Jio 5G Users Aged 18–25 Get Free Access to Google Gemini AI Pro Plan

Reliance Jio has partnered with Google to offer eligible users 18 months of free access to the Gemini 2.5 Pro AI plan—worth ₹35,100—starting October 30, 2025. This offer is currently available to Jio 5G users aged 18–25 on unlimited plans.

What’s Included in the Gemini AI Pro Plan

• Gemini 2.5 Pro model: Google's flagship AI with enhanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities.
• AI image and video generation: Create visuals by describing ideas—ideal for students, creators, and developers.
• NotebookLM: AI-powered research and writing assistant with 5× higher usage limits.
• 2 TB Google Cloud storage: For photos, documents, and collaborative work.
• AI integration in Google Workspace: Use Gemini directly inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more.
• AI image editing tools: Transform photos into creative assets using Gemini’s latest image update.

Who’s Eligible and How to Claim

• Eligibility: Jio 5G users aged 18–25 subscribed to Unlimited 5G plans.
• Claim Process:
  • Open the MyJio app.
  • Look for the Google Gemini Offer banner.
  • Follow the steps to activate your free 18-month subscription.

Strategic Impact

• Follows similar AI democratization efforts like ChatGPT Go being offered free in India from November 4, 2025.
• Airtel previously partnered with Perplexity AI for a one-year free access plan.
• Google Cloud is also partnering with Reliance Intelligence to expand enterprise AI adoption across India.

Why It Matters

This partnership is a major step in making premium AI tools accessible to India’s youth and 5G user base. It blends Reliance’s massive reach with Google’s cutting-edge AI, potentially reshaping how millions engage with productivity, creativity, and research tools.

Adobe Unveils Firefly Foundry to Help Brands Build Custom Generative AI Models on Their IP

At Adobe MAX — the world’s largest creativity conference—Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced Adobe Firefly Foundry, which enables businesses to work directly with Adobe and create tailored generative AI models that are unique to their brand. Trained on entire catalogs of existing IP, these proprietary Adobe Firefly Foundry models are deeply tuned and can be built on top of commercially safe Adobe Firefly models. This unlocks the value of AI, helping teams scale on-brand content production, create new customer experiences and extend their IP. With Firefly as the anchor, Adobe Firefly Foundry models can support all major asset types including image, video, audio, vector and 3D—accelerating content delivery for brand campaigns, performance marketing, media production workflows and more.

Adobe continues to be the partner of choice for businesses to confidently move from AI experimentation to value realization, delivering a unique approach to AI that is anchored in transparency, safety and creative precision. Adobe Firefly Foundry takes this a step further, providing businesses with a team of Adobe experts to collaborate on practical AI solutions and impactful use cases.

“Adobe Firefly Foundry builds on years of Adobe innovation and expertise, spanning generative AI models for image, video, audio, vector and 3D, to help businesses solve today’s most complex content and media production challenges,” said Hannah Elsakr, vice president, GenAI New Business Ventures at Adobe. “Businesses can access Adobe’s robust AI training infrastructure, research and expertise to define bespoke AI models—surfaced through Adobe solutions such as GenStudio and Creative Cloud to help teams scale on-brand content experiences. Adobe has been working with tech-forward innovators like Walt Disney Imagineering to drive new levels of customer engagement with Adobe Firefly Foundry.”

Businesses see the potential in using generative AI to increase production of impactful content experiences and meet rising demands across digital channels. In an Adobe study, marketers anticipate content demands will grow by more than 5x over the next two years—making it a challenge to keep their brands top-of-mind with consumers. In many industries, decades of brand, product and franchise building have added complexity to quality and on-brand content production work. Teams need to ensure every new asset preserves the look and feel of their product portfolio, creative direction and design aesthetic. Adobe Firefly Foundry takes on the heavy lifting for businesses, providing a team of Adobe experts that handle AI model training, along with tools for managing and deploying their customized Adobe Firefly Foundry models.

Adobe Firefly Foundry allows businesses to quickly see value through capabilities that include:

• Adobe Firefly Foundry models: Adobe will work with businesses to create unique generative AI models that are safely trained on their existing IP. Adobe’s comprehensive AI approach—which includes commercially safe Firefly generative AI models across image, video, audio, vector and 3D—can enable teams to generate multimodal outputs that are pixel-perfect, brand-protected and ready for external use.
• Seamless implementation: Adobe also provides a single destination for businesses to easily manage and deploy their Adobe Firefly Foundry model. Teams will have an application to orchestrate the implementation process, including testing generated outputs and managing model access throughout their organization. Adobe Firefly Foundry models are also grounded in Adobe’s responsible AI principles, ensuring ethical deployment across business workflows.
• Co-innovation: Embedded Adobe experts—including applied AI/ML scientists and forward-deployed engineers—will co-innovate with businesses to design and deploy high-impact use cases that drive growth. This includes creating tailored solutions for the unique needs of the organization, as well as strategic guidance on reimagining creative workflows. This will enable businesses to jointly develop impactful AI solutions with Adobe, where teams can accelerate time-to-value and deliver measurable ROI.

As part of this announcement, the team from Invoke—a generative media solution for creative production—has joined the Adobe Firefly Foundry team to help build the future of AI-powered creative workflows for businesses.

India Tightens IT Rules to Combat Deepfakes and AI Misinformation

The Indian government has proposed significant amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, aimed at curbing the misuse of deepfakes and generative AI content. Here's a breakdown of the key changes:

New IT Rules Targeting Deepfakes (2025 Draft Amendments)

• Definition Introduced
  Synthetically Generated Information: Defined as content created, altered, or modified using computer tools to appear real.
• Mandatory Labelling
  Platforms with over 5 million users (like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram) must:
  • Ask users to declare if uploaded content is synthetic.
  • Take reasonable steps to verify these claims.
  • Clearly label synthetic content with visible or audible markers.
  • For videos: markers must cover at least 10% of the screen.
  • For audio: markers must be present in the first 10% of the clip.
  • These markers cannot be removed or altered.
• Legal Protections
  Platforms acting in good faith to remove or block synthetic content will receive legal protection.
• Takedown Oversight
  Only senior officers (Joint Secretary or above) can issue takedown orders.
  All takedown actions will undergo monthly review by a Secretary-level officer to ensure legality and proportionality.
• Timeline & Feedback
  Draft rules were released on October 22, 2025.
  Public feedback is open until November 6, 2025.
  Final rules are expected to take effect from November 1, 2025.

India’s Clodura.AI Debuts GenAI GTM Platform to Streamline Sales Tech for Global Enterprises

Clodura.AI, an Indian GenAI SaaS company, has launched what it calls the country’s first GenAI-powered Go-to-Market (GTM) platform. Built in India and designed for global markets, the platform brings together enrichment, verification, buyer intelligence, intent signals, AI-led outreach, and calling into a single interface, aimed at reducing complexity and costs for sales teams.

Revenue and GTM teams worldwide are plagued by a universal pain: excessive, fragmented stacks of sales technology. Sales reps juggle multiple data sources, verifiers, engagement tools, and dialers, wasting time, inflating budgets, and lowering productivity. For years, the playbook has been predictable. Teams buy a single-database vendor like ZoomInfo or Apollo.io, then quickly realize one source is not enough. They add a verifier, add an outreach platform like Outreach, a call dialer and a Call Analysis tools such as Gong. Suddenly, the tech stack becomes six vendors deep, budgets spiral, and SDRs keep chasing unverified leads.

Sales professionals often rely on multiple vendors for databases, verification, engagement, and dialers. This fragmented approach increases costs, slows outreach, and adds layers of inefficiency. Clodura.AI’s unified platform seeks to address this challenge by offering an integrated system that connects with 50+ email and 20+ phone providers in real time, ensuring verified and accurate contacts.

AI agents built into the platform automate routine tasks such as drafting emails, sequencing campaigns, and follow-ups, freeing up sales representatives to focus on conversations that move deals forward.

Large enterprises and multinationals like Wipro, Reliance, PhonePe, ITC, Bosch, EY, Naukri, and Times Group have consolidated their GTM stacks with Clodura.AI, reporting stronger contact accuracy, improved call connect rates, speedier campaigns, and lower GTM costs.

“Fragmented GTM stacks slow growth, increase costs, and frustrate teams,” said Kapil Khangaonkar, Founder & CEO of Clodura.AI. “We solve this by uniting data, verification, intelligence, engagement, and closure in one Indian-built platform engineered for global scale. Clodura empowers teams to work smarter, faster, and with predictable outcomes.”

Abhay Nawathey, CTO of Clodura.AI, added: “Data ages, verification cannot be static, and reps should not waste hours on busywork. Our AI platform seamlessly integrates multiple providers and automates follow-up sequences to create productive conversations.”

“Clodura.AI exemplifies India’s AI leadership by solving a universal GTM pain point with innovation that scales globally”, said Somshubhro Pal Choudhury, Co-Founder & Partner at Bharat Innovation Fund.

India’s SaaS ecosystem has been steadily moving beyond its outsourcing legacy to building global products. Clodura.AI’s platform highlights this shift, positioning Indian-built technology as a credible alternative in the global GTM software space.

OnFinance AI Secures $4.2M Pre-Series A to Accelerate AI-Driven BFSI Compliance Solutions

• The investment will fuel hiring, BFSI-specific LLM innovation, and drive expansion to MENA and the US

OnFinance AI, the generative AI platform purpose-built for the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector, has raised $4.2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by Peak XV’s Surge, with participation from prominent investors and operators including Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat from OpenAI, Groww Founders’ Fund, MarsShot VC (Razorpay Founders’ Fund), Climber Capital, along with existing investors Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Silverneedle Ventures (SNV).

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Bengaluru with an additional office in Mumbai, OnFinance AI was created by a team of BFSI and AI domain experts to transform how financial institutions approach compliance, risk, and audit. Regulators in India publish thousands of pages of new circulars and guidelines every year, and compliance teams can spend days manually interpreting and implementing them. This slows institutions down and creates an unsustainable risk of costly errors.

OnFinance AI’s flagship platform, ComplianceOS, is powered by NeoGPT, India’s first BFSI-specific large language model, fine-tuned on more than 300 million tokens of regulatory data across SEBI, RBI, IRDAI, and AMFI publications. ComplianceOS brings automation and intelligence into the heart of compliance by hosting a suite of more than 70 regulatory AI agents that can interpret regulations, assign tasks, track deadlines, and generate audit-ready evidence in real time. Institutions using ComplianceOS already save over 100 hours of manual effort per regulatory circular, cutting processes that once took weeks down to minutes.

Alongside ComplianceOS, the company also offers its InvestigativeOS platform, which delivers deeper, specialized compliance and risk capabilities. These include KYC compliance, CSCRF (cyber security and resilience framework) compliance, accessibility compliance mandated under SEBI’s PwD rules, vendor risk assessment, and market abuse compliance AI for surveillance of insider trading, front-running, and manipulative behaviors. Together, these platforms give BFSI institutions an end-to-end compliance infrastructure that is proactive, auditable, and regulator-ready by design.

OnFinance AI is already trusted by leading financial institutions in India, including BSE Limited, Kotak Mutual Fund, Nippon India Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Capital Digital, HDFC Securities, and many more BFSI institutions who use its systems to streamline compliance with major regulators. With this funding, the company will expand its proprietary BFSI-focused AI models, accelerate R&D and hiring in engineering and AI research, and extend its reach to new international markets. Expansion into MENA and the U.S. is already underway, with pilots in progress and a roadmap to adapt the platform to global regulatory regimes such as the SEC, OCC, and Federal Reserve.

“Our mission is to turn regulatory complexity into clarity for banks and financial institutions,” said Anuj Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO of OnFinance AI. “This funding validates the urgent need for innovation in compliance. With the support of Peak XV and our other investors, we will accelerate BFSI-specific AI solutions that deliver unmatched clarity, speed, and trust.”

Priyesh Srivastava, Co-Founder & CTO, added: “Generic AI cannot solve BFSI’s problems. With NeoGPT and ComplianceOS, we are already delivering regulator-grade outcomes that traditional processes and generic models cannot match. This capital will allow us to double down on research, expand internationally, and continue pioneering agentic AI for compliance and risk.”

About OnFinance AI: OnFinance AI is an enterprise AI company founded in 2023 and based in Bengaluru, India. The company develops generative AI-powered “agentic” systems for the BFSI sector, focusing on regulatory compliance, risk management, and audit automation[1]. Its flagship ComplianceOS platform – powered by the proprietary NeoGPT LLM – hosts a suite of 70+ intelligent agents that help banks, insurance companies, asset managers, and other financial institutions interpret regulations, monitor compliance obligations, and streamline internal processes.

By leveraging fine-tuned AI models and deep financial domain data, OnFinance AI delivers solutions that transform manual, time-consuming compliance workflows into automated, efficient processes. The company’s team combines experience in finance, regulation, and technology (including alumni of BITS Pilani and ex-industry professionals from global banks) to build AI tools that are secure, reliable, and tailored to real-world BFSI needs. OnFinance AI’s mission is to provide financial institutions with clarity and confidence in compliance, enabling them to focus on innovation and growth.

For more information, visit www.onfinance.ai.

Qualcomm Taps Adobe GenStudio to Optimize Content Supply Chain with Generative AI

• Qualcomm is expanding its relationship with Adobe to accelerate content creation workflows with generative AI, from resizing and localizing marketing assets to creating variations for different audiences. 
• Applications in Adobe GenStudio—Adobe’s end to end content supply chain solution—including GenStudio for Performance Marketing, Firefly, Express, Experience Manager and Workfront are enabling Qualcomm to efficiently scale personalized, on-brand marketing campaigns

Today, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced that Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq:QCOM) has selected Adobe GenStudio to accelerate its content supply chain with generative AI. As Qualcomm expands its leadership in intelligent computing, the mandate for its marketers has grown. Teams are having to orchestrate highly tailored experiences to accelerate deal closure, in a crowded environment where every digital channel is demanding more content. With Adobe GenStudio, Qualcomm can optimize its entire content supply chain to meet this demand, leveraging AI to power the production, activation and measurement of personalized experiences. This includes making it more efficient to produce and customize the thousands of assets needed every week to deliver and scale impactful campaigns—unlocking productivity across the marketing organization.

“Qualcomm has delivered technology breakthroughs that have reshaped industries for over 40 years, and we are in a unique position to power the next era of AI transformation,” said Don McGuire, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. “To meet this moment, we’re rethinking how creativity scales - streamlining the content creation process from ideation to execution. Adobe GenStudio will enable our teams to produce high-quality, personalized assets faster and more efficiently, unlocking new levels of productivity and creative impact across the marketing organization.”

“Achieving personalization at scale is a major growth lever for businesses, but inefficient content supply chains often slow down an organization’s ability to customize experiences across audiences,” said Varun Parmar, general manager, Adobe GenStudio and Firefly Enterprise. “Adobe GenStudio uniquely brings together AI, creativity and marketing solutions for Qualcomm to overcome these roadblocks, dramatically increasing output while maintaining a high bar for quality.”

Qualcomm is leveraging applications within Adobe GenStudio including:

Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing: Effectively scaling content creation with generative AI requires that every new asset is on-brand, high-quality and backed with performance insights for teams to optimize creative. This is enabled through GenStudio for Performance Marketing, a generative AI-first application that Qualcomm will use to create, resize and translate content for different marketing channels. Marketers can quickly create compelling image and video assets, anchored in brand guidelines defined by their creative counterparts. Additionally, attribute-level performance insights enable teams to adjust creative elements based on target KPIs.

Adobe Express: Across the Qualcomm marketing organization, Express will act as a self-service tool that allows teams to create and customize assets on the fly. It complements Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing, with approved brand guidelines (templates, colors, fonts) that give more individuals the confidence to produce content for their channels. It will enable the social and regional teams, for instance, to quickly create assets for time-sensitive campaigns.

Adobe Firefly: Qualcomm is piloting use cases with Firefly—a commercially safe family of AI models—to meet the rising demand for content across digital channels. This includes training Firefly on existing IP, enabling teams to confidently generate on-brand imagery for marketing assets while also maintaining creative control.

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM):

Qualcomm is also expanding its use of AEM—a content management system—and will experiment with activating different content experiences via the ‘Generate Variations’ capability. For digital channels such as the website, teams can use simple text prompts to test different creative and messaging across target personas.

These new applications extend the value of Qualcomm’s existing Adobe investment. Content creation workflows are anchored in Adobe Workfront for instance, the work management application that streamlines the process of planning, assigning and executing work across marketing and creative teams. And with Marketo—the leading marketing automation platform—teams can pull in insights to align content experiences with customer behaviors and drive better targeting. By partnering with Adobe to optimize its content supply chain, Qualcomm is demonstrating how marketers can drive the business forward in today’s crowded, attention-based economy.

To learn more about how Qualcomm is partnering with Adobe to deliver great customer experiences, visit here.

About Adobe GenStudio

Adobe GenStudio transforms the enterprise content supply chain with the power of AI. Learn more here.

AI Designs Viruses That Kill Bacteria—A New Frontier in Synthetic Biology

In a stunning leap for synthetic biology, scientists have used artificial intelligence to design viruses that can infect and kill bacteria—ushering in a new era of programmable life forms and potentially revolutionizing medicine.

Researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute trained an AI model named Evo on over 2 million bacteriophage genomes. The goal? To teach the system how nature builds viruses that target bacteria. Evo didn’t just remix existing genetic material—it generated 302 entirely new viral genomes, many of which had never existed in nature.

Of those, 16 assembled into fully functional viruses that successfully infected and destroyed E. coli bacteria in lab tests. This marks the first time AI has been used to design complete, working viruses from scratch.

“We’re not just accelerating evolution—we’re directing it,” said one of the lead researchers. “This opens the door to custom-built phages that could target antibiotic-resistant bacteria with surgical precision.”

Why This Matters

• Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, with superbugs killing over a million people annually.
• Phage therapy, which uses viruses to kill bacteria, has long been seen as a promising alternative—but finding the right phage is slow and unpredictable.
• AI could dramatically speed up the discovery and design of targeted phages, potentially enabling personalized treatments for infections.

The Ethical Frontier

While the study focused solely on bacteriophages and excluded viruses that infect humans, the implications are profound. Experts warn that AI-designed viruses could behave unpredictably in complex ecosystems. There are also concerns about biosecurity and the potential misuse of such technology.

“We need robust oversight and ethical frameworks,” said a bioethicist not involved in the study. “This is powerful tech, and with great power comes great responsibility.”

What’s Next?

• The team plans to expand Evo’s capabilities to design phages for other bacterial strains, including those responsible for hospital-acquired infections.
• There’s growing interest in using AI to design viruses for agriculture, microbiome engineering, and environmental cleanup.

This breakthrough isn’t just about killing bacteria—it’s about reimagining what life can be. With AI as a co-creator, biology may no longer be bound by the slow march of evolution. It’s entering the age of intelligent design.

Altos India Unveils Next-Gen AI Server to Accelerate Enterprise Transformation

Altos India, a subsidiary of Acer Inc., today announced the launch of its latest AI server, Altos BrainSphere™ R680 F7, designed to power the next wave of enterprise AI deployments across India. The new server will be officially available for shipment from September and is engineered to meet the surging demand from enterprises, government, education, and healthcare sectors for high-performance, scalable, and future-ready AI infrastructure.

The Altos BrainSphere™ R680 F7 supports up to 8 NVIDIA GPUs, including RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition, H200 NVL, and L40S, along with 6th-generation Intel Xeon processors and DDR5 memory. Its flexible PCIe architecture allows seamless integration of diverse NVIDIA accelerated computing technologies, making it ideal for AI inference, AI model optimization, data analytics, industrial AI, virtualization, visual compute, as well as specialized applications such as AI medical imaging, smart security, and personalized recommendations. This makes it a powerful platform for rapidly building diversified AI workload environments.

The server can also be paired with Altos aiWorks, an AI computing platform that integrates hardware and software resources to simplify deployment, accelerate time-to-market, and support hybrid workload capabilities.

Altos aiWorks now includes advanced functionalities such as model deployment, job scheduling, resource monitoring, inference process management, and comes preloaded with multiple mainstream AI frameworks and models. It also integrates NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, including NIM microservices, enabling enterprises to build scalable, visualized, open, and highly available AI environments tailored to their business needs.

“The Altos BrainSphere™ R680 F7 represents a significant milestone in our mission to bring future-ready AI solutions to Indian enterprises,” said Harish Kohli, President and Managing Director, Acer India. “As AI adoption accelerates across industries, organizations are seeking infrastructure that combines scalability, performance, and ease of deployment. With this launch, Altos India is well-positioned to empower businesses, government, and academia with computing solutions that will shape the next phase of India’s digital transformation.”

This launch further strengthens Altos India’s positioning as a trusted partner for enterprise computing, delivering solutions that align with the country’s growing focus on AI-driven innovation and digital-first growth.

From Watts to Words: Google Breaks Down Gemini’s Energy Per Query

Google recently published a detailed technical report revealing the environmental footprint of its Gemini AI apps—marking the first time a major tech company has shared per-query energy, water, and carbon data at this level of granularity.

Key Findings from Google’s Report

• Energy Use per Prompt: A median Gemini text prompt consumes 0.24 watt-hours (Wh)—roughly the same as watching TV for less than 9 seconds.
• Carbon Emissions: Each prompt emits 0.03 grams of CO₂ equivalent (gCO₂e).
• Water Consumption: About 0.26 milliliters per prompt—equivalent to five drops of water.
• Efficiency Gains: Over the past year, Gemini’s energy use per prompt dropped 33x, and its carbon footprint fell 44x, while output quality improved.

How Google Measured It

Google’s methodology goes beyond just counting active chip usage:

• Includes idle machines, cooling systems, and power conversion overhead.
• Tracks full system dynamic power across its data centers.
• Uses Mixture-of-Experts architecture and custom TPUs (like Ironwood) to optimize compute efficiency.

Industry Reactions

While many praised the transparency, some experts raised concerns:

• Critics argue Google may have omitted indirect water usage and relied on market-based carbon offsets, which could understate the true impact.
• Others say the report sets a new benchmark for responsible AI disclosure, even if it’s not perfect.

Oracle to Offer Google’s Gemini Models to Customers, Accelerating Enterprises’ Agentic AI Journeys

• Oracle will collaborate with Google Cloud on various Gemini model integrations across business applications

Oracle and Google Cloud have expanded their partnership to offer customers access to Google’s most advanced AI models, starting with Gemini 2.5, via Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service. Oracle customers can now utilize the latest Gemini models to build AI agents for a wide range of use cases including multimodal understanding, advanced coding and software development tasks, productivity and workflow automation, and research and knowledge retrieval.

Oracle plans to make Google’s entire range of Gemini models available via OCI Generative AI service through new integrations with Vertex AI, including cutting edge models for video, image, speech, and music generation and specialized industry models like MedLM. In the future, Oracle will collaborate with Google Cloud to make Gemini models via Vertex AI available as an option within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, providing customers with a broader choice to enhance workflows in finance, HR, supply chain, sales, service, and marketing. Oracle customers can use their existing Oracle Universal Credits to start leveraging Google’s Gemini models.

“Today, leading enterprises are using Gemini to power AI agents across a range of use cases and industries,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “Now, Oracle customers can access our leading models from within their Oracle environments, making it even easier for them to begin deploying powerful AI agents that can support developers, streamline data integration tasks, and much more.”

Google’s Gemini models excel in enterprise use cases thanks to their ability to ground responses in up-to-date Google Search data for accuracy, large context windows, strong encryption and data privacy policies, and leading reasoning abilities.

“Oracle has been intentional in offering model choice curated for the enterprise, spanning open and proprietary models,” said Clay Magouyrk, president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “The availability of Gemini on OCI Generative AI service highlights our focus on delivering powerful, secure, and cost-effective AI solutions that help customers drive innovation and achieve their business goals.”

Oracle brings leading-edge AI technology close to enterprise data and prioritizes security, adaptability, and scalability. This helps customers across industries apply the right AI technologies, including generative and agentic AI, to the right business scenarios for immediate results. In addition, thousands of AI innovators are leveraging OCI’s cost-effective, purpose-built AI capabilities to run the most demanding AI workloads faster. OCI bare metal GPU instances can power applications for generative AI, natural language processing, computer vision, and recommendation systems.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about Oracle AI
• Learn more about OCI Generative AI
• Learn more about Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
• Learn more about Google Gemini
• Learn more about Google Cloud’s Vertex AI

About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

Cognizant Launches World’s Largest Generative AI Hackathon with 250,000 Employees, Eyes GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS Title

• Cognizant is pursuing a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title attempt for most participants in an online generative AI hackathon

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) today announced it is attempting the largest global vibe coding event, with more than 250,000 employees – from HR and sales to engineering and marketing – registered to start developing ideas and embracing a new era of AI programming. To validate and celebrate the scale of this event, Cognizant is attempting a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for most participants in an online generative AI hackathon, a category that closely mirrors the structure and approach of its vibe coding event.

In the second quarter of this year, AI-generated code developed in collaboration with Cognizant employees increased to nearly 30 percent. Cognizant's vibe coding event kicks off today and will last a week, aiming to capitalize on an important inflection point: as AI-enabled coding increases, human labor is being reimagined, and every employee can play a role in this transformation. In 2023, Cognizant made a $1 billion bet to invest in AI across three years, and since then the company has focused on harnessing the productivity gains of AI to foster high value engagement from talent.

"We're thrilled to be attempting the first and largest vibe coding event, a groundbreaking initiative that underscores our commitment to advancing AI literacy across talent, no matter the technical skill," said Ravi Kumar S., CEO of Cognizant. "Historically, there's been a significant divide between those who had access to technology and those who didn't – but now, technology has been diffused into the hands of people who don't need deep digital skills to access it. This leveling of the playing field is enabling us to unleash new value in the workplace, driving innovation and progress across all backgrounds and expertise."

To support a range of technical and non-technical understanding across more than 330,000 employees, Cognizant partnered with leading vibe coding platforms including Lovable, Windsurf, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, and GitHub Copilot. Upon registration, employees could select which platform to use based on their skill level. Additionally, to speed the rollout of an intuitive and comprehensive resource for employees, Cognizant vibe coded its own internal online hub within a month leading up to the event -- featuring registration, curated learning resources, step-by-step tutorials, and streamlined project submission processes.

"The age of AI has opened incredible opportunities. With Lovable, anyone, not just coders, can turn ideas into reality, instantly creating apps and websites by just talking to AI. This democratization of technology is not just about individual empowerment; it's about driving creativity, innovation, and productivity that was previously unimaginable," said Anton Oskia, CEO and Co-Founder of Lovable. "We're thrilled to support Cognizant's inaugural Vibe Coding Week. Together, we're enabling a new generation of creators and problem-solvers to build anything and along the way, shape a better future."

Cognizant's vibe coding event aims to engage thousands of employees by featuring hands-on workshops, a prompt engineering toolkit, best-practice sessions, an innovation competition, and recognition for outstanding projects. Following the week's end, participants can join the Cognizant Global Vibe Coding Community to continue sharing ideas and advancing solutions within the company and for clients.

"At Windsurf, we've seen firsthand how agentic AI can expand who gets to build software, from developers to designers, analysts, and operators," said Jeff Wang, CEO of Windsurf. "We're proud to partner with Cognizant on Vibe Coding Week and bring that vision to life at a massive scale. This isn't just about AI literacy, it's about unleashing a new kind of creativity across entire teams and diverse backgrounds."

In recent years, Cognizant has committed to advancing AI-powered ingenuity across its talent base. In 2023, the company launched Bluebolt, a grassroots innovation initiative that encourages ideation from all employees. To date, employees have shared more than a half million (528,505) ideas through the Bluebolt innovation platform. Of the ideas shared, more than 80,000 have already been implemented with clients. Additionally, to create a talent pool with the right skills to harness the innovation potential of AI, Cognizant introduced a global training initiative called Synapse, which aims to upskill one million people by 2026.

To learn more about how Cognizant is investing in initiatives that support the next generation of skilled talent, visit the webpage here.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we're improving everyday life.

GenAI Meets SDLC: Tata Elxsi Joins Forces with KAVIA AI to Automate Millions of Lines of Code

Tata Elxsi, a global design and technology services company, today announced a strategic partnership with KAVIA AI, San Francisco based software 3.0 AI-powered platform, redefining software development with enterprise grade AI. Built to handle millions of lines of code and complex backend systems, KAVIA AI automates the entire development lifecycle, from planning and architecture to development, quality assurance, deployment and maintenance.

This collaboration will deploy GenAI-assisted automation across Tata Elxsi’s internal platforms and customer-facing programs, aiming to transform software quality and time-to-market. This joint go-to-market will deliver the power of GenAI for Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) to enterprises across transportation, media, communications, and healthcare where engineering reliability is paramount.

By combining Tata Elxsi’s deep expertise in domain-led engineering from concept to deployment, with KAVIA AI’s cloud-native Workflow Manager Platform, the partnership will enable intelligent automation across every key phase of the SDLC—from requirement planning and architecture design to code creation, testing and deployment.

Nitin Pai, Chief Strategy Officer at Tata Elxsi, said, “GenAI adoption demands more than tools—it requires a trusted partner to pilot, productise and scale development and deployment workflows. Tata Elxsi brings that trust, backed by 25+ years of proprietary expertise in software engineering across complex, regulated industries, and a deep understanding of deploying GenAI with the appropriate industry-specific guardrails. We deliver not just AI automation, but real outcomes that go beyond just efficiency to effectiveness and the ‘shift left’ paradigm that enterprises need to scale GenAI in mission-critical environments.”

Labeeb Ismail, CEO of KAVIA AI, said, “We’re excited to partner with Tata Elxsi, a company that brings the scale, credibility and delivery discipline needed to realise real-world AI adoption in large-scale delivery environments. Our platform is built to be enterprise-ready, and Tata Elxsi’s proven delivery record ensures this technology delivers real outcomes to customers.”

Early deployments are already underway across multiple programs, including SaaS platforms, middleware, embedded systems and device development. These early outcomes validate the potential of GenAI-powered SDLC automation—accelerating software delivery without compromising on quality or compliance.

Tata Communications, AWS Unveil One of India’s Largest AI-Optimized Network Deployments

Tata Communications, a leading global communications technology player, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company, announced that the companies will enable an advanced AI-ready network in India. The strategic collaboration will establish a high-capacity, resilient long-distance network connecting three major AWS infrastructure locations to bolster generative AI adoption and cloud innovation in India.

The collaboration marks one of the India’s largest ever network deployments by Tata Communications in terms of size, scale and bandwidth. AWS has two data centre Regions in India located in Mumbai and Hyderabad, and AWS Direct Connect and AWS Edge Network infrastructure in Chennai. The network will connect AWS infrastructure in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai through a comprehensive, national long-haul network, creating a powerful infrastructure backbone for AI and machine learning (ML) workloads across India.

Key highlights of the partnership:

• Next-Generation Network Connectivity: Leverage Tata Communications’ state-of-the-art network to provide high-bandwidth, low-latency connections essential for AI workloads.​ AWS will continue to deploy its custom network technologies on this network, enabling industry-leading security, availability, and performance between AWS locations
• Enablement of AI-Powered Applications: Further enable businesses across India to build, train, and deploy scalable AI applications, fostering innovation in sectors like healthcare, finance, and education​
• Commitment to Security and Compliance: Ensure robust security measures and adhere to regulatory standards to protect data integrity and privacy

The new network will help provide leading network performance and scalability that are critical for next-generation AI applications. By leveraging Tata Communications state-of-the-art network, AWS will further empower Indian businesses to develop Gen AI applications and train AI models, with unprecedented speed and efficiency. The network will feature express routes with ultra-low latency, helping ensure seamless data transfer and processing capabilities essential for compute-intensive AI and ML workloads.

“This association marks our largest ever National Long-Distance program and showcases Tata Communications’ unparalleled capability to support large-capacity, complex projects requiring scaled network solutions,” said Genius Wong, Executive Vice President, Core and Next-Gen Connectivity Services and Chief Technology Officer, Tata Communications. “AI is transforming industries globally, and our collaboration with AWS positions us at the forefront of this revolution in India. Together, we’re enabling a network that not only meets the current demands but anticipates the needs of tomorrow. By building a tailored network solution we’re ushering in an AI era in India, reinforcing our position as the long-term partner of choice for global technology leaders.”

“We are excited to work with Tata Communications to establish an advanced in-country network in India,” said Jesse Dougherty, Vice President for Network Edge Services at Amazon Web Services. ” The infrastructure is designed to support the most data intensive workloads, like 5G, generative AI, and high-performance computing. This collaboration with Tata Communications will further enable our customers in India to innovate at scale with cloud and generative AI, and drive growth in India’s rapidly expanding digital economy.”

Netflix Uses Generative AI for the First Time

Big moment in entertainment tech: Netflix has officially used generative AI to produce final footage in one of its original series for the first time.

The scene appears in The Eternaut, an Argentinian sci-fi show, where a building collapses in Buenos Aires during a toxic snowfall. Instead of traditional VFX, Netflix’s team used AI tools to generate the sequence—completing it 10 times faster and at a fraction of the cost. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the creators were “thrilled with the result,” and emphasized that AI is helping make films “better, not just cheaper”.

"That sequence actually is the very first [generative] AI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix original series or film. So the creators were thrilled with the result," Sarandos said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.

The Eternaut is officially a Netflix Original. It’s an Argentinian sci-fi series produced by Netflix in collaboration with K&S Films, and it premiered globally on the platform in April 2025.

What makes it especially notable is that it’s the first Netflix Original to feature generative AI in its final footage—used to create a dramatic building collapse scene in Buenos Aires. That sequence was completed 10 times faster than traditional VFX methods, marking a major shift in how Netflix approaches visual production.

Netflix Originals are films, series, documentaries, and specials that are either produced, co-produced, or exclusively distributed by Netflix. They’re branded as “Netflix Originals” even if Netflix didn’t create them from scratch—sometimes the company picks up shows from other networks or international studios and gives them global exposure.

Beyond visuals, Netflix is exploring AI for natural language search and Ad personalization.

Imagine saying “Show me a dark psychological thriller from the ’80s” and getting spot-on recommendations. For Ad personalization, generative AI

could help brands create tailored, cost-effective content.

However, this AI leap isn’t without controversy. The entertainment industry is still grappling with ethical concerns around AI’s impact on jobs and creative ownership—especially after the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

To recall, this year in April, Kannada film director Narasimha Murthy made waves by creating Love You, which is claimed to be the world's first Al-generated feature film.

Filmmakers exploring next-gen tools often ask how generative AI stacks up against traditional CGI. While both “make images with computers,” their pipelines, controls, costs, and creative roles diverge significantly.

CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery), begins with concept art –› 3D modeling –› texturing –› rigging –› lighting –› rendering –› compositing. Each stage demands specialized artists and software (Maya, Houdini, Nuke).

VFX is artist-driven, precision-crafted. Every frame is manually built using tools like Maya, Houdini, or Nuke. It is time-intensive and expensive. Requires large teams and hardware.

While Generative AI, on the other hand, starts with a text or image prompt. It leverages pretrained models (Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, DALL·E) to synthesize visuals in seconds. Gen AI Requires prompt engineering more than manual sculpting.

HCLTech Joins Forces with OpenAI to Accelerate Enterprise-Scale GenAI Transformation

HCLTech, a leading global technology company, today announced a multi-year strategic collaboration with OpenAI, a leading AI research and deployment company, to drive large-scale enterprise AI transformation as one of the first strategic services partners to OpenAI.

HCLTech’s deep industry knowledge and AI Engineering expertise lay the foundation for scalable AI innovation with OpenAI. This collaboration will enable HCLTech’s clients to leverage OpenAI’s industry-leading AI products portfolio alongside HCLTech’s foundational and applied AI offerings for rapid and scaled GenAI deployment.

Additionally, HCLTech will embed OpenAI’s industry-leading models and solutions across its industry-focused offerings, capabilities and proprietary platforms, including AI Force, AI Foundry, AI Engineering and industry-specific AI accelerators. This deep integration will help its clients modernize business processes, enhance customer and employee experiences and unlock growth opportunities, covering the full AI lifecycle, from AI readiness assessments and integration to enterprise-scale adoption, governance and change management.

HCLTech will roll out ChatGPT Enterprise and OpenAI APIs internally, empowering its employees with secure, enterprise-grade generative AI tools.

Vijay Guntur, Global Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Head of Ecosystems at HCLTech, said, “We are honored to work with OpenAI, the global leader in generative AI foundation models. This collaboration underscores our commitment to empowering Global 2000 enterprises with transformative AI solutions. It reaffirms HCLTech's robust engineering heritage and aligns with OpenAI's spirit of innovation. Together, we are driving a new era of AI-powered transformation across our offerings and operations at a global scale.”

Giancarlo ‘GC” Lionetti, Chief Commercial Officer at OpenAI, said, “HCLTech’s deep industry knowledge and AI engineering expertise sets the stage for scalable AI innovation. As one of the first system integration companies to integrate OpenAI to improve efficiency and enhance customer experiences, they’re accelerating productivity and setting a new standard for how industries can transform using generative AI.”

Accenture Merges Five Business Units to Forge Reinvention Services Giant

Accenture is making a bold structural shift by merging five of its core business units—Strategy, Consulting, Song, Technology, and Operations—into a single powerhouse called "Reinvention Services". This move is designed to sharpen its focus on large-scale digital transformation projects, especially those powered by generative AI.

The new unit will be led by Manish Sharma, who becomes Accenture’s first Chief Services Officer. The reorganization, effective September 1, 2025, also brings a wave of leadership changes: John Walsh will take over as CEO of the Americas, and Rajendra Prasad will step in as Group Chief Executive of Technology and CTO.

CEO Julie Sweet framed the change as a response to clients’ growing demand for faster, more integrated value delivery amid economic volatility, geopolitical complexity, and shifting customer behaviors. The goal? To make Accenture the most AI-enabled, client-focused professional services company in the world.

Accenture will continue to manage its business through three geographic markets—the Americas, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific—and go to market by industry.

Accenture’s restructuring is a sweeping move aimed at accelerating its role as a reinvention partner in the age of generative AI.

• What’s Changing?
  • Accenture is merging its five core business units—Strategy, Consulting, Song, Technology, and Operations—into a single integrated unit called Reinvention Services.
  • This change takes effect on September 1, 2025.
• Why the Shift?
  • CEO Julie Sweet explained that clients face economic volatility, geopolitical complexity, and shifting customer behavior.
  • Clients seek faster, more integrated value delivery, especially via GenAI-powered solutions.
• Who’s Leading the Charge?
  • Manish Sharma becomes Chief Services Officer, leading the new unit.
  • John Walsh steps in as CEO of the Americas.
  • Rajendra Prasad becomes Group Chief Executive of Technology and CTO.
• How Will It Work?
  • Each of the five legacy units will retain a leader:
    • Strategy: Muqsit Ashraf
    • Consulting: Jason Dess
    • Song: Ndidi Oteh
    • Technology: Rajendra Prasad
    • Operations: (Not explicitly named yet)
  • All leaders will report to Manish Sharma for tighter integration.
• Global Structure
  • Accenture will continue to operate across three geographic markets: Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.
  • It will go to market by industry verticals.

This isn’t just a reorg—it’s a strategic pivot to become the most AI-enabled, client-focused professional services company in the world.

Google’s Veo 3 Ushers in the Age of Cinematic AI Video Generation

The landscape of video content is rapidly evolving, and Google’s Veo 3 is leading the transformation. This breakthrough in artificial intelligence makes it possible to generate high-quality, cinematic videos simply by typing a few lines of descriptive text. From an abstract idea to a full-motion visual sequence, Veo 3 translates imagination into lifelike motion, offering creators and businesses a powerful tool unlike anything seen before.

Sridhar

Until recently, AI-generated video was limited in quality and realism. Previous systems struggled with continuity, motion consistency, and visual detail. Veo 3 marks a significant leap in sophistication. It understands how to render scenes that are coherent, emotionally engaging, and visually stunning. Whether it’s a forest at sunrise or a bustling street in Tokyo, Veo 3 delivers results that closely mimic what would otherwise require traditional filming equipment and professional crews.

This change is not only technical but cultural. By removing high entry barriers to visual storytelling, Veo 3 is poised to redefine how content is produced and consumed.

How Veo 3 Works Behind the Scenes

At the heart of Veo 3 lies a complex web of generative models that have been trained on millions of video clips and image frames. When a user types a prompt, the system analyzes the language to understand the setting, tone, motion, and atmosphere. It then uses deep learning to construct a sequence of frames that plays like a real video.

Unlike systems that produce single still images, Veo 3 focuses on movement. It understands how to carry action smoothly from one frame to the next. It tracks objects and maintains continuity in lighting, depth, and camera angles. If a person walks across the screen or waves a hand, the movement looks natural because the AI anticipates how each frame should evolve.

The system also offers options to refine the output. Users can adjust the video’s pacing, choose different stylistic themes, or prompt specific visual elements. The goal is not just to produce any video, but to make it feel as if it came from a skilled human director with a clear artistic vision.

What It Means for Creators and Everyday Users

The most exciting part of Veo 3 is its potential to level the playing field for creators. With traditional filmmaking, even short clips require planning, shooting, editing, and equipment. Veo 3 eliminates these hurdles. A writer with no technical experience can now visualize their story with cinematic depth. A small business can produce a compelling advertisement without a marketing agency. A student can create a historical reenactment for class without costumes or actors.

The financial impact is equally important. Producing video content has always been expensive. Now, costs can be reduced significantly while maintaining high quality. For brands and influencers who rely on short-form video for engagement, Veo 3 could mean faster content cycles, more experimentation, and lower production budgets.

There is also a creative freedom that this technology unlocks. Surreal or imaginative scenes that would have been too difficult or costly to film can now be brought to life. A dream sequence in outer space or a visual poem about climate change can be made real in a matter of minutes.

Platforms like DaveAI are advancing how brands engage users through hyper-personalized, AI-driven experiences, blending visual storytelling with real-time interactivity.

Early Use Cases and Real-World Potential

Although still in the early stages of rollout, Veo 3 has already shown its promise across various industries. Independent filmmakers have used it to create cinematic mood pieces and scene experiments. Marketers are beginning to explore its use in prototyping promotional videos. Educators are generating visual aids to complement lessons, especially in areas like history and science where dynamic visuals enhance engagement.

One common thread among all these users is the desire to tell stories quickly and vividly. In the past, achieving a polished look required a team and significant time. Now, that process can be compressed dramatically. A teacher can type a few lines about the French Revolution and have a video ready for the next class. A musician can create a visualizer for a new song without waiting weeks for animation. A product designer can demo a product concept without manufacturing a single item.

The value lies in iteration. Veo 3 allows creators to test ideas instantly, revise prompts, and watch changes take form. This new mode of working shortens creative feedback loops and helps refine content based on real-time input.

Balancing Innovation with Responsibility

With all its capabilities, Veo 3 also introduces new responsibilities. As video content becomes easier to fabricate, there is growing concern about misinformation, deepfakes, and the potential misuse of realistic AI-generated media. Google has acknowledged this risk and has committed to embedding safeguards into Veo 3, such as content filters and visible watermarks to signal when media has been AI-generated.

Another area of focus is the training data. As with any large model, questions arise about where the training content comes from, who owns the rights, and whether generated content could unknowingly replicate copyrighted material. Clear guidelines and fair-use policies will be essential for long-term trust and adoption.

Transparency will also play a role in how audiences engage with AI videos. If viewers cannot distinguish between real and generated content, the context and purpose of videos must be clearly disclosed. This could involve labeling AI-generated content or developing platforms that provide this transparency automatically.

As these discussions unfold, the underlying truth remains clear. Veo 3 is not just a new tool, but a powerful shift in how we understand media creation. It will require thoughtful implementation, education, and ethical oversight to ensure that its potential benefits are not overshadowed by unintended consequences.

Looking Ahead: Where Cinematic AI May Go Next

The introduction of Veo 3 is just the beginning. As the technology matures, we may soon see AI-generated films, dynamic advertisements that adapt to user preferences, and interactive media that changes in real time. The boundaries between filmmaker and audience could blur, allowing everyone to participate in content creation. Google has hinted that future versions may support longer videos, sound design integration, and even dialogue generation. That means users could one day create full scenes with background music, scripted conversations, and emotionally resonant arcs, entirely through natural language input.

In the long run, cinematic AI might become a new creative medium, much like photography, digital art, or 3D animation once were. Veo 3 is not a replacement for human creativity, but rather a powerful extension of it. By removing technical limitations and opening up visual storytelling to all, it invites a new era where creativity is defined not by resources, but by imagination.

Barbie and Hot Wheels Get AI Upgrade as Mattel Partners with ChatGPT

Mattel is diving into the AI toy space in a big way. The company has announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its iconic brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, and American Girl. The goal? To create AI-powered toys and games that offer interactive, age-appropriate experiences while emphasizing privacy and safety.

This includes both physical toys and digital experiences, aiming to make playtime more interactive, imaginative, and personalized.

The first AI-infused product is expected to launch by the end of 2025, though it will reportedly be marketed only to users aged 13 and up—likely due to OpenAI’s age restrictions. Mattel says it wants to bring the “magic” of AI to playtime, but critics are raising concerns about how these toys might affect children’s development, social skills, and privacy.

Beside the toys, Mattel employees will also get access to ChatGPT Enterprise to boost creative ideation and streamline product development.

While exact details are still under wraps, the Mattel’s goal is to:

• Enhance fan engagement through interactive storytelling and play.
• Use ChatGPT to power conversations or guide experiences within toys.
• Possibly integrate AI into digital games and content creation, including upcoming films and shows.

Interestingly, this isn’t Mattel’s first AI rodeo. Back in 2015, its “Hello Barbie” doll faced backlash over privacy issues. This time, the company is promising tighter safeguards and more thoughtful design.

It’s a bold move that could reshape how kids interact with toys—but it also opens up a whole new conversation about the role of AI in childhood.

Besides Mattel, LEGO has also been experimenting with AI in its digital platforms, including AI-assisted storytelling and coding kits like LEGO Mindstorms. While not directly using ChatGPT, they’ve explored AI for educational play.

Global toy company Hasbro, which is best known for iconic brands like Monopoly, Nerf, Transformers, My Little Pony and Play-Doh, also partnered with Xplored to launch Dungeons & Dragons: Digital Play, blending AI with tabletop gaming. The company also dabbled in AI for character voice-overs and interactive content.

India and OpenAI Join Forces to Democratize AI Education

In a landmark move poised to redefine India’s digital skilling ecosystem, OpenAI has partnered with the Government of India's IndiaAI Mission to launch the OpenAI Academy India—its first international rollout. This strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) signals more than just content sharing; it marks a pivot towards mass democratization of AI education with deep structural impact.

Why This Matters: From Elite Skill to Everyday Tool

Historically, AI literacy has been the domain of a select few—researchers, coders, and tech startups clustered in urban hubs. But this initiative flips that dynamic, proposing a grassroots-first model rooted in linguistic inclusivity, teacher training, and public sector empowerment.

• AI training content deployed through OpenAI Academy and the IndiaAI FutureSkills platform.
• Courses in English, Hindi, and four regional languages, breaking language silos in tech education.
• One million teachers to be trained in generative AI, catalyzing a multiplier effect across India’s classrooms.
• Civil servant skilling via the iGOT Karmayogi platform—setting the stage for AI-driven governance.
• Webinars, workshops in six cities, and hackathons in seven states to foster hands-on learning and regional innovation.
• $100,000 in OpenAI API credits for 50 IndiaAI-approved startups or fellows.

Beyond the Numbers: The Strategic Shift

What makes this different from previous initiatives is its systems-level thinking.

• By localizing content, it gives students and teachers from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities more than access—it gives them relevance.
• By training educators first, it ensures AI literacy isn’t outsourced to specialists but embedded in the daily classroom.
• By including the civil service, it paves the way for smarter policymaking and digitally empowered public services.
• And by incentivizing startups, it signals global faith in India’s innovation potential across domains like agri-tech, health, and digital finance.

As Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer at OpenAI, put it, “India is one of the most dynamic countries in the world for AI development.” This partnership isn’t just about talent export or market access—it’s about co-creating an AI future where inclusion is the foundation, not an afterthought.

Toward a New Paradigm

Workshops and hackathons may seem like soft initiatives, but their power lies in cultural change. They shift the perception of AI from an intimidating black box to a tinkerable, teachable tool—something not just for engineers in Bengaluru, but for students in Bhopal, teachers in Bhubaneshwar, and bureaucrats in Bikaner.

This also dovetails with India’s broader goals of digital sovereignty and self-reliance—where public infrastructure, open APIs, and now education are being shaped in uniquely Indian ways.

HCLTech Collaborates with Microsoft to Roll Out AI-enabled Solution to Accelerate RISE with SAP S/4HANA Migrations

HCLTech, a leading global technology company, and Microsoft announced that they are collaborating to enable global enterprises to accelerate RISE with SAP S/4HANA migrations on the Microsoft Cloud through a transformative, AI-led, business-value-first approach.

This collaboration brings together HCLTech's GenAI-led service transformation platform, AI Force, the Microsoft Cloud and AI Tools and Solutions and the HCLTech SAP Migration+ model. This will enable an AI-powered near-zero disruption approach to RISE with SAP S/4HANA migrations that significantly reduces transformation complexity, time and total cost of ownership. It will empower enterprises with a business-first transformation roadmap—enabling them to quantify ROI, uncover AI-driven innovation opportunities and prioritize high-impact value creation.

Together, HCLTech and Microsoft are addressing a critical market gap by offering:AI-led SAP assessments to help enterprises realize a compelling business outcome for RISE with S/4HANA adoption.
A business-first transformation roadmap that enables clients to effectively prioritize ROI, uncover AI-infused innovation opportunities and focus on value creation.
An AI-powered SAP Migration+ model that streamlines execution, minimizes risk and embeds intelligence into operations from day one.

"Unlike traditional approaches that primarily focus on migration execution, HCLTech and Microsoft are addressing a critical gap in the market by offering a business case-first approach that empowers clients to quantify value, identify AI-led transformation opportunities and develop a clear strategic roadmap for RISE with S/4HANA adoption. Together with SAP, we are charting a new path for enterprises seeking to modernize their ERP systems and embrace the future with confidence and agility," said Pawan Vadapalli, Corporate Vice President and Global Head, Digital Business Services at HCLTech.

“Our customers are looking for the most agile and effective way to modernize their SAP estate, and at the same time, focusing on how they achieve their broader goals of business transformation, leveraging Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Tools and Solutions. The collaboration with HCLTech puts this vision into action, with a balanced approach focused on business outcomes paired with HCLTech’s advanced migration capability, enhanced with the power of AI,” said Wael El Kabbany, Global Vice President, SAP Business Unit at Microsoft.

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to more than 223,000 people across 60 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around digital, engineering, cloud and AI, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products. We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology and Services, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG and Public Services. Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending March 2025 totaled $13.8 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.