AI is no fad but a business reality; will create more jobs: Industry leaders at Sampadyam summit

Kochi: Artificial Intelligence is moving beyond chatbots and research laboratories to transform factory floors, agricultural machinery and business operations, industry leaders said at the Malayala Manorama Sampadyam Kerala Business Summit 2026, urging enterprises to focus on practical applications rather than the hype surrounding the technology.

During a panel discussion moderated by Malayala Manorama Special Correspondent Manoj Mathew, Antony Cherukara, CEO of VST Tillers Tractors Ltd, and Arun Raj, co-founder and COO of Prevalent AI, discussed how businesses could use AI to improve efficiency, cut costs and gain a competitive edge.

The speakers argued that as advanced AI models and autonomous agents become widely available, the real advantage will come from applying them to a company’s proprietary data and specific business needs.

“Frontier models and autonomous agents are becoming commoditised,” Cherukara said. “Commoditisation does not give you a sustainable competitive edge. What gives you an edge is a contextual workbench.”

For VST Tillers, this means developing affordable, reliable machinery for India’s small and marginal farmers, many of whom cultivate less than two acres and earn around ₹6,000 to ₹7,000 a month.

“All the AI we design must serve that customer segment. If I build advanced intelligence that produces expensive machines, it fails my business context,” he said.

Raj said businesses could derive greater value by connecting information scattered across enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain systems.

“The world does not need another ChatGPT or Claude,” he said, explaining how AI could combine customer behaviour with local weather patterns to forecast demand or predict equipment failures before the peak harvest season.

₹1 lakh experiment delivers ₹1 cr savings
Cherukara illustrated how AI adoption need not begin with massive investments, citing VST’s experience in using the technology to standardise engineering processes.

The company’s AI journey gained momentum after it partnered with a US manufacturer seven years ago on drivetrain engineering for electric autonomous tractors used in California vineyards. VST subsequently adapted computer vision and shape-recognition technologies for its operations in India.

Working with Indian startup Shapesense, the company addressed engineering standardisation across more than 7,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and 150 tractor and tiller models.

“We started small. We spent just ₹1 lakh on our first proof-of-concept to standardise a single component,” Cherukara said. “That exercise alone saved us over ₹1 cr in expenses in its first year. That success gave us the mandate to bring AI to the board level.”

VST is now establishing a ₹100-cr global technology centre where AI will systematically guide product design and research and development decisions.

AI disruption will create new jobs, speakers say
Addressing concerns over white-collar job losses and automation, Mathew asked how millions of young graduates entering the workforce could prepare for the changes.

Cherukara acknowledged the disruption but argued that employment would evolve alongside economic growth.

“Job loss is transitionary,” he said, drawing parallels with the shift from manual lead typesetting to digital layout at Malayala Manorama and the replacement of neighbourhood tailoring shops by ready-made garment businesses.

He said workers had adapted to previous technological shifts by moving into new ecosystems and higher-paying roles. He added that AI could accelerate the time taken for the global economy to double from 25 years to 10-12 years.

Reskilling would be essential but economic expansion would generate new employment opportunities, he said.

Raj, a civil engineer who moved into the software industry, pointed to the physical infrastructure required to support AI.

“Building out global AI infrastructure requires trillions of dollars in capital expenditure. Who builds the data centres, the power grids, the cooling facilities? Civil engineers, mechanical engineers, steel, and cement workers. Core engineering and blue-collar disciplines will see a massive revival,” he said.

A practical AI playbook for small businesses
For Kerala’s entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises, Raj recommended a three-step approach: develop basic AI fluency through prompt-engineering training and simple certifications; protect confidential business information by avoiding its exposure to public AI models and using enterprise-grade safeguards; and integrate existing AI tools rather than spending heavily on developing proprietary models.

Businesses can connect existing workflows to open-source or hosted application programming interfaces (APIs), he said, with some solutions costing as little as ₹2,000-₹3,000 a month.

“Start with a clear problem statement, prove the concept cheaply, and iterate,” Cherukara said. “AI is a parallel intelligence. Ignoring it is the only guaranteed way to be left behind.”