GREAVES COTTON APPOINTS SANTOSH KUMAR SINGH AS CHIEF STRATEGY AND AI OFFICER

Greaves Cotton Limited has named Santosh Kumar Singh as its Chief Strategy and AI Officer, based in Mumbai. With over 24 years of experience, Singh will lead the Greaves.NEXT strategy, build AI-led enterprise capabilities, and drive growth across energy, mobility, and industrial solutions.  

Greaves Cotton Limited has announced the appointment of Santosh Kumar Singh as its Chief Strategy and AI Officer, a move that underscores the company’s intent to sharpen its long-term vision while accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence across its businesses. Based in Mumbai, Singh will take on a pivotal role at a time when Greaves Cotton is navigating a fast-evolving landscape across energy, mobility, and industrial solutions, sectors that are being reshaped by technological disruption, sustainability imperatives, and shifting consumer expectations.

In his new role, Singh will be responsible for leading the company’s Greaves.NEXT strategy, a future-focused roadmap designed to drive growth, strengthen competitiveness, and unlock new opportunities across the group’s diverse portfolio. This mandate goes beyond conventional corporate strategy, placing a strong emphasis on building AI-led enterprise capabilities that can enhance decision-making, improve operational efficiency, and create differentiated customer experiences. Alongside this, Singh will also spearhead business excellence initiatives, aligning people, processes, and technology to deliver scalable and sustainable performance.

Greaves Cotton, part of the diversified Greaves Group, has been steadily transforming itself from a legacy engineering and manufacturing company into a solutions-oriented organisation with a strong presence in clean energy, electric mobility, and industrial applications. The appointment of a Chief Strategy and AI Officer reflects a recognition that strategy and technology can no longer be treated as separate silos. Instead, they must work in tandem to respond to market volatility, regulatory shifts, and the rapid pace of innovation defining modern industry.

Singh brings with him more than 24 years of experience spanning strategy, digital transformation, innovation, and business excellence. Over the course of his career, he has worked at the intersection of technology and business, helping organisations translate complex ideas into actionable outcomes. His background positions him well to bridge the gap between long-term strategic intent and on-the-ground execution, a capability that is increasingly critical as companies seek to embed artificial intelligence into core operations rather than treating it as an experimental add-on.

Prior to joining Greaves Cotton, Singh served as Global Head – Marketing and Business Excellence at Tata Technologies. In that role, he was closely involved in shaping the company’s global growth narrative, strengthening its brand presence, and driving enterprise-wide transformation initiatives. Notably, he played a key role in advancing Tata Technologies’ GenAI initiatives, working on the application of generative artificial intelligence across functions to enhance productivity, innovation, and customer engagement. He was also instrumental in forging innovation partnerships, collaborating with ecosystem players to co-create solutions and accelerate time to market.

At Tata Technologies, Singh’s work in business excellence focused on building structured frameworks for continuous improvement, performance measurement, and customer-centricity. These experiences are expected to translate well into his new role at Greaves Cotton, where the challenge lies in aligning a broad portfolio of businesses under a unified strategic vision while allowing each to respond effectively to its specific market dynamics.

The Greaves.NEXT strategy, which Singh will now lead, is understood to be central to the company’s growth ambitions. As Greaves Cotton expands its footprint in electric mobility through its EV arm and deepens its capabilities in clean energy solutions, the need for a coherent strategy that integrates technology, sustainability, and profitability has become more pronounced. Artificial intelligence is expected to be a key enabler in this journey, supporting everything from demand forecasting and supply chain optimization to predictive maintenance and personalised customer interactions.

Industry observers note that the creation of a combined strategy and AI role is indicative of a broader trend among Indian corporates, particularly in manufacturing and engineering-led sectors. As AI technologies mature and become more accessible, companies are increasingly looking to embed them into core business processes rather than confining them to IT or innovation labs. By appointing a senior leader with both strategic and technological expertise, Greaves Cotton is signalling its intent to make AI a foundational capability rather than a peripheral experiment.

Singh’s mandate to build AI-led enterprise capabilities is likely to involve close collaboration across functions, including operations, finance, marketing, and human resources. This holistic approach is essential if AI is to deliver meaningful value at scale. Beyond deploying tools and platforms, the challenge will be to foster a culture that embraces data-driven decision-making, continuous learning, and cross-functional collaboration. Singh’s experience in driving enterprise-wide initiatives positions him to play a catalytic role in this cultural shift.

At the same time, advancing business excellence initiatives will require a disciplined focus on processes, metrics, and governance. As Greaves Cotton continues to grow and diversify, maintaining consistency in execution while allowing for agility becomes increasingly complex. Business excellence frameworks can help provide this balance, ensuring that innovation and experimentation are grounded in robust systems and clear accountability.

The appointment also comes at a moment when the broader energy and mobility sectors are undergoing significant transformation. Electrification, decarbonization, and digitalisation are reshaping value chains, creating both opportunities and challenges for established players. For Greaves Cotton, which has been actively investing in electric mobility and clean energy solutions, the ability to anticipate trends and respond quickly will be critical. Strategic foresight, supported by advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, can provide a competitive edge in navigating this uncertainty.

For Singh, the move to Greaves Cotton represents an opportunity to apply his experience in a context where technology-driven transformation can have a tangible impact across physical products, industrial systems, and consumer-facing solutions. Unlike purely digital businesses, companies in manufacturing and mobility must integrate AI with legacy systems, regulatory requirements, and real-world constraints. Success in this environment requires not only technical understanding but also a nuanced appreciation of organisational complexity and stakeholder expectations.

Greaves Cotton’s leadership has expressed confidence that Singh’s appointment will strengthen the company’s ability to execute its long-term vision. By combining strategy, AI, and business excellence under a single leadership role, the company aims to ensure alignment between ambition and execution, innovation and discipline. As Singh takes charge in Mumbai, all eyes will be on how the Greaves.NEXT strategy evolves and how effectively AI-led capabilities are woven into the fabric of the organisation.

In an era where competitive advantage is increasingly defined by the ability to learn, adapt, and innovate at speed, Greaves Cotton’s move reflects a broader recognition that the future belongs to organisations that can seamlessly integrate strategic thinking with advanced technology. Santosh Kumar Singh’s appointment is a step in that direction, marking a new chapter in the company’s ongoing transformation journey.