AI investments must be judged by returns, not fear of missing out: Kumar Mangalam Birla

New Delhi: Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) should be based on the returns they can generate rather than rushing into adoption with a sense of "FOMO (fear of missing out)", Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the 2026 Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Birla said now there is a shift from an "AI arms race" for compute and talent to a hard look at returns, and that the group will go "a little more gradually" on AI investments than it had planned a year ago.

"A year ago, we probably thought that AI was a monster sitting there on the last row, and it would eat me up by the time it got here if I didn't know everything about AI," he said, describing the earlier apprehension around the technology.


Companies are now moving towards assessing what AI could deliver and the returns they could earn from investing in it, he added.

"I think that we're going to take it a little more gradually than we thought a year ago, because it is a large investment. And I don't think we need to act out of a sense of FOMO," Birla said in a panel discussion.

According to Birla, AI-based applications would vary across businesses, with the technology helping improve customer interactions in some areas, manufacturing efficiency in others, and net interest margins in financial services.

"Also for a company like us, which is multi-business, there is no one cap fits all," he said, adding that the impact of AI on the productivity of an entire organisation was still being assessed.

Drawing a parallel with the earlier excitement around blockchain, Birla said the group had adopted the technology in its fibre business to improve traceability in the textile supply chain.

Consumers and garment manufacturers can scan a label to trace the forests from which cotton or viscose used in a garment was sourced, he said.

On the challenges facing businesses, Birla said capital allocation had become increasingly difficult as companies continued to invest in existing operations while responding to new business opportunities and demands.

"You can't stop growing...You either grow, or you go down. You can't stay in a state of equilibrium," he said.

Moreover, being a global company, it also has to face the impact of geopolitical developments.

"When I read about a significant global event in the newspapers, I can be sure that it will impact us somewhere," he said.

The Aditya Birla Group, headed by Kumar Mangalam Birla, operates across more than 20 sectors in 41 countries spanning six continents, employs over 2.27 lakh people and has more than 600 manufacturing units.

It reported a revenue of around USD 72 billion in FY26 and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of USD 8.5 billion.

Birla also highlighted the importance of people in navigating an increasingly complex business environment, saying organisations needed to keep employees motivated, encourage collaboration and facilitate learning across businesses.

On manufacturing, he said the group's focus was on strengthening the underlying competitiveness of its businesses through scale, cost efficiency, stable operations and continuous training.

Birla said the group's manufacturing businesses aim to be in the bottom decile of the global cost curve, that is, among the 10 per cent lowest-cost producers.

The group's cement capacity touched 200 million tonnes this year, making it the largest cement company anywhere in the world outside China, and it has added 2 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity to the cement business.