How should Deloitte USI evolve from a delivery centre into a product engineering hub for Deloitte's own AI products?

Introduction

Deloitte USI (US-India) is the network of Deloitte offices in India, in cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Gurugram and Chennai, that serve US member firm clients across consulting, audit, tax and advisory. For years its main role has been delivery: skilled teams executing work designed and sold in the US. Now Deloitte is building its own products, including Zora AI (its agentic AI platform), Omnia (its audit platform) and Ascend (a delivery platform), and USI already hires product owners, product specialists and AI engineers for them. The question is how USI should evolve from a delivery centre into a product engineering hub for Deloitte's own AI products. This is a strategy question about capabilities, organisation and talent as much as about products.

Key business objectives:

1. Give Deloitte's products the engineering and product capacity to scale
2. Raise USI's value from cost-efficient delivery to ownership of products
3. Attract and keep top product and AI talent in India
4. Keep quality, security and client trust intact

I'll clarify goals, analyse the market, set a vision and roadmap, prioritise, plan execution, define metrics and manage risks.

Step 1

Clarify the Strategic Goals (3-4 minutes)

• What does "product engineering hub" mean: building parts of products, or owning whole products end to end?

Why it matters: Ownership requires product managers, designers, architects and decision rights, not only engineers. Expected answer: Leadership wants USI to own selected products or major modules end to end within three years. Impact on approach: Plan for product leadership roles in India, not just developer headcount.

• Which products are in scope?

Why it matters: Each has different users and risk. Expected answer: Zora AI agents, internal AI tools and delivery platforms like Ascend; Omnia stays globally led but with large USI contributions. Impact on approach: Start with products where USI already has strong teams.

• What constraints apply?

Why it matters: Client data and regulated work. Expected answer: Data residency, security certifications and US client consent for offshore access to data. Impact on approach: Build privacy-safe engineering practices and synthetic test data.

Strategic assumptions:

1. USI's existing scale and talent pool make it the natural engine for Deloitte's products.
2. The biggest gap is product ownership culture, not technical skill.
3. The model must work for US stakeholders who own clients and budgets.