Global companies are witnessing a significant acceleration in patent creation at their Indian technology hubs as artificial intelligence tools transform work processes. According to executives from Publicis Groupe's Epsilon, Kimberly-Clark, and Daimler Truck who spoke to Reuters, automation is helping staff move beyond routine tasks to focus on more complex work and build proprietary technology. Radhakrishnan Kodakkal, head of Daimler Truck Innovation Center India, confirmed that "the number of IPs, the patents and the trade secrets created by (GCCs in India) is already increasing" and expects AI to further accelerate this trend. This development underscores India's growing role as an innovation base even as AI reshapes traditional work processes.
As reported by Capgemini, the company's sales pipeline has experienced substantial growth driven by AI-related opportunities. Chief Technology Officer Franck Greverie announced at the Capital Markets Day that the group's pipeline of business opportunities already exceeds $12 billion, representing an explosion of opportunities over recent months. This pipeline growth addresses investor concerns about AI potentially reducing demand for outside technology contractors by automating coding and other services. The broader push was visible in the group's sales pipeline, with Reuters reporting that the company has seen an explosion of business opportunities over the last few months. For an IT services firm, highlighting a pipeline above $12 billion is Capgemini's way of arguing there's real demand to schedule and staff, even if AI makes some tasks faster.
India's technology hubs have demonstrated remarkable growth, with Indian GCCs generating about $98.4 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year, hitting industry projections four years ahead of schedule, according to a report by Nasscom and consultancy Zinnov. A separate Nasscom report showed patent filings in India rose 11.3% to over 90,000 in fiscal 2024, with nearly half from multinational companies. This performance demonstrates that India's large AI-skilled workforce and cost advantages continue to draw investment despite global uncertainty about AI's impact on traditional back-office operations. The country's tech hubs have successfully outgrown their low-cost back-office origins to become innovation centres for global firms.
According to OpenAI's vice president of global business Nate Harbacek, companies are moving from individual use and amazement to real enterprise deployment and scale, where entire workflows are being re-architected. Capgemini, as a founding member of OpenAI's Frontier Alliance, is specifically targeting demand for sovereign artificial intelligence systems built to meet local data, regulatory and hosting requirements. This approach aligns with growing corporate and government demands for more control over critical systems, as companies seek to re-architect entire workflows rather than just individual applications. The firm expects more of that demand to turn into long-running services work as projects move from pilots to enterprise rollouts.
