AI Without the Hype: Zoho’s Strategy for Cost, Control, and Customer Trust

Zoho Chief Strategy Officer Vijay Sundaram discusses how Zoho plans for long-term resilience as the industry enters a capital-intensive era of artificial intelligence. Zoho’s decision to remain bootstrapped has directly shaped its approach to growth, investment discipline, and accountability, particularly in how it evaluates AI adoption. The conversation explores why Zoho prioritizes smaller, domain-specific AI models over massive foundational systems, how it manages cost exposure, and what it means to build and operate a full technology stack without dependence on third-party platforms. Throughout the discussion, he offers a candid, operator-level perspective on how organizational structure and long-term thinking influence technology strategy at scale.