Tesco’s Trancend to white-label, sell AI solutions to enterprises

Tesco

British retail multinational Tesco’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India is white-labelling some of its artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to sell to enterprises.

“Some white label capabilities that we (Tesco’s GCC) could potentially then sell to other clients. We're right at the brink of some of that white labelling in terms of building the technology for the last 20 years,” Chief Operating Officer James Glavey told Moneycontrol on the sideline of Global Investors Meet - Invest Karnataka 2025, on February 12.

Tesco’s move will be a first in the industry, wherein a GCC will sell services to other companies. A GCC is a captive unit set up by a company to carry out information technology (IT) and related business functions.

The Welwyn Garden City-headquartered firm said it is creating solutions to solve problems in the retail industry using AI.

James Glavey cautioned that there’s an opportunity cost attached to this, as Tesco might lose out on some innovations which could be created faster by system integrators. “So, it swings around the world, some good, some not so good,” Glavey said, adding, "let's see where that develops and then let's move forward."

Tesco employs about 5,000 people at its GCC campus in Bengaluru, split equally between technology and business roles. Glavey added that the GCC is 'very much seen as an extension' to our UK head office.

Apart from Bengaluru, India’s Silicon Valley, Tesco employs about 600 in Gurugram, near Delhi.

Tesco also has a joint venture with the Tata Group in India, operating the retail chain Star Bazaar. “I think I'm correct in saying that we've got four of the top 14 data scientists in India working for us,” Glavey said, while speaking in a panel discussion. Tesco is also planning to expand its existing campus in India.

The Investor Meet saw a plethora of other announcements as well:

Automobile and vehicle components maker TVS Motor has signed an agreement with Karnataka to invest Rs 2,000 crore over five years to set up a global capability centre (GCC) in the state and expand its operations in Mysuru.

The Karnataka government launched the new Industrial Policy 2025-30, aiming for a 12 percent annual growth rate in manufacturing, eyeing Rs 7.5 lakh crore in investments and generating 20 lakh jobs by 2030.

Karnataka also launched an AI-powered single window system, in partnership with Microsoft to fast-track industrial approvals and improve business efficiency.

Also read: Invest Karnataka - Mahindra, Jindal, and others unveil major investments on day one

In the semiconductor space, Lam Research announced an investment of Rs 10,000 crore  at the Invest Karnataka 2025.