At Celosphere 2025 in Munich, the message from Celonis was clear that there is no AI without PI, or Process Intelligence, something that the company is betting big on. And evidently, there is no PI without India and the brains that are working in the country.
Celnois’ president Carsten Thoma revealed during the press conference before the event, held from November 3-5, that the company plans to triple its India workforce to 1,500 by 2027, making up a third of its global headcount.
But if you ask Kaushik Mitra, vice-president and head of go-to-market for Celonis India, this expansion isn’t about offshoring or cost. It’s about turning India into the global brain of process intelligence and enterprise AI.
“We started in 2021 with services and value engineering,” he told AIM in an exclusive interaction. “Now we are the innovation hub for Celonis globally, servicing both global customers and Indian enterprises. It’s not only about R&D—it’s about everything. The ambition is to make India the AI and PI epicentre.”
Celonis, known for its “process intelligence” software that helps companies map their businesses and optimise functions, is betting on India’s growing clout in both AI talent and enterprise tech.
Why India?
Thoma said that India’s transformation has been “fascinating to watch.” When he left SAP in 2018, India had just two companies in the Global 2000 list. “Today, it’s 65. Decision-making is happening in India. It’s no longer just about shared services,” Thoma said.
For Mitra, that shift is already visible. “When we meet Indian enterprises, their ambition is global. They’re not thinking of themselves as regional players anymore,” he said. “We are seeing traction across sectors—from manufacturing and banking to services—where process intelligence is becoming essential to making AI work.”
“Companies are rushing to adopt AI, but unless you give it a business context, it won’t deliver results. You end up hallucinating,” Mitra said. “That’s why process intelligence is crucial. It gives AI the context to make sense of data and drive real outcomes.”
Celonis calls this concept “context engineering”—a step beyond prompt or code engineering. By mapping the real flow of processes using what it calls a digital twin or process intelligence graph, Celonis helps enterprises spot inefficiencies, gaps, and deviations from how things are supposed to run.
“Typically, when we create a digital twin, it looks like spaghetti,” Mitra laughed. “That’s the reality. The context is what helps untangle that mess and make AI successful.”
He adds that process intelligence sits at the heart of enterprise AI embedded into how businesses function. “We’re not talking about point AI solutions anymore. It’s enterprise AI—AI that’s infused across your organisation, guided by process context.”
ROI to ROAI
One of the big themes at Celosphere was measuring the Return on Artificial Intelligence—ROAI. Many companies are pouring millions into AI projects without clear results. Mitra believes the answer lies in grounding those investments in process intelligence.
“ROAI is about ensuring AI investments are linked to measurable business outcomes. If you don’t define the process context, AI will fail to generate value. But when AI is guided by process intelligence, it becomes tangible and measurable,” he said.
Celonis is already helping Indian partners like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra, and tens of others, integrate process intelligence into their global operations. “Most of these GSIs have centres of excellence in India. We’re leveraging their use cases from multiple industries and deploying them in the Indian context,” Mitra said. “It’s a great plus because those assets become reusable across markets.”
Mitra joined Celonis in January 2025, and within months, he saw the India team evolve into a critical hub not just for implementation but for innovation. The company’s Bangalore and Pune teams are now developing new capabilities for its process intelligence platform and working closely with Indian enterprises eager to transform their operations.
The rise of Indian GCCs is a major factor. “A huge percentage of our power users are in India and within GCCs. These centres are no longer back offices, they’re decision-making engines,” Thoma said earlier.
Mitra agreed. “The Indian ecosystem today is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Enterprises here are building for global scale, and GCCs are becoming full-fledged international hubs,” he said.
Context is King
As enterprises grapple with a flood of AI tools and autonomous agents, Celonis sees the next big shift in context awareness. “Context engineering is the future,” Mitra said. “When you understand your processes—where the gaps are, how much deviation is acceptable—you can design AI systems that work reliably.”
He said Celonis’ approach is less about hiring armies of “forward-deployed engineers,” as seen in companies like Palantir, and more about infusing tech with consulting.
“We do an MRI of a company’s data and systems. That’s how we build a digital twin—based entirely on the customer’s own data. So, it’s not guesswork. It’s about solving real business problems, not theoretical ones,” he said.
For Celonis, this evangelism now runs through India. “We believe in the power of India,” Mitra said. “That’s why we’re bringing our engineering and innovation hubs here. We want to make India the home of process intelligence—and the brain of enterprise AI.”
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