One Engineer Oversees Ten Digital Agents: The Success Story of Happiest Minds

On a Friday afternoon in March 2026, at Happiest Minds Technologies’ delivery floor, an engineer displayed a screen to his manager showing something out of the ordinary. He wasn’t coding; rather, he was overseeing ten digital workers activated to build a chatbot in real-time. As the lead engineer, he monitored the agents completing specific tasks. “He has ten digital workers creating a chatbot,” noted Preeti Menon, Chief Operating Officer for the PDES Business Unit at the ₹5700-crore software firm, who attended the demonstration. It wasn’t merely a proof of concept; it provided insight into the future trajectory of software engineering at the Bengaluru-based company, reflecting the culmination of 18 months dedicated to strategically transforming mid-cap IT operations. In March 2026, the Bengaluru-based company adjusted its FY27 revenue growth forecast upward to 12.5% from an earlier target of 10%, with AI-driven services, including data engineering, anticipated to account for about 25% of revenue. CEO Joseph Anantharaju highlighted that the company’s dedicated generative AI unit, Generative AI Business Services (GBS), generated $2.63 million in the December quarter alone, aimed at hitting a full-year FY26 target of $5 million. He projects growth to $12 million in FY27. The stock market reacted positively; shares surged over 30% following the guidance update, although some gains were later reduced. Analysts continue to assess whether this re-rating signifies genuine performance or is overly optimistic. What’s indisputable is the robust deal flow. Over the December quarter, the company secured a $3 million AI-driven project with a management institute in Southeast Asia and a three-year contract worth $12 million to enhance customer support through AI. With 32 generative and agentic AI use cases advancing beyond the prototype stage, many are scaling into full-fledged projects. Sushovon Nayak, IT Research Analyst at Anand Rathi Institutional Equities, points out that Happiest Minds’ GBS unit is outpacing many larger competitors, though his optimism is cautious. “The successful deployments generating commercial revenues are the crucial ones,” he stated, emphasizing the importance of sustained commercial viability over mere project announcements. Where it all started: The Data and AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) was established in 2013, focusing on traditional machine learning challenges such as demand forecasting, marketing analytics, and anomaly detection, well before generative AI became a widespread topic. However, the landscape shifted in late 2022 when OpenAI’s large language models emerged. Ritesh Gupta, the company’s CTO and a long-time member of Happiest Minds, described the subsequent eighteen months as a thrilling rush. Large language models (LLMs) accomplished what traditional AI had struggled with — effectively processing natural language at scale, necessitating a swift response from the company. The solution was structural; instead of integrating generative AI into the existing CoE, Happiest Minds established GBS, a distinct business unit. “We immediately assigned 100 personnel and implemented strong senior leadership for the generative AI business unit,” noted CEO Joseph Anantharaju. Eighteen months down the line, the GBS unit, along with the AI CoE, employed between 650-700 individuals by December 2025, with expectations to reach 1,000 by the conclusion of FY27.