IT Leaders Fast-5: Janardhan Santhanam, Tata Consultancy Services

In recent conversations with CIOs, many have emphasized how much more strategic and business-oriented their roles have become. With that context, I had a unique opportunity to interview a newly appointed CIO and get a glimpse of what those pressures look like in practice.

Janardhan Santhanam, named CIO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in July, has built his career across the Tata Group. He began at Tata Motors, moved into consulting at TCS, then shifted into IT through talent development and transformation roles before taking on the CIO role.

He joined me for our IT Leaders Fast-5 interview. Here, he talks about the technologies driving business value today, why he believes a heavy focus on proofs of concept (POCs) can hinder progress, how TCS is training employees for the age of AI -- and which headlines have grabbed his attention lately.

Janardhan Santhanam, CIO, Tata Consultancy Services

Tech MVP

What is the one technology, process or tool that was your MVP this week for delivering business value?

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It is hard to select. All our applications must start with a concrete business purpose. Right now, it would be our making our LLMs deliver value. We have done this for HR and finance and are now going after broader business transformation.

As a large organization, we use AI hackathons to help us surface and evaluate opportunities systematically. We have had low-code tools for some time, but agentic AI changes everything.

The Hard-Won Lesson

What's the most valuable lesson or surprise setback you plan to work on this week?

There are a few points. As widely reported, doing a lot of pilots and POCs is not a winning strategy. You shouldn't start work with a POC. Instead, we pursue a PTP, a path to production. Our goal is to deliver value quickly. I agree with Geoffrey Moore in "Zone to Win": organizations must commit high-value technologies to the "transformation zone" and push them into production, where they can drive real impact.

The Talent Priority

What skill, cultural factor or AI-related shift are you prioritizing to keep your team competitive?

We're shifting from a traditional tech strategy to an enterprise reimagination strategy -- one built around an AI-first culture. A core part of this shift is our hackathon program, which helps teams explore and validate new AI-driven ideas. Because AI agents can now make decisions, organizations must prepare their data and invest in the foundational work required to support them.

We're also focused on building the right mindset: encouraging people to work with AI, recasting roles so AI becomes a strength, and helping employees see it as an enabler rather than a threat. To support this, we've invested heavily in training -- more than 160,000 TCS employees have already completed AI and Generative AI training at intermediate levels and above. We provide time for reskilling and hands-on labs. Most importantly, we reward learning as much as delivery, through mechanisms like grade changes and other incentives. Smart organizations incentivize learning, not penalize it.

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The Weekly Signal

What news story, market shift or global event outside your office grabbed your attention this week?

Peter Thiel dropping his Nvidia investment was noteworthy, but the bigger story for me is the shift toward AI-first strategies across the industry. Process automation organizations like ServiceNow are leaning in with agentic AI solutions, and Google's Gemini Enterprise is pushing things even further with Gemini Enterprise.

The Weekend Recharge

What are you currently reading, listening to or watching that serves as a mental refresh?

I stay current by listening to the latest podcasts, reading significantly on AI and technology, completing formal coursework, and attending a select set of conferences.