Walmart Global Tech and IIT Madras collaborate to establish the Walmart Center for Tech Excellence, aiming to empower Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises with cutting-edge engineering and retail analytics solutions
Walmart Global Tech (WGT) has partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) to establish the Walmart Center for Tech Excellence to empower Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing and retail sectors. The centre will work towards developing cutting-edge solutions that will help MSMEs adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) along with digitisation to drive operational efficiency and profitability.
This partnership is another step ahead in Walmart’s commitment to equipping local entrepreneurs with tools to augment their businesses and promote sustained growth for the Indian MSME sector. The centre will work towards building an open-sourced, domain-agnostic platform that will develop engineering analytics solutions, making them widely accessible.
Additionally, the center will build a repository of case studies to accelerate AI adoption in the manufacturing and retail industries. These case studies will also be leveraged to deliver skilling programmes focused on the basics of AI and its application in the sectors.
V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “IIT Madras has initiated many projects in this direction including the one that helps MSMEs in reducing energy consumption. The research carried out through the Walmart Centre will be of immense value to the MSMEs.”
Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Dean (Global Engagement), IIT Madras, said, “Through this Centre, we hope to support MSMEs with cutting-edge technologies in AI and IoT, provide a domain-agnostic solution platform for AI/ML implementations and upskill the manpower to be able to leverage these technologies to be globally competitive.”
Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “With Artificial Intelligence impacting every walk of life, there is an urgent need to improve and empower MSME processes and operations through AI. The Walmart Center for Tech Excellence is perfectly positioned to democratise access to AI.”
