My vision is to create a digital twin of our entire operations, from design and manufacturing to products and customers: Vijay Balakrishnan, GEG

In this insightful interaction, Vijay Balakrishnan, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Godrej Enterprises Group, delves into the company’s digital transformation journey. Balakrishnan shares his vision of integrating AI, GenAI, and IoT across the group’s operations to enhance customer experience, streamline processes, and drive efficiency across their 14 business units. He emphasises the importance of a holistic digital transformation approach, balancing cutting-edge technology with a strong focus on upskilling the workforce, and reveals key initiatives and priorities for 2025, including customer service transformation, smart manufacturing, and AI training for employees.

As the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Godrej Enterprises Group—a company with a rich legacy spanning multiple industries—how do you see digital transformation shaping the future of the group? Additionally, what are your top priorities on this journey of digital transformation?

I joined Godrej Enterprises Group in April 2024, but the digital transformation journey started well before that. COVID accelerated this transformation for many organisations, including ours. We’ve been investing in a common CRM platform for all customer-facing interactions, and we’ve also begun implementing IoT connectivity in our factories. While the journey predates me, the focus has been on bringing all stakeholders—suppliers, customers, and employees—along with us in this transformation. It’s essential to avoid transforming only one part of the process without the other, as that would lead to inefficiencies.

Since joining, I’ve focused on two key areas. First, the increased use of qualified data, whether for simple analytics, observability, or GenAI-based chatbots for customer interactions. Second, it’s about maturing the entire digital ecosystem. My ultimate vision is to create a digital twin of our operations—from design to manufacturing and all the way to our products and customers. Achieving this requires robust analytics, predictive models, observability, and digitisation across our 14 business units. It’s a continuous process, but one that I’m excited to lead and improve.

Godrej Enterprises Group (GEG) has a strong legacy in traditional business models. How are you leveraging digital technologies to seamlessly integrate the physical and digital worlds for an enhanced customer experience?

Let me begin by emphasising customer experience. At GEG, we have a strong legacy of trust, innovation, and quality. However, today’s customers are more empowered, informed, and discerning. They no longer compare us just to competitors within our industry, but to the seamless experiences they encounter in e-commerce and digital-first businesses. For instance, when a customer orders something online, they receive constant updates on its delivery status. Naturally, they expect the same level of service from us, which is fair.

We approach this transformation from three dimensions. First is empathy – truly understanding not just who our customers are, but their emotions. This is where the concept of creating a ‘digital twin’ of the customer comes in. Second is innovation – not just adopting new technologies but ensuring that our processes are lean, digitised, and seamless throughout the customer journey, from research to purchase, service, and brand loyalty. The goal is to provide a consistent and empathetic experience across all touchpoints.

Our blueprint for the modern customer experience is simple: delivering empathy-driven experiences powered by technology, ensuring every interaction feels personalised and seamless.

AI tools like Customer Twin and sentiment analysis are reshaping customer interactions. How is GEG using these technologies to create highly personalised experiences across different touchpoints?

That’s a great question, but it’s a bit complex due to our diverse context. GEG operates across multiple industries—consumer goods, industrial projects, and more, serving different channels such as B2C, B2B, B2G, and e-commerce. So, when we talk about AI, I view it in two parts: customer-related analytics and data handling, which together create a rich customer experience.

The first challenge is identifying our customers. For example, if a distributor in one business also buys from another or if a consumer connects with one of our industrial projects, it’s hard to track. To address this, we launched a customer UID project, which has been in progress for months. It helps us identify customers across channels while keeping an eye on privacy and adhering to upcoming data protection regulations.

The second part involves gathering all customer-related data in one place. Over the past three years, we unified all customer interactions into a single platform with a one CRM strategy, which was complex but essential. Now, with AI solutions like social listening combined with sentiment analysis, we can understand what our customers are saying about us and where we need to improve, both in India and globally.

But AI isn’t just for data. We also use AI in product features, manufacturing, and supply chain management. For example, AI helps us reduce response times for customer feedback and improve product design. In our factories, AI enables component-level traceability, so we can predict and address issues like product failures, similar to what automobile companies do with recalls. Our products, like AI-enabled washing machines, IoT smart locks, and Edge AI CCTV cameras, show how AI is embedded across the entire value spectrum—from R&D and manufacturing to customer interactions. All of this ultimately enriches the customer experience across touchpoints.

AI has been present in the industry for quite some time. However, GenAI is currently making significant waves across various industries. Has GenAI had any positive or negative impacts on GEG so far? Could you elaborate on that?

So far, the impact of GenAI on GEG has been 100% positive. I see GenAI as a layer that enhances the core AI models we used to build, accelerating the AI turnaround time to value. In the pre-GenAI era, we spent a lot of time on data preprocessing before feeding it into models. Now, with controlled GenAI models—where we build custom wrappers around them—we’re able to streamline processes more efficiently for top use cases. For instance, we can seamlessly read contracts, extract key parameters, and test our responses against them.

Additionally, our customer interactions have improved. We currently have a transactional chatbot, but we’re integrating GenAI into it, making interactions—whether for service, sales, or product queries—smarter.

However, GenAI is evolving rapidly, with new models like DeepSeek emerging. The key takeaway is that it’s not plug-and-play. We take inspiration from these models but build custom wrappers tailored to GEG’s needs, such as using RAG modeling. We’ve already started experimenting with several areas and will accelerate this in the coming months.

With a ₹1,200 crore investment planned over the next three years, what are the key focus areas for this investment? How do you plan to upskill your workforce to drive digital transformation?

First of all, when planning for technology initiatives like AI, GenAI, digitisation, cloud migration, and IoT, it’s critical to have leadership support, funding, and strategic alignment. We’ve been fortunate in that regard, as our business leadership has supported and joined us on this journey from the beginning.

This investment of ₹1,200 crore over the next three years is about end-to-end transformation. It’s not just about isolated projects; it’s a comprehensive approach from process re-engineering to data collection, governance, and ultimately AI and GenAI. The investment will span everything from backend operations to customer-facing processes, including R&D, product design, manufacturing, supply chain, and customer analytics.

For instance, in product design, we’re using AI for simulation and testing, while in manufacturing, we focus on predictive maintenance and energy optimisation. The goal is to connect the entire spectrum—ensuring smarter, connected products and optimising supply chain traceability.

We all know that the journey of AI is just beginning, and it is yet to fully grow and mature. As you mentioned, digital transformation is a continuous journey rather than a one-time event, so, what key metrics or success indicators do you use to measure the impact of your digital initiatives on business growth and customer satisfaction?

Investing solely in technologies and systems isn’t enough. In fact, 95% of any transformation is centred around people. Over the past two to three years, we’ve focused on building new-age skillsets across the business. We’ve launched a program called DigiNext, where each of our 14 businesses nominates employees for a three-month training program. This includes classroom sessions and action learning projects, which are presented to business leadership, including the CEO. The top two projects receive awards, but the real success lies in the continuity of these projects even after the program ends. We now have 100 digital champions across the group, and five of these projects have evolved into multi-year, multi-generational initiatives.

In the context of AI and GenAI, we’re planning to train 50% of our employees, with some becoming citizen data scientists. Business leaders are already nominating employees for this.

Regarding measuring impact, we look at two main aspects: top-line growth and efficiency improvements. Some digital interventions, such as service transformation, directly drive revenue by enabling more cross-selling opportunities. On the other hand, inward-focused metrics like productivity gains and cost savings are more challenging to measure. For example, over the next three years, we expect manufacturing interventions to save at least 200 crores, and our service transformation will reduce query resolution time by 40%, cutting customer wait times by 30-40%.

We also measure product success based on metrics like first-time-right design and the number of service tickets in the first year. Ultimately, all of these efforts are reflected in customer experience, which we track closely through CSAT and NPS scores. These metrics reassure us that our initiatives are moving in the right direction.

What would be your focus for 2025?

For 2025, my focus will revolve around three key areas. First, customer experience transformation through our service transformation program. We’re launching a new service platform that will completely enhance the post-purchase experience for our customers, whether it’s installation or addressing any concerns they may have.

Second, smart manufacturing. We have our own smart manufacturing platform, Factory 360, which integrates hardware, sensor data collection, continuous monitoring, and predictive maintenance. We’ve piloted it in a few factories, and in 2025 and 2026, we will expand and scale its impact across more factories.

Lastly, from a people standpoint, AI is everywhere—both in personal and professional life. My goal is to ensure that at least 50% of our employees are not just aware of AI but understand its importance and application. I want them to come to me with AI-driven ideas. To foster this, I will be heavily investing in AI training and upskilling.