Ground zero AI, India edition: What business leaders are actually doing with it

At an ET Power Table dialogue in Bengaluru titled ‘AI as a Board‑Level Imperative: How CXOs are Managing Leadership Expectations while Driving Adoption from the Ground Up,’ senior executives from disparate sectors, from garments to retail, IT services, and wealth management, showed that artificial intelligence (AI) is already reshaping operations, even if it has not yet become the core of Indian business. Their examples sketch a sector‑by‑sector map of where AI is already delivering value, and where executives see it going next.
Garments: From sketch to 3D, faster
Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi, Managing Director of Gokaldas Exports, a garments exporter, positioned AI as a design accelerator. “There is a huge component of design where artificial intelligence helps in taking products to market much faster,” he said.

The mechanics are concrete: designers sketch garments, and AI then digitally renders them, enabling 3D visualisation and virtual showcasing. This slashes the time between concept and buyer presentation, shortening the entire product‑development cycle. This pace can also turn into a pricing and turnaround advantage.


Yet, the same efficiency comes with a caveat. Ganapathi flagged that “most AI models are US‑based, and eventually all the data gets processed there,” raising questions about comfort levels with foreign platforms that may “know more about our company than we do.”

Jewellery and retail: smart behind the scenes, human at the front
Krishnan Venkateswaran, Chief Digital Officer of Titan, underlined that AI’s sweet spot lies in repetitive, low‑judgement tasks. “AI works best in repetitive, low‑judgement tasks,” he said. “Wherever the task is high frequency and the level of judgement or human touch is low, AI agents are a no‑brainer.”

At Titan, AI can handle training, process management, and standard invoice processing. But Venkateswaran was clear about its limits: “Automation has been there for decades. AI agents are probably just somewhat more intelligent, context‑aware, and able to learn from what has already been done.” He added that AI is not yet ready to do a core part of Titan’s business: “talking to customers in stores.”

In retail and jewellery, this points to a hybrid model: AI in the back office, human staff on the front line. The technology sharpens logistics, pricing and display planning, while the “touch” of the shopfloor remains largely human.

IT services: Chasing superintelligence, training engineers
In the IT services sector, expectations are more aspirational. Venk Krishnan, Chief Executive of NuWare, an US‑headquartered IT services firm, said the industry’s bigger ambitions are still a work in progress. “Most AI models, including Anthropic, are talking about a superintelligent AI that can think and act like a human being. That is what everyone is chasing,” he said.

Timelines, however, remain uncertain. “People are predicting 2030 as the year when we will really find out what AI can and cannot do,” Krishnan added.

On the ground, this aspiration translates into reskilling. “AI has changed the landscape. There is going to be a lot of training, which we are doing, and I am sure other IT companies will follow,” he said. He also stressed that domain knowledge is more critical than ever, especially for a smaller firm such as NuWare, where “customers work closely with us and tell us exactly where they want our help.”

For software engineers, that means a dual focus: “Learn your subject matter. If you know the subject well, there is at least a chance you will figure out how to do things,” Krishnan said. He noted that “domain experts are in better shape today because of the training they can now get on the technology side.”

Wealth management: the relationship manager 2.0
In wealth management, AI is reshaping job roles rather than simply automating tasks. Satheesh Krishnamurthy, CEO, The Reserve, 360 ONE Wealth, said that “AI can be a beautiful or a dangerous tool, depending on who is using it.”

Organisations that are careless, he warned, could incur significant costs from AI’s “hallucination risk. It needs prudence. It needs continuous awareness at an organisational level in terms of how we are capitalising on these capabilities.”

Within the firm, however, AI is already enabling a new kind of relationship manager. “With the impact of technology and AI, the relationship manager is now equipped with tools like Claude to work on proposals, drawing on all the intelligence already present in the firm. We are also able to curate the portfolio,” Krishnamurthy said.

He added: “The investment counsellor, instead of being just a distant touch to the client, can choose to transform himself into a wealth manager. That is a big opportunity.” For service RMs, whose core skill is relationship management, AI can act as a think tank, helping them move “from being a service RM to a full relationship manager.”

For Krishnamurthy, the broader message is one of career‑level upside. “Every step of the way, judicious adoption of technology can be an alpha creator from a career standpoint,” he said. In wealth management, AI is not only changing how portfolios are built, but how individuals can reposition themselves within the value chain.

Timing, caution, and real‑world use‑cases
Across garments, retail, IT services and wealth management, the ET Power Table conversation revealed a consistent pattern: AI is already in use, but its deployment is selective and cautious.

Leaders are clear that meaningful adoption is not far off, perhaps within four to five years, depending on how quickly the technology matures, but they are also wary of over‑promising and over‑relying.