Amid rising enterprise interest in artificial intelligence, Uniqus Consultech co-founder Jamil Khatri says many deployments struggle to deliver measurable ROl due to gaps in data, governance, and functional alignment. To address this, the firm is investing up to$20 million in its newly launched Al consulting platform.
Amid growing concerns over the lack of tangible return on investment (ROI) from enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) projects, tech-led consulting firm Uniqus Consultech has launched a new Al consulting practice called Al UniVerse, targeting finance, risk, and sustainability functions across global enterprises.
The company, which raised $20 million in Series C funding earlier this year, has committed at least $10 million towards the development of this platform, with potential investment scaling up to $20 million, depending on market traction and asset build-out.
Right now, we expect to invest at least $10 million, that’s half of our Series C capital. Depending on how many accelerators we build and how much traction we get, it could go up to $20 million. Jamil Khatri, Co-founder and CEO of Uniqus, in an exclusive interaction with ETCFO
The ‘AI ROI’ gap
Khatri said that while Al adoption is accelerating globally, most enterprises are struggling to extract measurable financial value from deployments.
“There is a visible gap between Al’s promise and practical outcome, especially in finance and risk,” he said.
“Many companies ask, if we deploy Al, how much cost can we save, what revenue leakages can we prevent, and how do we translate LLM capabilities into competitive advantage? These are the real questions.
Our platform aims to address exactly that.”
Purpose-built for finance, risk, and ESG
Unlike many Al consulting offerings that focus on marketing or analytics, Al UniVerse is designed to embed Al into core back-office and control functions.
The offering comprises three layers:
- Readiness assessments including reviews of data infrastructure and governance;
- Solution design and deployment using large language model (LLM) workflows tailored to specific business problems:
- Responsible Al frameworks ensuring privacy, compliance, and cybersecurity safeguards are in place.
The practice is backed by an engineering team that Uniqus is expanding from 15 to 25 Al-focused professionals, including talent from BITS Pilani and prior Al startups, Khatri said.
Pilots already underway
Uniqus has already begun pilots with clients in India, the Middle East, and the United States. These include a cash-flow forecasting solution for a CFO’s office and a distribution leakage management system for a US-focused pharmaceutical company.
“The early traction is promising. Our model is to start with pilots and scale only where there is demonstrated ROI,” Khatri said.
He added that Uniqus is also developing Al accelerators, modular, reusable Al tools that can be tailored to client needs to reduce implementation time and cost in future projects.
Targeting tangible and intangible ROI
Khatri emphasised that CFOs and risk leaders are increasingly asking for proof of value before committing to full-scale Al investments.
Clients want hard ROI, cost savings, faster reporting cycle, but they also value intangible gains like improved insight and decision-making. AI needs to deliver both. He said
Depending on the complexity of the solution, deal sizes can range from a few lakh rupees to multi-crore engagements, he added.
Regulatory tailwinds ahead
Khatri also expects upcoming Al regulation to serve as an enabler rather than a hurdle.
Just like we’ve seen data privacy and cybersecurity laws globally, we believe India will soon have clear frameworks for Al around copyright, data usage, and user consent. That will reduce risk concerns and encourage adoption. He said.
Looking ahead
The company expects Al-enabled solutions to contribute 20-25% of its targeted $150 million revenue by FY27. Its current revenue for FY26 stands at around $50 million, according to Khatri.
Source: ET CFO
