Stellantis is stepping up its use of artificial intelligence across the vehicle development cycle, with the company’s Bengaluru Technology Centre becoming a critical base for engineering transformation and next-generation customer experience. A senior official at the centre said the company views AI as a catalyst that multiplies the effectiveness of skilled engineers rather than replacing human expertise.
The executive said Stellantis is pursuing two distinct but connected AI tracks. The first focuses on customer experience, anchored by its in-car AI assistant. The second applies AI to engineering and product development, where tools are being deployed across simulation, design, validation and optimisation.
The official said AI-led engineering has already helped compress several stages of the development process. The automaker is now targeting a development period of under two years per new product despite increasing complexity in global vehicle platforms.
The Bengaluru centre is expected to play a central role in this shift. According to the company, close to 4,000 people work in engineering across its Indian operations. More than 1,000 of them sit at the Bengaluru Technology Centre, with an average age of 34 and an average experience of over 10 years. Stellantis also operates centres in Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad.
When asked whether AI would reduce headcount, the official said the opposite was true. AI, he explained, can only deliver value when used by people with deep domain knowledge. Skills such as engine design, aerodynamics, material science and software engineering remain essential. With AI in their hands, he said, domain experts can deliver “2x, 5x or even 10x” improvements in output and capability.
The company is therefore investing heavily in training. External experts are being brought in, and internal “AI communities” have been created to run workshops, jams and knowledge-sharing cohorts. The official compared the future of AI adoption to the trajectory of email, which shifted from a breakthrough technology in the 1980s to a basic everyday tool. AI, he said, will become just as natural across all stages of the vehicle lifecycle.
Stellantis also conducts AI-led “blue sky sessions,” where teams imagine solutions without constraints of equipment, budgets or existing processes. The company then uses AI to determine how close those ideas can be brought to reality.
Stellantis’ growing partnership with Mistral AI is expected to significantly expand its capabilities. Over the past two years, Stellantis and Mistral AI have collaborated on integrating advanced AI models across customer experience, business operations and engineering workflows. In October, the two companies expanded the partnership into a strategic alliance designed to embed AI at the core of Stellantis’ global operations.
On the consumer side, the company’s in-car assistant, known as Cara in India, will continue to evolve, the official said. While Cara currently handles basic queries, Stellantis is testing new diagnostic features that can analyse noises or defects in a vehicle and determine whether the issue is serious. The executive said this work remains in the lab stage.
Cara’s rapid upgrade cycle is made possible by what Stellantis describes as a “super-modular architecture.” Each component–voice models, reasoning engines, data repositories and interaction layers–can be swapped independently. With AI leadership shifting every few months, the company wants the ability to update modules instantly without rewriting the system.
This modularity also helps optimise costs. If a lower-cost AI model with equal performance becomes available, Stellantis can replace it without affecting the customer experience. The official said the entire Cara framework was conceptualised and developed in India and is now deployed across global markets.
Stellantis globally operates 14 brands, including Jeep, Citroën, Fiat, Peugeot, Opel, Maserati, Chrysler and Dodge. In India, the company retails vehicles under the Jeep, Citroën and Maserati brands. It also has three manufacturing plants in the country–Ranjangaon (which supports the Tata Motors joint venture and produces Jeep models and powertrains), Thiruvallur (the production base for Citroën vehicles), and Hosur (the global export hub for engines and transmissions).