Indian-origin executives in demand to helm C-suite AI strategy globally

Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing, GE Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, MUFG and many others have created roles of chief AI and data officer, which are helmed by India-born engineers

artificial intelligence, People of Indian origin, Technology, Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing, GE Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, MUFG — Imaging: Ajaya Mohanty

6 min read Last Updated : Sep 27 2026 | 9:09 PM IST

Beyond the headline-grabbing rise of Indian-origin CEOs at tech giants like Google and Microsoft, a quieter transformation is underway deeper in the org chart: Enterprises, tech-versed or otherwise, are recruiting this same generation of artificial intelligence leaders to spearhead their own AI strategies.

Siemens AG, the multinational German technology company, last December announced that it will invest $1.1 billion to expand its AI offerings. As part of that investment, the company earlier this year launched the Eigen Engineering Agent, a generative AI-powered assistant built to automate industrial engineering workflows.

India-born Vasi Philomin, executive vice-president and head of data and AI at Siemens, helms the firm’s Physical AI focus at a centre in Seattle.

“There are only three companies that build software for microchips; one of them is Siemens. And all our software development is run by an Indian,” Cedrik Neike, managing director board and chief executive officer Digital Industries, Siemens AG, told Business Standard in an interview when he visited India.

Philomin joined Siemens in July 2025 to accelerate the company’s industrial AI portfolio. Before that he was vice-president of Generative AI at Amazon Web Services, leading AI product strategy.

Siemens is not alone: Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing, GE Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, MUFG and many others have created roles of chief AI and data officer, which are helmed by India-born engineers.

In May, Honeywell Aerospace named Ash Dhupar its chief AI and data officer. Over at Boeing, global AI strategy sits in the hands of two key leaders: Abhi Seth, chief AI and data officer, and Vishwajeet Uddanwadiker, chief AI and autonomy Officer.

R Gopalakrishnan, coauthor of The Made in India Manager and a former board member of Tata Sons, attributes the rise of Indian-origin talent to a meritocratic system that promotes exceptional talent and Indians’ ability to solve problems — a skill shaped by growing up in an environment where overcoming everyday challenges is part of life.

“Whether it’s the tech or non-tech space, you see the talent budding in certain fields which are of high profile. The field is of high profile, not the Indian. So in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the tech space, the digital space, now it’s the AI space,” he said.

“You also have to be aware that AI is now part of tech and non-tech firms. While the skillsets required are different, the worlds of tech and non-tech are merging. The distinction between technology and traditional industries is steadily blurring, with AI and digital technologies becoming enablers across sectors such as automotive, manufacturing, consumer goods and advertising,” said Gopalakrishnan.

The choice of enterprises is as deliberate as the choice of leaders. Siemens, Honeywell and Cognizant are no coincidence — they sit at what Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, partner at management consulting firm Catalincs and former chairman of Cognizant India, calls the leading edge of AI’s evolution.

“These guys are at the next stage. If you look at the progression, it's machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI and then physical AI,” he says. “So, if you look at that continuum, these are all at a fairly high spectrum.” In short, Siemens and Honeywell aren’t appointing chief AI officers to chase Silicon Valley — they are conquering AI’s next, harder frontier: Physical AI. Here, algorithms do not just process text or code; they must navigate jet engines, factory floors and hospital wards.

This validation of Indian talent at the forefront of AI is backed by the 2025 ghSMART CEO Genome Research report, published in partnership with Newsweek magazine. The study, by global leadership advisory firm ghSMART, explores the ascent of Indian-origin corporate bosses through four core leadership traits.

The report said that Indian-origin executives are more than five times more likely to take calculated risks, nearly six times more likely to embrace challenges and three times more likely to demonstrate resilience and process orientation — traits essential for leading through complexity and change.

Gopalakrishnan believes that constant relearning is a basic requirement in AI tech today — not a unique advantage. The Indian manager’s talent edge lies in “lean” thinking.

Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder and executive chairman of Everest Group, a global research and advisory firm, argues that while AI and ML aren’t new, the advent of Generative AI — and its potential to disrupt every aspect of an enterprise — has made dedicated chief AI Officers indispensable.

“At the [C-suite] level you are looking for an understanding of the technical issues; often this is backed up with an engineering background and direct experience with AI and related technologies. This is coupled with domain experience in the recent industry and demonstrated leadership skills. This skill set is not dissimilar to what they look for in a chief technology officer and often the AI role is the old CTO role renamed,” he added.

Ramamoorthy, of Catalincs, highlighted two aspects of this shift. “I think mathematics is the new engineering. Most of these chief AI Officers have grown through data and analytics roles, with exposure to business transformation. The true value of AI in an enterprise is unlocked only when it is contextualised within industry frameworks and operational workflows. A Chief AI Officer therefore has to touch everything that the chief information officer (CIO) or CTO owns,” he said.

Ramamoorthy had a question: Whom do chief AI officers report to? “The real question is whether the role is a copilot to the CIO or whether the CIO role itself gets subsumed, with AI embedded from start to end in every business process. Is the chief AI officer there to reimagine technology investment and business processes, almost like ‘Intel Inside’? And ultimately, does the role report to the CEO or the CIO? That is the real question.”