Why TCS Just Picked Kolkata For Its Newest AI Lab

Kolkata has just become the newest city on TCS’s AI map. The IT services giant has launched a Consumer Business Group Gemini Experience Centre (GEC) in the city, a dedicated space where consumer-facing businesses can work alongside TCS and Google Cloud teams to build and test AI products powered by Gemini models.

It’s the third such centre TCS has opened in India, after the Retail Innovation Lab in Chennai and the BFSI Innovation Lab in Bengaluru. The idea behind each lab is the same: pick an industry, build a physical space around it, and let clients experiment with AI tools tailored to their specific business rather than generic demos.

The Kolkata launch is only the start of a much bigger rollout. TCS says it intends to open 10 Gemini Experience Centres across the world by the end of 2026, with 4 of them in India alone, as part of what the company calls a deeper push to partner with hyperscalers through the next phase of AI-enabled transformation.

Murali Ramanathan, CTO of TCS’s consumer business group, said the Kolkata centre gives clients room to ‘co-create, test and scale AI-led offerings,’ and framed it as part of a broader effort to help enterprises worldwide move ‘from pilots to enterprise-scale adoption.’

Google Cloud’s India director of partnerships, Shivir Chordia, said the joint work with TCS is already showing results, noting that ‘differentiated industry solutions built with Gemini are helping customers realise business value faster,’ and calling the Kolkata centre a step toward wider adoption of agentic AI among consumer businesses.

Wikimedia Commons/by Biswarup Ganguly