New Delhi, Nov. 21 -- India's infrastructure sector is in the middle of a long-delayed shift toward digital tools, even as AI reshapes how large capital projects are planned and delivered. These changes are influencing both public agencies and private developers as they take on increasingly complex builds. Aurigo Software Technologies, which provides software for managing long-horizon infrastructure programs, sits squarely in this transition.
In a conversation with TechCircle, Balaji Sreenivasan, the company's CEO, discusses how technology is altering project workflows, why owners are rethinking their processes, and how global capability centres are adjusting as AI reduces the need for large engineering teams.
Edited Excerpts:
India's infrastructure sector still trails in tech adoption. From an industry standpoint, where does the infrastructure and capital projects segment-historically slow to digitise-stand now?
Traditionally, infrastructure owners used technology only for design work. Tools such as Autodesk, AutoCAD, and Bentley's CAD systems handled architectural drawings and asset layouts. Over the past decade, however, owners have begun moving beyond spreadsheets and paper to adopt software for other parts of the construction lifecycle.
That shift has narrowed a long-standing gap in how projects are planned and delivered. The gap covers everything before and after design. The pre-construction phase includes planning, budgeting, forecasting, and setting project priorities. Once the design is complete, owners must oversee construction, track spending, ensure the work matches specifications, and confirm the project meets its initial requirements.
These pre-construction and post-design stages are the areas now being addressed by newer software tools.
As AI reshapes enterprise systems worldwide, where do you see its strongest opportunities in long-horizon, capital-intensive projects?
We see two openings. The first is the AI sector itself. Seven of the largest US companies, including Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Oracle and NVIDIA, are driving a rapid build-out of data centers to meet demand for AI capacity. This has created a large wave of capital spending.
Where the previous decade focused on physical infrastructure like highways and bridges, the next five to ten years will center on data centers, the electric grids that support them, and related assets. Although AI is often framed as software, the current race is rooted in large-scale physical infrastructure. As we have done with traditional capital projects, we now provide software to the organizations building these new data centers and power systems.
The second part of the story is how AI is reshaping our own platform. For years, software mainly automated manual tasks. AI has shifted the focus toward using the data generated by software to support decisions. Over the past three years, we have built AI capabilities directly into our system.
Users can now interact through natural-language queries rather than traditional point-and-click interfaces, receiving contextual insights and decision support. We have also introduced AI agents that monitor construction activity, track patterns from past projects, and surface early warnings, such as potential supply chain issues or schedule delays. These alerts allow project owners to act before problems unfold.
What's the biggest shift in mindset or process you've seen among customers using your platform?
Over the past decade, the infrastructure sector, both public and private, has shifted toward greater use of technology. For years, neither side relied much on digital tools. Government agencies ended up moving first, driven mainly by the scale of their capital programs. Private firms continued to rely on CAD, design software, and basic document systems.
As public spending grew, technology budgets grew with it. Now private companies are matching that pace, looking to the large government program model as they take on projects they have never managed before, including major data-center and power-related builds. Earlier private experience was limited to offices, campuses, and similar developments; the scale has now changed.
The pattern is clear: early hesitation in the 2000s, broader public-sector adoption from 2010 to 2020, and in the past few years, equal interest from both sectors. Technology is now seen as necessary for managing large projects. The discussion is no longer about why it is needed, but how quickly it can be deployed and at what cost.
GCCs have shifted from cost-focused delivery units to strategic innovation hubs, and your company runs one in India. From your vantage point, what is driving this shift?
The India GCC has operated as an innovation hub from the start, built to develop global products rather than follow the traditional services-led model used by large IT firms. It was not set up to take advantage of lower labour costs but to build core products.
New AI-first tools for design and engineering have expanded the GCC's role. These tools are narrowing the gap between product management and engineering, functions that were once clearly separate.
A similar shift occurred earlier when AI automated testing and reduced the need for dedicated QA teams. Now product and engineering work is also moving "left." Teams have been reorganised into cross-functional "product pods" that include product managers, developers, testers, and designers. These pods operate across locations, including the US, Cape Town, and Bangalore, and work jointly on specific product features.
This structure has increased the direct involvement of the India team, as the layers that once mediated between India and Western offices continue to shrink. Delivery and engineering manager roles that served as liaison points are becoming less central as AI-first platforms allow teams to collaborate directly and in real time.
Do you see the next phase of GCCs shifting from service delivery to owning products and creating IP?
Western companies have long come to India for cost advantages, and many stayed after realising the depth of local talent. That dynamic is shifting. Over the next five to ten years, India is likely to see more innovation work, not just regulatory or services tasks.
But a larger question is emerging: will AI still push companies to set up global capability centres in India? Product development now requires far fewer people than it did five years ago. With smaller teams, founders and product leaders tend to keep innovation close to where they are based.
This raises doubts about whether early-stage or smaller US and Israeli companies will see value in establishing Indian centres when they may need only a handful of engineers, not the large teams once required.
Large firms, however, are in a different position. Companies such as Microsoft and Oracle already operate sizeable centres in India, and their work is expected to shift from routine offshore tasks to more innovation-driven roles.
In short, smaller firms may hesitate to build new centres in India as AI reduces staffing needs, while larger firms are likely to repurpose their existing teams toward more advanced work.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from TechCircle.