Tech Mahindra’s IMEA head on Saudi AI demand and the plan through 2030

Tech Mahindra sees enterprises now wanting AI deployments that show up in productivity, revenue, and cost, and says the harder problems are data readiness, talent, and governance. We spoke with Sahil Dhawan (LinkedIn) — who heads the company’s India, Middle East, and Africa business — about where demand is strongest, what’s slowing it, and the plan through 2030. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation:

EnterpriseAM (E): How has your Saudi business evolved, and what’s driving demand now?

Sahil Dhawan (SD): Tech Mahindra’s engagement with Saudi Arabia has evolved from providing technology services to becoming a broader transformation partner. The focus has shifted from individual technology projects to larger, business-led programs spanning cloud, data, AI, enterprise platforms, customer experience, and intelligent automation.

Today, demand is being driven by three factors — the Kingdom's digital transformation agenda, the need to modernize technology foundations, and the growing expectation that technology investments should deliver measurable business outcomes. AI is accelerating all three.

E: Which sectors are generating the strongest demand, and how are customer priorities changing?

SD: We see strong prospects across telecommunications, banking and financial services, energy and utilities, aviation, government, and other large-scale enterprises. These sectors are increasingly looking not just for technology implementation but for partners that can connect technology investments to business performance. For example, our work with Riyadh Air involves digitalizing core finance, supply chain, and human capital functions as part of its ambition to build a digitally native airline. We have also worked with a leading technology, media, and telecommunications company in Saudi Arabia on GenAI-enabled customer loyalty and engagement.

E: The Kingdom is moving fast from AI experimentation to large-scale deployment. Where’s the biggest opportunity?

SD: The biggest opportunity is helping enterprises move AI beyond experimentation and into their core operating models. At the same time, enterprises are becoming more selective about where they deploy AI. The focus is increasingly on use cases that can deliver measurable improvements in productivity, customer experience, revenue, cost, or speed.

E: What's the biggest challenge in moving from technology investment to measurable business outcomes?

SD: Technology itself is increasingly no longer the primary challenge. The more difficult issues are data readiness, integration with legacy systems, operating-model changes, talent, governance, and adoption. An organization may have access to advanced AI models and cloud infrastructure, but if its data is fragmented, its processes have not been redesigned, or its employees are not equipped to work differently, the technology will not deliver its full value.

They need to establish the desired business outcomes before selecting the technology. Is the objective to reduce processing time, improve customer conversion, reduce network downtime, or improve forecasting? These outcomes should guide the technology choices rather than the other way around. AI, in particular, needs to be embedded within workflows and operating models, rather than treated as a separate layer added to the existing organization.

E: How are you building local capability, and what are your priorities through 2030?

SD: Talent development is central to our approach in Saudi Arabia. In partnership with the Communications and Information Technology Ministry, we established a Data and AI and Cloud Center of Excellence in Riyadh, with a commitment to train 2.5k Saudi nationals through practical project deployment programs. The initiative also includes hackathons, design thinking, innovation programs, and university collaboration.

Through 2030, our priority is to expand local capabilities where demand is growing fastest — AI, cloud, data and analytics, cybersecurity, digital engineering, and intelligent automation, alongside continued investment in Saudi talent and the Riyadh Center of Excellence. We also plan to deepen partnerships with customers, hyperscalers, technology companies, universities, and government institutions to develop and deploy solutions locally. The regional headquarters in the Kingdom is an important part of this model, supporting our operations in the wider region.