Former Tech Mahindra India biz head Mitra quits to set up AI startup

"We are going to focus on value proposition. Our firm will start operations within a quarter," Mitra, who moved out of Tech Mahindra earlier this month, Mitra said

Former Tech Mahindra India business head Jagdish Mitra has set up an AI startup with a proposed initial investment of Rs 65-80 crore.

The startup is likely to commence operations in the next three months.

"We will start going to customers in 8-12 months. Initially, we will invest USD 8-10 million," Mitra -- one of the contenders for the post of Tech Mahindra CEO position after CP Gurnani resigned -- told PTI.

"Cost arbitrage factor, driven by manpower, is going to be seriously impacted. It will be driven by values. We need to move from a cost-driven proposition to a value-driven proposition.

"We are going to focus on value proposition. Our firm will start operations within a quarter," Mitra, who moved out of Tech Mahindra earlier this month, said.

Without disclosing the name of the company, Mitra said the firm will focus on manufacturing, retail, and sportstech and operate both from the US as well as India.

"Everyone will not develop chatGPT models. It will cost a huge amount of money. Our focus will be on short language models and delivering value in factory output.

"There should be a share in the value of outcome that the AI model achieves in factory output. The future of the tech industry is not about the cost of resources developing AI models but it will have to be based on the value it delivers," Mitra said.

He said his firm will look at using AI for enhancing productivity.

"I have no issue if a coder is using AI. I don't want to challenge his intellect but look at enhancing productivity. Every industry will use AI for value addition and improve productivity. My go-to market strategy will be with SAAS (software as a service) and firms that have less than USD 2 billion revenue," Mitra said.