Tech Mahindra’s successful outing at MWC 2024 with key signings

Tech Mahindra, a leading Indian IT and consulting services firm was at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 in Barcelona.

At the MWC, the IT firm inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pegatron, a renowned global player in technology and electronics manufacturing. The collaboration aims to pioneer private AI-enabled 5G solutions tailored for global enterprises.

According to Harshvendra Soin, president of Tech Mahindra’s Asia Pacific and Japan Business, the partnership leverages Tech Mahindra’s extensive market presence, strong ties with telcos, and expertise in global 5G deployment to deliver top-notch IT and network services to Pegatron.

The joint venture will introduce a dedicated private 5G product lineup, branded under Pegatron’s 5G business unit, alongside Tech Mahindra‘s proven track record in large-scale 5G transformations. Together, they will offer end-to-end 5G for Enterprise (5G4E) solutions to global enterprises and manufacturing clients.

Tech Mahindra and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison collaboration

In a separate announcement at MWC 2024, Tech Mahindra and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat or IOH) unveiled their partnership to develop ‘Garuda,’ a Large Language Model (LLM) aimed at preserving Bahasa Indonesia, the official language of Indonesia and its dialects.

Built upon the foundation of Tech Mahindra’s indigenous LLM ‘Project Indus,’ Garuda will offer various applications across industries such as healthcare, e-commerce, rural education, banking and finance, agriculture, and telecom. It will enable Indosat’s customers to enjoy personalized experiences, including customer support, content creation, and more, by analyzing sentiments and behavioral patterns.

As part of the collaboration, Tech Mahindra will utilise its technological expertise to gather and curate data in the Indonesian language, pre-train, and release it as a conversational model for Indosat, empowering users with enhanced language capabilities.

Vikram Nair, President, Tech Mahindra EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) spoke to Gulf Business on the sidelines of the tech trade show.

Q. Tell us why Tech Mahindra is at MWC 2024 and what are you showcasing?

We have about 40 per cent of our revenue come from telecommunications. So the sector is a very important sector for us. And MWC is where we get to learn from others, as well as show what we can demonstrate and bring to the marketplace. We are here to meet a lot of our partners and customers.

We are also here to see what our competitors are doing in the marketplace as well as share some of the transformation stories that we see. And we have delivered here. So overall, it’s been quite exciting at MWC.

Q. Gen AI is the overarching trend over here and you have an LLM model called Indus so tell us more about it.

Tech Mahindra developed the local language model so that we could bring efficiency of GenAI to the wider population in India. So that’s the main direction that we have and we hope to use our experience and expertise with the platform for similar projects for our clients.

Q. How are you using AI in your other verticals?

We are going for usage of AI across most functions. What we’ve seen is AI has got immediate impact on testing, because it’s easy for you to learn and do it. And then that way, we have pretty much reached what we could do, and we’ve taken a lot of headcount out. Right now we are also checking to see what we could do in the development space, and in the design side.

I would say about 60 to 70 per cent learning is happening now, and we should see in the next couple of months the the full productivity of AI deployment. We see a substantial improvement in productivity over the course of the coming few months.

Q. Tech Mahindra has a substantial presence in the GCC region, and where is it focusing next?

GCC is a very important region for us. And we will work with both telecom as well as non-telecom operators in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. I was actually there last month to sign a contract with Riyadh Air.

Every operator in the region is big for us, and also the other sectors, we do a lot of work with public sector as well. In the oil and gas industry, Aramco is a big customer of ours and we have a substantial presence in the kingdom.

Q. You had a Formula E car on display at MWC. Why was it part of your showcase?

As a group, we have been very conscious about being environmentally responsible. And that’s why we have the Formula E car to demonstrate the transition and potential about racing cleanly. Second is the analytics that goes in to the car. That is what Tech Mahindra does, so that learning comes through us.

We are very conscious about how we use energy and what kind of energy we use. And we have gotten awards as well for being on the path to being energy efficient.

Q. What skills will future tech developers need with AI making a lot of current skillsets redundant?

Youngsters need to see how they can leverage AI to make sure that they are more productive. So the kind of work they do will change a lot, but I don’t see employment being reduced or made redundant. Those who will adapt to the AI project will be much ahead of the rest.

What are things I need to do and what are things I can delegate is a question every executive is asking. The adoption of GenAI has released a lot of time, and hence the productivity has gone up substantially and this is only set to grow further.