AI Delivered Right: Inside Helix

AI Has Moved Past the Technology Adoption Curve

Enterprise investment in AI is at an all-time high, with few signs of slowing down. BCG’s AI Radar 2026 found that global companies expect AI spending to rise from about 0.8% of revenue in 2025 to 1.7% in 2026, while 94% plan to continue investing even if AI does not deliver returns this year.¹ There is no doubt about the intent to invest, but the bigger question is how that investment will translate into enterprise-wide impact.

The enterprise-level financial impact from AI use across organizations has not changed since last year. According to McKinsey’s State of AI: Global Survey 2026², the proportion of AI high performers (those who attribute at least 5 percent of EBIT to their use of AI and describe the technology’s impact as “significant”) has remained flat at about 6 percent of all respondents.

Realizing financial returns from AI requires more than isolated use cases or technology investments. Effectively scaling AI requires a unified approach that defines how strategy, governance, talent, technology and workflows come together across all business functions. Project Helix helps address the challenge by operationalizing that approach and creating the structure needed to move AI from isolated successes to enterprise-wide impact.

The future belongs to organizations that don’t just adopt AI, but redesign themselves around it.

From Using AI to Being AI-Native

Embedding AI into existing processes enables enterprises to improve operational speed and accuracy while driving down costs. But these benefits can stay limited to only that particular process, remaining siloed and fragmented. Enterprises need a complete reimagining of how they operate, with an AI-native operating model as a core design principle. Fundamentally, this changes how businesses operate and generates value across the business.

Based on this philosophy, Tech Mahindra launched Project Helix to integrate generative and agentic AI with its existing industry knowledge. Like DNA, Project Helix aims to transform and reimagine business in a way that fits the future. The project also aims to enhance and transform existing business structures and systems, while building new AI-native ones.

Why Project Helix Came Into Being

AI adoption is accelerating in every functional area of the enterprise. Teams are experimenting with new technology to transform the way they serve their clients. And they’re being successful.

But success within each function will stay contained without a common operating model for AI, a framework that allows the enterprise as a whole to leverage these functional wins for organization-wide impact and stay on top of AI’s relentless momentum.

That’s where Project Helix comes into play.

Project Helix is a framework that spans every part of the business rather than living in one department. Our goal from day one has been to bring together all aspects of all aspects of our approach (strategy, talent, governance, innovation, platforms, and partnerships) into one common, transformational approach. It’s a framework that turns disjointed, siloed innovation into cohesive, measurable efforts with enterprise-level impact. And that’s why it’s been such a success.

Since its launch, Project Helix has enabled 17 AI-led, externally facing solutions across 4 functions to help clients in a variety of industries. Internally, it has leveraged more than 40 AI agents across eight business units to drive productivity gains, shorten decision-making timelines, and automate repetitive tasks, resulting in a transformational impact on how we do business.

Transformation That Begins from Within

AI transformation requires more than technological enablers. It demands a strong emphasis on redesigning operations. Through our flagship transformation program, Project Helix, we are embedding this ethos by:

• Redesigning our operations and building solutions across each operational pillar.
• Enabling clients with AI-powered solutions and services.
• Building capabilities and nurturing our people for the future.
• Evolving our business and commercial models.
• Strengthening strategic ecosystem partnerships.

Through Project Helix, we are accelerating AI-led transformation across our business. We are embedding AI-led innovations across industries, functions, and geographies to drive differentiated experiences for our clients and customers.

What It Takes to Sustain the Shift

Becoming an AI-native enterprise is not a project with a completion date; it is a continuous process of doing, learning, measuring, refining, and repeating.

As we’ve already established, ongoing investment alone won’t get enterprises there. Enterprises also need the right foundations in place, such as governance, technology, and people readiness. In order to build their future operating model, enterprises need a resilient and nimble transformation solution, and that is Project Helix.

Introducing the Project Helix Blog Series

This article marks the beginning of the Project Helix blog series, which will focus on the strategic pillars driving Tech Mahindra’s AI transformation journey. Each edition will explore:

• Emerging business opportunities enabled by AI
• Enterprise challenges teams are addressing
• Transformation leaders and teams driving change
• Outcomes and lessons learned
• Their contribution to building an AI-native organization

From industry-specific AI applications and ecosystem partnerships to workforce transformation, platform engineering, commercialization, and enterprise adoption, the series will provide insights into how Tech Mahindra is preparing for the future.

Please note: The series will be published under a single heading, AI Delivered Right: Inside Helix, so that readers can follow the transformation as an ongoing, accountable record rather than a set of disconnected articles.

Looking Ahead: Accelerating Internal AI Adoption

The next edition digs deeper into Tech Mahindra’s AI-native transformation journey and how we are embedding AI into the fabric of our day-to-day operations. We will explore the principles guiding our AI-first approach, the lessons learned from scaling adoption across the enterprise, and the role of AI in reshaping how work gets done.

We will also highlight some of the most impactful internal use cases and AI agents we have deployed across business functions, showing how they streamline processes, improve decision-making, enhance employee experience, and unlock productivity at scale. Beyond the technology, we will examine what it takes to drive sustained adoption and build an organization where AI becomes a natural part of how teams operate and deliver value.