Engineers don’t want AI tool contracts. At least the ones they are caught in episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 4, 2026 · 55 MIN

Engineers don’t want AI tool contracts. At least the ones they are caught in

from Zero Shot (Private) · host The Ken

As enterprises make sure their employees use AI, integrate it into their workflows, track productivity, and highlight AI usage in their investor calls, a new kind of tension is emerging within organisations. Engineers are simply not happy with the tools they have been assigned. They want flexibility and deals with companies that make tools that actually work for them. Some are even ready to go back to no tools. Verifying AI-generated code, they say, is an extra layer that is only burdening them. Meanwhile, India’s enterprise AI ecosystem is thriving. The country has emerged as one of the fastest-growing markets for tech giant Microsoft’s AI programmer Github Copilot. In December, the company had announced that more than 200,000 Copilot licences would be deployed across TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Cognizant. At the recent AI summit, OpenAI and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) agreed on rolling out Enterprise ChatGPT internally. Anthropic tied up with Infosys to deploy Claude models and AI agents into enterprise workflows.Mrunmayee Kulkarni, The Ken’s AI reporter, spoke to dozens of employees and tech leaders to get to the heart of the tension. She joins us today to dissect it along with Ashwin Sekhar, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Incred. In fact, Ashwin commented on Mrunmayee’s story. His interesting take made us reach out to him and start a conversation. And now, he finds himself on the podcast. We’d love to hear all of your takes, opinions, and thoughts. Please write to us at [email protected] *This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN.Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken.Additional Reading: Engineers gag as Amazon, TCS, and Cognizant ram ‘mandatory AI’ into everyday workAnthropic goes to warOur agreement with the Department of WarEveryone in Seattle Hates AI

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 4, 2026

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Engineers don’t want AI tool contracts. At least the ones they are caught in

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