Inside Godrej Enterprises Group’s Push to Become an Intelligence-First Enterprise

Why It Matters

The initiative positions Godrej as a pioneer of enterprise‑scale, responsible AI in India, promising measurable efficiency gains and a competitive edge across its diversified portfolio.

Key Takeaways

• ₹1,200 crore AI investment over next 3‑5 years.
• Amethyst AI engine unifies data, governance, and agents.
• Factory 360 boosts productivity 1% and cuts costs 10‑15%.
• AI chatbots handle 700k queries, cut response time 40%.
• Goal: 100% employee AI fluency by FY end.

Pulse Analysis

India’s industrial landscape is at a tipping point, with conglomerates wrestling with legacy silos and fragmented data. Godrej Enterprises’ decision to replace isolated pilots with a governed, federated AI backbone reflects a broader shift toward enterprise‑wide intelligence. By standardising data definitions and integrating cloud‑first platforms, the group has created a foundation where AI can act as an accelerant rather than a bolt‑on, addressing a key barrier that has slowed digital adoption across the country.

The rollout of Amethyst and its flagship Factory 360 platform illustrates how unified AI can translate into tangible operational gains. Real‑time analytics fuse machine data, ERP, and quality systems, delivering a 1% uplift in labour productivity and a 10‑15% reduction in conversion costs. Meanwhile, AI‑powered chatbots resolve roughly 700,000 customer queries annually, slashing response times by 40%, and agentic tools are compressing order‑booking cycles from hours to minutes. These outcomes underscore the financial upside of embedding intelligence directly into core processes rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Looking ahead, Godrek’s emphasis on responsible AI governance, extensive upskilling—over 600,000 training hours—and a hub‑and‑spoke adoption model sets a benchmark for sustainable AI scale. As agentic AI begins to orchestrate end‑to‑end workflows, the company aims to achieve enterprise autonomy, reinforcing its competitive advantage rooted in domain expertise, data depth, and ethical oversight. This roadmap not only strengthens Godrej’s market position but also signals to Indian industry that disciplined, intelligence‑first transformation can drive both efficiency and innovation.

Inside Godrej Enterprises Group’s push to become an intelligence-first enterprise

By Ramarko Sengupta · Published Feb 10, 2026 at 07:11 AM IST

When Vijay Balakrishnan stepped into the role of Chief Digital and Information Officer at Godrej Enterprises Group, the mandate was never about modernising IT for the sake of it. The conglomerate spans manufacturing, appliances, industrial projects, security solutions, real estate, and consumer‑facing businesses. Digital transformation at that scale cannot be a collection of tools or pilots.

“Digital transformation at Godrej Enterprises Group is not about digitising legacy processes, it is about fundamentally rethinking how the enterprise senses, decides, and acts,” Balakrishnan tells ET Enterprise AI. “For a conglomerate of our scale, transformation means building a common intelligence layer that connects people, machines, data, and business decisions.”

The Group operates across more than 14 business verticals and has a presence in over 60 countries with annual revenues north of ₹19,000 crore. Its portfolio touches millions of customers worldwide across manufacturing, consumer durables and critical industrial systems.

This sheer scale explains why Godrej’s digital strategy has evolved in phases rather than through isolated technology bets. When Balakrishnan joined in 2024, the first priority was credibility. The focus was on cloud‑first and SaaS‑first foundations, stabilising platforms, and delivering early digital wins that business leaders could trust.

On top of that base, the Group’s strategy has shifted decisively toward what he describes as an “intelligence‑first‑enterprise” approach. AI and real‑time insights are no longer peripheral capabilities. They are being designed into core operations, products, and workflows, with governance and ethics treated as central design constraints rather than compliance checks added later, he says.

That shift is now anchored in Amethyst, Godrej Enterprises Group’s unified AI intelligence engine. “With the launch of Amethyst, our unified AI intelligence engine, transformation now means embedding intelligence directly into our operations and products, while ensuring trust, ethics, and governance remain at the centre,” Balakrishnan says.

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From fragmented systems to a shared intelligence backbone

The push toward AI did not start with generative models or copilots. It started with confronting structural fragmentation that had built up over decades.

“The biggest gaps were around fragmentation,” Balakrishnan recalls, pointing to non‑standardised processes, inconsistent data definitions, legacy systems built at different times, and limited reuse because of siloed technology choices.

AI only became strategic once those issues were systematically addressed. “AI became strategic when we saw it as the final step in a long‑term transformation sequence,” he says. “Once we had digital platforms and structured data, AI, and especially GenAI, became the accelerant that could compress time, automate judgment‑heavy tasks, and embed intelligence across the enterprise.”

In some cases, agentic generative AI has even allowed teams to bypass intermediate steps. “With cognitive actionable abilities of Agentic generative AI, in some cases we are able to skip to preparatory steps and achieve end outcomes directly,” Balakrishnan notes.

What changed was not just the technology stack but the operating model. The organisation moved away from scattered pilots toward what he calls “a governed, federated AI backbone,” making AI a shared enterprise capability rather than a series of experiments owned by individual teams.

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Digitisation of the shop floor

Nowhere is the shift more visible than in manufacturing. Factory 360, a proprietary AI‑powered production monitoring platform, has emerged as a central pillar of Godrej Enterprises Group’s digital strategy, bringing together machine data, manufacturing execution systems, ERP, quality systems, and safety feeds into a single real‑time intelligence layer.

“Factory 360 integrates machine data, MES (manufacturing execution systems), ERP, quality systems, and safety feeds into a unified real‑time intelligence layer at our shop floors,” Balakrishnan says. The platform is being rolled out across more than 30 factories over the next two years, with additional modules such as ‘Track ‘N Trace’, predictive maintenance, and digital twins planned.

Godrej is seeing a 1 percent improvement in labour productivity across plants, reductions in unplanned downtime through predictive maintenance, and AI‑driven quality inspection improving consistency. Computer‑vision‑based safety systems are strengthening PPE compliance. Early results show a 10‑15 percent reduction in conversion costs and a 3‑5 percent improvement in yield.

“Factory 360 has turned our plants into continuously learning, insight‑rich, self‑healing systems,” Balakrishnan says.

Safety and human oversight remain non‑negotiable. AI‑powered vision systems under the Amethyst Vision umbrella monitor PPE compliance in real time, and drone‑based safety monitoring is planned for large industrial project sites. At the same time, Godrej follows a strict human‑in‑the‑loop philosophy. AI supports decisions, but people remain accountable for final actions. “The goal is not to replace people but to augment their capabilities with real‑time intelligence that drives both efficiency and safety,” Balakrishnan says.

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A ₹1,200 crore bet on intelligence at scale

Godrej Enterprises Group has committed more than ₹1,200 crore over the next three to five years toward digital solutions, platforms, and AI. The allocation reflects a deliberate balance rather than a single big bet.

The investment is split across:

• Foundational digital infrastructure – cloud, data platforms, IoT, cybersecurity.

• AI and GenAI capabilities – Amethyst, agentic automation, predictive intelligence, computer vision.

• Business‑facing digital solutions – manufacturing, supply chain, sales, service, finance, HR, omnichannel customer experiences.

At the centre of this ecosystem sits Amethyst. “Amethyst represents a fundamental shift in how we view intelligence inside the enterprise,” Balakrishnan says. “Built with security, ethics, and responsible AI at its core, it is designed as a unified AI backbone that brings together our platforms, data, AI agents, and cross‑functional orchestration into a single, governed intelligence layer.”

A common backbone changes behaviour because teams no longer build in isolation. AI agents are reused across functions, accelerating rollout and reducing duplication. Trust also improves because responsible AI principles are embedded from day one. Early results have shown faster deployment cycles and step‑change productivity improvements, with the platform designed to deliver a 10‑15 percent uplift, according to Balakrishnan.

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From pilots to business outcomes

Across the group, AI has moved from experimentation to execution.

• Customer support – AI‑driven chatbots now resolve close to seven lakh queries annually, delivering nearly a 40 percent reduction in response and hold times.

• Operations & finance – Automation has reduced manual effort equivalent to seven‑to‑ten people per function in certain workflows.

• Manufacturing & supply chain – AI‑driven forecasting and optimisation contribute to efficiency gains, with an ambition of delivering approximately ₹130 crore or more in cost reduction over the next three years.

“These outcomes demonstrate that AI is now part of core business execution,” Balakrishnan says.

Customer experience is another area where AI is becoming less visible but more impactful. By unifying customer data across businesses, Godrej is creating a single, consistent view of the customer, reducing fragmented outreach and improving contextual engagement across the lifecycle. At an enterprise level, tools like the Amethyst Knowledge Assistant act as a single source of truth, improving decision velocity for customer‑facing teams.

Agentic AI is reshaping workflows behind the scenes:

• Interio (furniture arm) – AI‑driven order‑booking and multi‑address agents compress multi‑hour processes into minutes, effectively doubling order‑processing capacity.

• Process engineering – Contract and specification agents reduce review cycles from weeks to days.

• Appliances – Invoice‑validation agents perform real‑time checks, improving accuracy and compliance.

• Security solutions & services – Agents support service intelligence and order reconciliation, smoothing post‑sales experiences.

Over time, customers will increasingly encounter products and services marked “Powered by Amethyst,” signalling embedded intelligence that is designed to feel natural rather than experimental.

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Data, people, and governance as force multipliers

Scaling AI has required disciplined work on data quality and integration. Godrej has standardised data definitions across businesses, strengthened integration between legacy and modern systems, and embedded enterprise‑level governance with clear ownership. In some areas, AI‑driven data‑quality interventions are already in place to improve reliability and downstream decision‑making.

People remain a critical part of the equation. Godrej’s AI upskilling strategy is impact‑led, prioritising roles closest to decision‑making and value creation. AI shows up for employees as secure, enterprise‑grade assistants and autonomous agents embedded into daily work through a single Amethyst experience.

So far, the group has delivered over 600,000 hours of structured digital and AI‑related training. The outcome has been faster adoption, higher confidence in responsible AI use, and measurable gains in productive time. The stated goal is to train 100 percent of employees in AI by the end of the financial year, with the larger ambition of making AI fluency a core organisational skill.

Change management is supported by a hub‑and‑spoke model. The central hub sets governance, security, and responsible AI standards. Business units own use cases and outcomes. Over the last four years, Godrej has also invested in grooming more than 140 ‘Digital Champions’ across businesses and corporate functions, who now play a critical role in last‑mile adoption.

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Competitive advantage beyond technology

Balakrishnan sees AI as a source of competitive differentiation, but not because of models or platforms alone. “The differentiation does not come from technology alone,” he says. “It comes from the combination of deep domain expertise across 14 businesses, rich data ecosystems, a unified and responsible AI backbone, enterprise‑scale talent, and strong governance frameworks.” Together, these amplify Godrej’s long‑standing strengths of trust, scale, and long‑term value creation.

He also places Godrej’s strategy within a broader shift in Indian industry. India, he believes, is moving rapidly from AI experimentation to enterprise‑scale adoption. The biggest constraints, however, remain data readiness, skills at scale, and governance clarity. Godrej’s focus on enterprise‑grade, outcome‑driven, and responsible AI reflects that transition and aligns with national initiatives such as the India‑AI Mission.

Looking ahead 24‑36 months, Balakrishnan expects the biggest impact to come from agentic AI orchestrating end‑to‑end workflows, moving the organisation from automation toward enterprise autonomy. Investments are flowing into agentic systems built on Amethyst, industrial AI at the edge, computer vision, predictive analytics, robotics, reusable AI agents, and sustained workforce capability building, he notes.

On a personal note, what excites him most is AI’s ability to “compress the distance between intent and outcome,” giving every associate access to institutional knowledge and intelligent tools. What worries him is misplaced trust. “Without strong governance, ethics, and human oversight, AI can be applied in ways that undermine privacy, fairness, or safety,” he says.