Sonata Software has named Hariprasad “Hari” Rebala as its first Chief AI Officer, a move that signals how enterprise technology providers are restructuring leadership around AI as client priorities shift from testing the technology to running on it.
Rebala steps into the newly created role with more than 30 years split between large IT services firms and AI startups. His mandate at Sonata: turn scattered AI initiatives into what the company calls “enterprise velocity” measurable gains in speed and output rather than isolated proof-of-concepts.
The hire lands at a moment when consulting and IT services firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as AI-first players. But for the enterprises they serve, simply having access to AI models isn’t the bottleneck anymore. The harder problem is stitching AI into existing systems, security protocols and vendor stacks and getting pilots to actually reach production.
Sonata is wagering that the companies best positioned to win this next phase are the ones that can pair AI engineering talent with deep enterprise modernization experience exactly the combination Rebala is meant to bring.
“Transforming Sonata Software into an AI-native organization is foundational to our growth trajectory,” said Rajsekhar Datta Roy, Sonata’s CEO, adding that Rebala’s background gives him “deep context of enterprise-grade AI platforms and engineering, delivering to outcome-based models.”
Before joining Sonata, Rebala served as Chief of AI Solutions and Growth at a deep-tech AI startup. He also co-founded Forfend, an early venture focused on IoT and conversational AI. His enterprise résumé includes senior leadership roles at Mindtree, Capgemini and Wipro, where he led large-scale transformation programs, with a particular focus on financial services.
That startup-enterprise blend is likely to shape how Sonata approaches the market. Startups have pushed GenAI development forward quickly, but large enterprises operate under a different set of constraints legacy systems, compliance requirements and fragmented vendor relationships that slow adoption regardless of how capable the underlying models are.
“AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to becoming fundamental to how enterprises compete, operate and create value,” Rebala said in a statement announcing the appointment. “AI alone will not define the winners, the ability to translate AI into enterprise velocity will.”
Partnerships remain central to Sonata’s approach. The company works with Microsoft, AWS, Salesforce and Snowflake, giving it a foothold in the cloud, data and software ecosystems where most enterprise AI deployment is currently happening. Its proprietary Platformation framework underpins modernization work across retail, manufacturing, tech, telecom, healthcare and financial services.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Sonata describes itself as an AI-first modernization engineering firm with nearly four decades of history and more than 6,400 AI engineers, serving clients across the U.S., U.K., India, Malaysia, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordics.
The appointment reflects a broader repositioning happening across the IT services industry: AI isn’t just disrupting how these firms operate it’s opening a new market for helping other companies rebuild around it. Rather than simply selling enterprises another AI tool, firms like Sonata are angling to help redesign the underlying systems and workflows AI depends on. With Rebala now at the helm of that strategy, Sonata appears to be making that bet formal.
