Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd's group chief executive, Anish Shah, is shifting his focus to deploying artificial intelligence, as the conglomerate closed its fifth year under his leadership with double-digit profit growth.
The Mumbai-based company has crafted a strategy to increase revenue, which surged 26% year-on-year to ₹1.98 trillion in 2025-26, by using AI to enhance the service experience, improve marketing efficiency, and shorten the time-to-market for new products.
Revenue surge was powered by a 20% on-year jump in sports utility vehicle (SUV) volumes to over 660,000 units, dethroning rival Hyundai Motor India from the second position, while net profit rose 32% on-year to ₹18,621 crore, further supported by growth across its business segments and a reduction in loss-making assets overseas.
Its real estate and logistics business, Mahindra Lifespaces and Mahindra Logistics, reported a 50% rise in profit after tax, while its automobile segment—the largest contributor—posted 33% profit growth. Tech Mahindra Ltd, India's fifth-largest IT services company, ended the fiscal year with a 7% rise in net profit.
Now, M&M wants to improve efficiencies to further boost revenue while reducing costs and turnaround time.
“Over the past few months, I have spent an hour a day on AI, one hour every day. Because this is something that has the ability to transform all our businesses, and we are therefore putting a tremendous amount of effort into it,” Shah told reporters in Mumbai.
“If we want to lead the industry, we have to be a technology leader in that industry. The foundation is important, and we did spend some time building that foundation,” Shah added.
The company’s share on Tuesday jumped 3.7% during trading hours when the results were announced, compared with a 0.6% gain in the Nifty Auto.
AI focus
The conglomerate is doubling down on AI as it prepares for a product offensive over the next five years—16 new launches in the SUV space, including 10 internal combustion vehicles and six electric vehicles by 2031.
While the 56-year-old CEO did not lay out an investment plan to build AI capabilities, he noted that this will be done across all businesses through process improvements.
In the automotive industry, it will focus on key areas, including the use of AI in manufacturing, AI-assisted service, AI for marketing, and simulations for product development.
Through these efforts, it expects to generate more than ₹4,100 crore in revenue share and reduce the time-to-market for new products by at least 10%.
In financial services, the company will use AI to aid customer acquisition and improve decision-making when selecting customer profiles. It will also focus on call centre automation.
The comments come as Shah completes five years at the helm of the group. He joined the group in August 2014 as president of group special projects from GE Capital and was elevated to the position of group CEO and managing director in April 2021, taking over from former CEO and MD Pawan Goenka. Shah was reappointed as group CEO and MD until 2030.
Growth foundation
The Mahindra group is also investing in expanding capacity to increase volumes to meet demand. It plans to end the current fiscal year with 816,000 units-per-year capacity for its SUVs, up from 774,000.
One of the key highlights for the company over the last five years has been the exit from international operations, which were not profitable, in a bid to cut losses and focus on areas that were helping the group grow.
Exits from international subsidiaries and associate companies in Japan, Finland and Sri Lanka in 2025-26 have narrowed the list of loss-making foreign firms, with savings of about ₹313 crore, or 2.2% of its consolidated profit of ₹14,073 crore as of 31 March 2025.
Shah, during his presentation on Tuesday, highlighted that the company has maintained its stated guidance of 18-20% return on equity, which has remained in that range since 2022-23.
When asked about the journey with the company over the last five years, Shah noted that there are several opportunities for growth in the future, even as the time presents volatilities.
“We are positioned well today to take advantage of the opportunity in the world. Because of the teams we have, because of the culture we have, the strength we have in all our businesses, and that's what you're seeing reflected in our results. So, given all of that, it has been an absolute wonder,” Shah said.