Wipro's Global CIO on AI breakthrough: Why the real revolution happens quietly
'AI without orchestration is a very expensive experiment.' That's the line Kenny Kesar, Global CIO at Wipro, left the audience with—and it echoed far beyond his seven-minute spotlight.In a tightly packed storytelling session at the ETCIO Annual Conclave 2025, Kesar walked the audience through what he called Wipro's 'big win': transitioning from scattered AI pilots to enterprise-wide, invisible, and scalable AI transformation. This was not a hype-driven narrative. It was a roadmap—a philosophical, technical, and operational guide to doing AI right.
'Every CIO in the last 24 months has been asked the same question,' Kesar opened.
'When will our AI strategy move from automation to transformation?'
While enterprises invested heavily in proof-of-concepts (POCs), most struggled to get to production. Kesar identified the core reason: trying to solve the most complex problem first—often without the guardrails of process orchestration.
'AI needs to be embedded into the DNA, not layered on top,' he said. 'Without orchestration, we're not transforming—we're experimenting.'
AI 360: Systemic innovation, not siloed tools
Wipro's answer? A shift from scattered innovation to systemic innovation. At the heart of this shift is the company's AI 360 platform, underpinned by a $1 billion commitment to infuse AI across all business layers.
This meant breaking down silos across Wipro's 230,000+ engineers, standardizing use case models, and building a reusable AI platform with scalability and velocity baked in.
'True AI becomes invisible—just like APIs. It works best when you don't notice it,' Kesar emphasized.
This invisibility isn't about downplaying AI. It's about integration so seamless that AI becomes part of the business logic—not a premium add-on.
Data fabric, not data hype
Wipro's AI journey also confronted a painful reality: structured data still poses challenges for AI models. While unstructured data is fertile ground for generative models, Kesar stressed the need to build robust data fabrics and AI fabrics to support role-based copilots and production-ready deployments.
Perhaps the most compelling insight came from Kesar's analogy:
'AI is like a convex lens—when focused, it converges powerfully; when scattered, it distorts.'
This metaphor guided Wipro's decision to prioritize 70 high-impact AI use cases across finance, HR, delivery, and more. Each use case was categorized into:
Change the GameDeliver BetterOperate Better
These were then operationalized through a hybrid of build-and-buy strategies and deployed via MLops pipelines, ensuring AI lifecycle scalability.
Building quietly, scaling intentionally
While the industry continues to chase AI headlines, Wipro has taken the contrarian view. Its AI revolution is not loud—it's systematic, silent, and at scale.
Kesar emphasized, 'The more we talk about AI, the more we raise eyebrows. Our approach is: embed it, don't advertise it.'
The impact is real. Wipro now sees AI use cases touching every major pillar—from growth to experience to productivity—with ongoing ROI and platform reusability.
Kenny Kesar's spotlight session distilled a pragmatic roadmap for
enterprise AI
transformation. His central message was clear: AI success isn't about complexity or noise—it's about orchestration, focus, and silent scale. Wipro's journey shows that real impact comes when AI is embedded invisibly into processes, governed by a robust platform, and aligned to business outcomes through prioritized use cases. From collapsing silos to building a reusable AI fabric and deploying MLOps at scale, Wipro's transformation underscores that systematic innovation trumps scattered experimentation. CIOs must start small, build guardrails from day zero, and reimagine AI not as a buzzword, but as a lens for
business reinvention
.
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