Sonata Software is putting AI at the center of its next phase of growth, this week appointing Hariprasad (Hari) Rebala as Chief AI Officer as enterprises increasingly shift their focus from experimenting with AI to deploying it across core business operations.
Rebala, who has more than three decades of experience spanning enterprise tech and startups, will lead Sonata’s AI strategy across its offerings. According to the company, his mandate will be on turning AI adoption into measurable business outcomes and what it describes as enterprise velocity.
The appointment comes as consulting and IT services companies race to reposition themselves around AI. For enterprises, however, the challenge is increasingly moving beyond access to models and tools. Companies need to integrate AI into existing technology environments and establish workflows that can move from proof-of-concept projects into production.
Sonata is betting that this shift will create an opportunity for companies that can combine AI engineering with enterprise modernization.
“Transforming Sonata Software into an AI-native organization is foundational to our growth trajectory,” said Rajsekhar Datta Roy, CEO of Sonata Software.
“Hari brings a unique combination of AI startup and IT services expertise, with deep context of enterprise-grade AI platforms and engineering, delivering to outcome-based models,” added the executive.
Rebala joins Sonata after serving as Chief of AI Solutions and Growth at a deep-tech AI startup. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Forfend, where he worked on IoT and conversational AI platforms.
He has also held senior leadership positions at Mindtree, Capgemini and Wipro, where he scaled businesses and led large transformation programs, particularly in the financial services sector.
That mix of startup and enterprise experience is likely to be central to Sonata’s strategy. W
hile these ventures have helped accelerate the development and adoption of GenAI, large enterprises often face a different set of constraints: legacy infrastructure, security requirements and multiple technology vendors.
Sonata says Rebala will help bring those pieces together as it embeds AI across its engineering organization and client solutions.
“AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to becoming fundamental to how enterprises compete, operate and create value,” Rebala said in a company press relaease. “AI alone will not define the winners — the ability to translate AI into enterprise velocity will.”
The company is also emphasizing partnerships as part of that strategy. Sonata works with major technology providers including Microsoft, AWS, Salesforce and Snowflake, giving it access to cloud, data and enterprise software ecosystems where much of the current AI deployment is taking place.
Its proprietary Platformation framework is designed to support modernization and transformation initiatives, while its AI engineering organization works across sectors including retail and manufacturing, technology and telecommunications, healthcare and financial services.
Sonata, headquartered in Bengaluru, India, describes itself as an AI-first modernization engineering company. It says it has nearly 40 years of experience and more than 6,400 AI engineers supporting customers across the U.S., U.K., India, Malaysia, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordic countries.
The appointment also reflects a broader change underway in the world of tech. AI is creating changes while simultaneously creating demand for new services. That puts companies such as Sonata in an interesting position, with an opportunity to not simply to sell enterprises another AI tool, but to help them rebuild the systems and processes around it.
With Rebala now responsible for Sonata’s AI strategy, the company appears to be positioning itself for that transition, moving from helping enterprises modernize technology to helping them redesign how technology-enabled businesses operate in an AI-first world.
