Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson, HCL Technologies, said India’s technology industry must move beyond the scale-driven model that powered its rise over the past few decades, as artificial intelligence changes how value is created.

At the India AI Impact Summit, Malhotra said, “For decades, India’s technology growth followed a simple question. Scale drove revenue. As delivery expanded, so did output, influence, and global credibility,” she said. That model, she added, became central to India’s export story. But AI is now reshaping that equation. “AI is reshaping that equation, shifting us from scale-led growth to intelligence-led growth. The future will not be built by doing more of the same, but by reimagining how value is created.”

She described AI as having a dual impact on business and the economy. “It is both deflationary and expansive. It reduces cost, time, and effort through automation, while simultaneously unlocking new markets, industries, and possibilities.”

As knowledge becomes widely accessible and programmable, she said, the basis of competitive advantage will shift. “As knowledge becomes commoditised, differentiation shifts. The real question is not whether disruption will come, but whether we will lead it.” She added that HCLTech intends to lead that shift.

Malhotra argued that India must transition from being largely a services-led technology economy to one built around intellectual property. “Services scale with effort. IP scales infinitely.” In the AI economy, she said, value will accrue to companies and countries that build and own platforms, models and products. “In the AI economy, value accrues to those who build and own platforms, models, and products, not just those who deploy them.”

She described intellectual property as critical for long-term competitiveness. “IP compounds. It strengthens competitiveness, anchors strategic autonomy, and ensures long-term economic resilience.”

According to Malhotra, the transition requires moving from adopting global technologies to building domestic capabilities. “Deployment matters. Ownership transforms.” She also said computing should be treated as digital public infrastructure so that startups, universities and enterprises have broader access. “When computing is accessible, innovation decentralises. When innovation decentralises, IP multiplies.”

How AI is Ishan Kishan—the T20 analogy

Explaining how organisations should respond to AI, Malhotra referred to Ishan Kishan’s 77 off 40 balls in a recent T20 match in Colombo. When a power hitter begins clearing boundaries, she said, the captain does not remove fielders but adjusts the field.

“AI is the power hitter. It is clearing boundaries that used to require entire teams,” she said. “Our job is to set the field, to position our nation where the ball is going, not where it was.”

She said AI does not remove the need for leadership but raises new governance questions. “The real question is not what AI can do, but how responsibly we will deploy it, how inclusively we will scale it, and how wisely we will govern it.”

“The hum of AI will define this decade,” she added. “But what the world would remember for centuries is the leadership that shaped it, responsibly, wisely, and with clarity.”