ET AI Business Transformation Masterclass heads to IIM Bangalore to decode enterprise AI adoption

The AI Business Transformation Masterclass & Awards 2026, presented by The Economic Times in association with IIM Bangalore, will take place on 19 November, 2026 at IIM Bangalore. The programme will bring together faculty members, technology leaders and enterprise practitioners for a day of discussions on AI adoption, business applications and the decisions involved in deploying these technologies at scale.

The opening keynote will be delivered by G Shainesh, Professor of Marketing and Chairperson of IIMBx, setting the context for the day's discussions. IIM Bangalore's academic contribution will also extend to an AI Maturity Assessment led by Naveen Kumar Bhansali, Adjunct Faculty at IIM Bangalore, giving participants an opportunity to examine organisational readiness for AI adoption.

Financial services will be a key focus, with two sessions examining how established banks and newer fintech companies are approaching agentic AI. Balaji Narayanmurthy, CDO, IndusInd Bank, will discuss the deployment of AI across large banking operations, with particular attention to governance, compliance and measurable returns. The new-age disruptor perspective will come from Srijon Biswas, CTO, PhonePe, whose session will examine how AI is influencing credit decisions, customer experiences and risk management in AI-first finance.


The programme will also feature a live Voice AI demonstration by Ganesh Gopalan, CEO, Gnani AI. The session will showcase the enterprise voice AI platform, described as India's most deployed, operating in 14 languages across banking, insurance, and telecom. Participants will get a demonstration of how voice AI works in production environments.

Supply chain applications will be examined through two complementary sessions. Dr. Srinivas Telukunta, Global Senior Director of AI at PepsiCo, will discuss how large businesses across the FMCG, pharmaceutical and logistics businesses are deploying AI across procurement, warehousing and last-mile operations. Vaibhav Khandelwal, CTO and Co-Founder of Shadowfax, will bring the perspective of newer logistics and quick-commerce businesses, exploring the operating models and speed traditional supply chains can learn from.

The conversation will then turn to who controls the intelligence powering the next phase of business. In a session titled Owned Intelligence: After the AI Gold Rush, What the World, India and Its Enterprises Do Next, Malay Baral, Founder and CTO of AdiOS Platform Private Limited, will discuss how countries and enterprises can build, control and scale their own intelligence capabilities.

Commerce will feature through Indian and international perspectives. Pramod Adiddam, CTO of Myntra, will discuss how Indian retail and lifestyle platforms are developing AI-native customer journeys while pursuing business returns. Bharati Balakrishnan, Head of North America Partnerships at Shopify, will bring insights from Southeast Asia's commerce ecosystem and examine what Indian businesses can learn from its more advanced implementations.

Following a fireside chat, the programme will explore Physical AI, covering computer vision, spatial systems, edge automation and the infrastructure supporting global deployment. Jigar Halani, Senior Director at NVIDIA, will share perspectives on the development of global compute and robotics infrastructure. A live demonstration by Vijeth Pandit, CPO of Pine Labs, will show how AI agents can make secure UPI payments through P3P without manual intervention. The agenda will also include a session on AI for kids, focused on introducing young learners to AI skills and problem-solving.

The day will conclude with the ET Most Innovative AI Product Awards 2026, honouring Indian enterprises leading AI-driven transformation.

For business leaders assessing their next steps in AI adoption, the programme will offer insights from industry leaders and faculty members along with demonstrations of AI applications being developed and deployed.

Reserve your seat!