Hexaware Technologies is signalling a notable change in how Artificial Intelligence is being deployed across the business world. At its AI Day 2026 event in Chennai, the company used a series of unconventional demonstrations—from a tarot-card machine and virtual clothing trials to a robot dog and a humanoid robot—to make a larger point: AI is no longer confined to chatbots and text-based interfaces. It is increasingly being used to understand images, interpret physical environments and interact directly with machines.
That shift is not just conceptual; it is already visible in the company’s financial profile. Hexaware disclosed that more than 50% of its revenue now comes from AI and AI-infused offerings. For a mid-tier IT services firm, that is a significant marker of how deeply AI has moved into core operations and client demand. The company now plans to strengthen this contribution further through Zerovity, its AI-led platform designed to reduce friction across software development and broader enterprise technology systems.
From Screen-Based AI to Real-World Applications
One of the strongest messages from the event was that AI is becoming more accessible to non-technical users. In one example, a repair technician could photograph a washing machine, send the image to an AI system and receive guidance on diagnosing and fixing the issue. By combining image recognition with natural-language processing, Hexaware showed how complex software can be translated into practical tools for workers who may not have specialist technical training.
The same principle appeared in consumer-facing demonstrations such as virtual try-ons for clothing. Here, AI interprets visual inputs and turns them into interactive experiences, highlighting how image-based intelligence can support retail and customer engagement. Even the more playful tarot-card demonstration relied on the same underlying AI capabilities, reinforcing the idea that the technology’s reach is expanding well beyond text prompts and chat windows.
Why the Robot Demonstrations Matter
The robot dog demonstration drew attention to a more serious issue: the merging of digital systems with physical risk. Engineers showed how communication links between an operator and the machine could potentially be intercepted, allowing an attacker to access the robot’s camera and influence its movement. As robotics gains ground in industrial and defence settings, such vulnerabilities could have consequences that extend beyond software failure or data loss into real-world disruption and safety threats.
A humanoid robot controlled through a motion-capture suit added another dimension to the company’s presentation. By translating human movement into data that maps onto a machine’s joints, the system demonstrated how robotics and AI could eventually support industrial operations, training and repetitive physical tasks. These examples suggest that the future of AI will involve tighter connections between software intelligence and mechanical action.
Enterprise Software Remains the Immediate Prize
Despite the excitement around robotics, Hexaware’s near-term commercial focus remains Enterprise Software. The company believes AI can make it faster and cheaper for businesses to build customised applications rather than rely solely on costly or ageing SaaS tools. According to CEO R Srikrishna, Hexaware is targeting the roughly $900-billion global SaaS market, arguing that AI can compress software development timelines from years to just weeks or months.
This view reflects a broader change in corporate technology strategy. Businesses are increasingly looking for software that can be tailored to their needs without the long delays and high costs historically associated with custom development. In that environment, AI is emerging not only as an automation tool but also as a productivity layer that can reshape how software is built, maintained and modernised.
Legacy Modernisation and the Next Growth Opportunity
Another major opportunity lies in legacy modernisation, especially for organisations still dependent on COBOL-based systems. Many large enterprises continue to rely on ageing software infrastructure that is expensive to maintain and difficult to upgrade. Hexaware sees AI as a way to accelerate the replacement or modernisation of these systems, turning a longstanding technology burden into a business opportunity.
The larger takeaway from Hexaware’s strategy is that AI is becoming embedded across multiple layers of business value—from service delivery and customer experience to cybersecurity, robotics and software engineering. For Hexaware, AI is no longer an experimental capability or a chatbot add-on. It is now a central revenue engine and a defining part of the company’s growth strategy.
Key Terms
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computer technology that enables systems to perform tasks such as understanding language, recognising images and identifying patterns.
- AI-infused solutions: Products or services that have AI built into them to improve performance, automation or decision-making.
- Natural-language processing: A branch of AI that helps computers understand, interpret and respond to human language.
- Image recognition: Technology that allows software to identify objects, defects or other details within pictures.
- Enterprise Software: Software designed for use by businesses and large organisations to manage operations and workflows.
- SaaS: Software as a Service, a model in which software is delivered over the internet instead of being installed and maintained entirely on a company’s own systems.
- Zerovity: Hexaware’s AI-focused platform intended to reduce software development and enterprise technology friction.
- Technical debt: The future cost of fixing software that was built quickly or with short-term compromises.
- Legacy modernisation: The process of upgrading old technology systems so they work better with modern tools and business needs.
- COBOL: An older programming language still widely used in sectors such as banking, government and large-scale enterprise systems.
- Motion-capture suit: A suit equipped to record human movement and convert it into digital data for animation, simulation or robot control.
- Cyber-physical security: Protection for systems where digital attacks could also affect physical machines, devices or real-world operations.
