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IT services firm Coforge has called for greater visibility, accountability and auditable governance of artificial intelligence investments across private equity portfolios, even as the company itself faces questions over information disclosure at the board level that have led to the resignation of two independent directors.
The timing of the white paper, AI in Private Equity: Driving Value Through AI Execution, creates a notable contrast, with Coforge advocating stronger governance and information visibility for its clients at a time when its own boardroom processes have come under scrutiny. The paper proposes a Portfolio AI Command Center that would give private equity firms a consolidated view of AI activity, spending, readiness and outcomes across portfolio companies, allowing operating teams and investment committees to determine whether investments are delivering against value-creation plans. Coforge also argues that AI investments should be auditable, linked to measurable outcomes and governed through clearly defined accountability structures. Its framework is intended to give boards visibility over how increasingly autonomous AI systems operate and who remains accountable for their actions. The emphasis comes days after a governance controversy at Coforge centred on the flow of information to its own board. Former Chairman OP Bhatt resigned earlier this month following concerns arising from an internal audit into the company's board evaluation process. According to reports, parts of the evaluation were not shared with all board members, including information relating to the chairman's evaluation. DK Singh, an independent director who headed the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, subsequently also resigned, further drawing attention to differences within the board. The developments have also emerged as an investor concern. Systematix Institutional Equities, in a September 18 note on Coforge, said that while the company's deal momentum and AI investments could support growth, meaningful upside may be constrained by investor concerns over recent boardroom friction following the resignation of two independent directors. At the same time, Coforge has continued to put its operational and AI growth strategy before investors. The company held an analyst and investor briefing on Operationalizing Enterprise Autonomy, focusing on how enterprises can move AI from experimentation to production-scale deployment. Systematix said Coforge is positioning its Nuuron AI platform, ModSquads and forward-deployed engineering model as key parts of this strategy. The brokerage said about 6-7 per cent of Coforge's revenue is already linked to outcome-based contracts. The company currently has around 7075 forward-deployed engineers and is targeting 150 by March 2027, while all of its top 50 clients reportedly have enterprise-autonomy roadmaps. Against this backdrop, the new private equity white paper argues that AI has moved from optional upside to a core assumption in deal models, with investors increasingly factoring AI-driven revenue growth and margin expansion into expected returns. AI is no longer a source of optional upside, but a core assumption that underpins revenue growth and margin expansion expectations in many PE investment models, said Preeti Singh, Executive Vice President and Head of North America, Coforge. (ANI)
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