"We don’t force feed or mandate AI tools": Vembu explains Zoho’s approach to AI adoption

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Zoho co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu has explained how the company is approaching AI inside its engineering teams, emphasising that there is no mandate forcing developers to use AI tools. In an X post, Vembu wrote, “We don’t force feed or mandate AI tools, and leave the decision on how best to use AI to experienced engineers,” making it clear that the adoption of AI is voluntary and based on individual workflow needs.

Vembu shared internal examples to demonstrate how this approach is playing out across the organisation. He described a conversation with a senior engineer who has over two decades of experience and works on performance-sensitive UI development. According to Vembu, the engineer reported a sharp rise in output after incorporating AI tools into his workflow. The engineer “is now shipping features that would have taken him 3 weeks of work that he got done in a day,” Vembu wrote. The engineer added that AI helps construct the framework of the solution, but human oversight remains essential for refining and finalising the code.

He also highlighted the impact on younger engineers. A junior developer at Zoho recently built an internal tool using AI, which is now being used across multiple teams. Vembu noted that the engineer told him “he could not have built the tool without AI,” reflecting how AI is enabling less experienced developers to undertake complex tasks that would otherwise have been out of reach.

Vembu clarified that these observations are drawn from Zoho’s wider engineering organisation and are separate from his own AI research work. He added that even when AI assists with coding, engineers continue to review and approve all outputs to maintain quality and consistency.

Through these examples, Vembu underlined that AI adoption at Zoho is evolving organically. Engineers are choosing AI where it strengthens their productivity, and the company’s role is to support that choice rather than enforce it.