently processed through its AI platform, "Samurai", significantly reducing processing time.

The company has also used AI to fulfil over five lakh customer service requests, while AI-led cross-selling initiatives have lowered customer acquisition costs by 30%, Shah said.

The AI push has been backed by dedicated investments in talent and proprietary models. M&M has built 19 proprietary AI models, employs more than 50 AI engineers and specialists, has trained 1,900 employees through its AI academy and is currently executing 15 enterprise-wide AI transformation projects across businesses.

According to Shah, the technology is now being adopted beyond corporate offices and engineering teams.

He recalled a recent visit to one of the group's manufacturing facilities, where shop-floor employees explained how AI was helping improve quality and productivity.

"We had folks on the shop floor talking about how they were using AI and explaining AI in terms of how that's changed life for them and how that's helping us build better quality products and doing that faster," he said.

Shah said the company's broader technology-led strategy, combined with stronger collaboration across group companies, was helping improve business performance.

Besides strong earnings growth, M&M retained its leadership in the SUV segment with a 25% revenue market share, reported 23% growth in auto volumes during the quarter, while its farm equipment and services businesses also posted healthy growth. Tech Mahindra improved its EBIT margin by 330 basis points, while Mahindra Finance continued to expand its loan book with double-digit growth.

"Being a tech leader in every industry is not just a logo or a statement we have up there. It's something that each of our businesses are living and striving to build that expertise that allows us to get to that status," Shah said.