Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday launched an artificial intelligence (AI) platform for industrial enterprises that could improve manufacturing productivity by 20-25% and cut new product development timelines by 25%, as companies look to scale AI adoption beyond conventional business applications.

Its AI platform, Industrial Intelligence Foundry, combines configurable AI agents, workflows and governance capabilities to support engineering and manufacturing operations across sectors such as aerospace, mobility, semiconductors, medical devices, industrial electronics, utilities and energy.

Unlike general-purpose AI platforms, the offering is designed to integrate with existing enterprise workflows, eliminating the need to build AI agents from scratch. Productivity gains could exceed 40% as data foundations and operating ecosystems mature, TCS said.

The platform supports applications across product development, manufacturing operations, asset performance, quality management and compliance. Its Human+AI Service Autonomy Model seeks to augment decision-making across engineering, manufacturing and field operations.

“The next wave of industrial AI will be shaped by how effectively AI agents are orchestrated to transform engineering, plant systems, and asset-centric operations,” said Sreenivasa Chakravarti, global head and vice-president of Industrial Autonomy and Engineering at TCS.

“While enterprises are scaling their use of AI agents, our firm belief is that the AI era will be won by context-aware agentic deployment across enterprises,” he said.

Ramachandran S, practice leader at HFS Research, said industrial and physical AI offered opportunities beyond conventional enterprise applications.

“Most enterprise AI still lives on desktops, while there is untapped value on shop floors in industrial and physical AI,” he said.

Industrial organisations plan to double physical AI spending over the next two years, according to HFS Research findings.

“Industrial Intelligence Foundry is TCS’ bet to fill this gap with domain-specific AI, with the potential for significant business impact, scaling AI implementations and not just another agentic AI project,” he said.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is exploring quantum computing to solve complex problems ranging from personalised cancer treatments and financial portfolio optimisation to molecule discovery and severe-weather prediction, as conventional computing architectures struggle to address such challenges at scale.

Speaking at IBM’s Think 2026 event in Mumbai, TCS Chief Technology Officer Harrick Vin said the company’s interest stemmed from the technology’s potential to tackle problems involving an enormous number of possible outcomes and decisions.

Mr. Vin outlined four layers of reasoning intelligence: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive. While conventional computing is relatively effective at understanding what is happening, why it is happening and, to some extent, what might happen next, more complex predictive and prescriptive problems require evaluating numerous possibilities.

“Solving sort of more complex predictive and prescriptive problems requires you to solve a lot of what if and if what problems,” he said.

While “what if” explores the possible consequences of an action, “if what” works backwards from a desired outcome to determine the action required to achieve it.

In healthcare, for instance, identifying the most effective drug for an individual cancer patient could involve evaluating numerous treatment options. Quantum computing could eventually help address such computationally intensive challenges, opening new possibilities for precision medicine.

Beyond incremental productivity

Mr. Vin urged businesses to look beyond marginal efficiency gains and identify areas where quantum computing could fundamentally transform customer outcomes.

Using precision oncology as an example, he said the objective should not merely be to improve doctors’ productivity but to make a tangible difference to patients’ lives.

“It’s not about improving the productivity of doctors by a little bit here and there,” he said. “It is the difference between actually saving lives or not.”

Banking and financial services, particularly portfolio optimisation, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals, including molecule and protein discovery, are among the sectors where Mr. Vin sees the greatest potential.

However, he cautioned that the technology remains at an early stage. “We are in an early stage of AI era. We are probably even in an earlier stage of the quantum era,” he said.

A hybrid computing future

Mr. Vin envisaged a future computing architecture combining conventional central processing units, graphics processing units (GPUs), tensor processing units (TPUs) and quantum processing units (QPUs). Applications would need to distribute workloads across these architectures according to their capabilities and costs.

He also highlighted neuromorphic computing as a potential route to low-power, low-cost intelligence at edge devices, alongside the need for software to adapt to evolving computing infrastructure.

Quantum computing also poses cybersecurity challenges, as advances could eventually compromise existing cryptographic protocols, he said, adding organisations must therefore prepare to migrate towards quantum-safe encryption.

TCS joined IBM and the Andhra Pradesh government in a quantum-computing initiative announced in May 2025. Mr. Vin said TCS had chosen to invest early to build capabilities before the technology became mainstream.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported a 15% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit to ₹13,884 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2026.

Revenue for the quarter rose 11.2% YoY to ₹73,188 crore, while growing 1.3% sequentially. Net margin stood at 19%, with operating margin at 24%.

TCS said its annualised AI revenue crossed $3.1 billion, accounting for more than 10% of revenue, underscoring accelerating demand for AI-led transformation. Total contract value (TCV) stood at $9.6 billion during the quarter.

Cash generation remained strong, with net cash from operations at ₹14,190 crore, equivalent to 102.2% of net income.

The company’s workforce stood at 598,056 employees at the end of the quarter, up from 593,314 a year earlier. IT services attrition remained stable at 13.3%.

The board recommended a ₹12-per-share dividend, compared with ₹11 a year ago. The record date is October 14, with payment scheduled for October 30.

“We are pleased with the broad-based growth in all our international markets and most industry segments,” said K Krithivasan, CEO and Managing Director, TCS.

Highlighting that Porsche and Best Buy represent a new category of transformation partnerships, he said together with the clients, “it is building repeatable value platforms that will industrialise AI at scale,”

Aarthi Subramanian, Executive Director and President and COO, said “AI momentum remained strong”, with annualised AI revenue exceeding $3 billion. Demand for AI-native solutions, AI-led enterprise transformation and autonomous global business services (GBS) continued to accelerate.

Cybersecurity also remained a key customer priority, she said, as companies increasingly focused on resilience and recovery.

TCS CFO Samir Seksaria said the company continued to strengthen its capabilities through acquisitions, partnerships and investments in niche talent, while maintaining strong cash conversion and profitability.

The company also stepped up employee learning, with learning hours rising 17% sequentially to 17.1 million, as it focused on upskilling employees and building capabilities in critical technologies.

 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is planning to fully acquire MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH (MHP), Porsche AG’s Germany-based management and IT consulting subsidiary, for an enterprise value of €320 million, excluding customary post-closing adjustments for net debt and working capital.

The acquisition is part of a broader €1.25 billion, five-year strategic partnership between TCS and Porsche under which TCS will provide artificial intelligence (AI) services across Porsche’s mobility value chain. The transaction and partnership remain subject to regulatory approvals, with the acquisition to be completed through a TCS subsidiary.

As part of the partnership, TCS will establish a dedicated AI Mobility Centre of Excellence for Porsche. The centre will focus on deploying AI-driven solutions across manufacturing, engineering, operations and customer experience.

MHP reported a CY2025 turnover of €742 million and has around 4,500 employees. Besides Germany, the company operates through subsidiaries in Romania, the UK, the U.S., India and Mexico.

“MHP brings strong automotive and industrial consulting and implementation experience, with strengths in business transformation, AI, SAP, manufacturing digitalisation, and connected mobility,” TCS said.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen TCS’s position in Germany and expand its presence among European automotive and industrial customers. MHP’s automotive consulting and implementation capabilities are expected to complement TCS’s global scale, engineering expertise and technology capabilities.

K. Krithivasan, CEO & Managing Director of TCS, said the partnership combines TCS’s capabilities in AI, engineering, technology and business transformation with MHP’s automotive consulting expertise.

“As AI, software, and data redefine the automotive industry, this partnership brings together TCS’ capabilities in AI, engineering, technology and business transformation with MHP’s strong automotive consulting expertise,” Krithivasan said.

Dr. Michael Leiters, CEO of Porsche AG, said the transfer of MHP to TCS represents another step in Porsche’s strategy of focusing on its core business while gaining TCS as a strategic technology partner.

“By combining Porsche’s automotive expertise with TCS’ digital technology and AI capabilities, we will further strengthen our innovative power, increase efficiency, and boost our competitiveness in an increasingly data and software-driven world of mobility,” he added.

The companies will collaborate on embedding AI across intelligent manufacturing and operations, engineering and customer experience, combining Porsche’s automotive engineering and brand expertise with TCS’s capabilities in AI, product engineering, technology and business transformation.

Rodrigue Kwizera blitzed through the field to set a new men’s event record at the TCS World 10K Bengaluru 2026 here on Sunday. 

Kwizera stepped on the pedal in the final stretch to finish with a timing of 27:31s, well under the previous mark of 27:38 set by Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli in 2022. 

Kwizera, who missed the top spot to Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe in a photo finish here three years ago, won $34,000 (including the event record bonus of $8,000).

The Burundi runner accelerated at the 8km mark — after passing the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium — to pull away from his rivals. Kwizera kept a high pace in the long straight finish on Cubbon Road to eclipse Kimeli’s record. 

“The challenge was the heat. I have been training in Spain, where it is much cooler this time of the year. Today, I told myself that I will push at the 5K mark, and again in the final kilometre. I wanted to go for the event record; I am glad I did it,” Kwizera said. 

Rwanda’s Florence Niyonkuru overcame a stiff challenge from favourite Brenda Jepchirchir to claim the international women’s title. 

At the 7km stage, it was Florence, Brenda, Ethiopian Melal Biratu and Kenya’s Judy Chepaskwony who formed the leader pack. 

Florence took over in the last right turn, at the Cubbon Park metro station. Now on her own, Florence eased off and missed the event record (30:35, Irene Cheptai, 2022) by ten seconds. The Rwanda athlete took home $26,000. 

Harmanjot Singh and Sanjivani Jadhav recorded the best timings among Indian men and women respectively. 

Harmanjot clocked 29:13, falling short of the Indian record by just one second. 

“I had the event record in mind. I tried to stay with the international elite pack as far as I could, which was till 5K. After that, I decided to rely on my own judgement,” Harmanjot said. 

Sanjivani, the 2017 Asian Championships 5,000m bronze medallist, took top Indian honours here for a third time in a row. 

Harmanjot and Sanjivani won ₹3,00,000 and ₹2,75,000 respectively. 

The results: International: Men: 1. Rodrigue Kwizera (Burundi) 27:31; 2. Harbert Kibet (Uganda) 27:39; 3. Gilbert Kipkosgei Kiprotich (Kenya) 27:43s.

Women: 1. Florence Niyonkuru (Rwanda) 30:45; 2. Brenda Jepchirchir (Kenya) 30:59; 3. Chaltu Dida Diriba (Ethiopia) 31:03.

Indian (winners only): Men: Harmanjot Singh 29:13. Women: Sanjivani Jadhav 35:01.