What Mahindra launched
India's largest tractor brand turned 60 in 2024, and it chose to mark the anniversary with something no tractor manufacturer had tried before: a virtual tractor drive that puts the customer inside the ad. The campaign followed Mahindra's tribute film to the Indian farming community, Desh ka Tractor: 'Mitti se juda, Junoon se Saja', and was timed to the festive season when tractor buying peaks.
The mechanic is deliberately simple, because the audience is rural and mobile-first. A farmer visits the Mahindra Tractors website, uploads a photograph, and enters a phone number and location. Vitra.ai's face augmentation engine composites that face into the campaign film so the person genuinely appears to be driving the tractor, and the finished video arrives on WhatsApp in the regional language matched to where they are. No app, no account, no studio.
Why it took AI to do this
A personalised video like this used to be arithmetically impossible. Shooting one film per customer is absurd; even template-based video tools break down when the variable is a human face that has to sit correctly on a moving body in outdoor light. Vitra.ai's approach uses machine learning and deep learning models trained for face swap and augmentation, which is what makes a per-customer render cheap enough to run hundreds of thousands of times.
At the time of launch the programme had already produced more than 250,000 personalised experiences across Mahindra's tractor range. That is the number that matters: personalisation is only interesting to a brand if it survives contact with scale.
"At Mahindra Tractors, we are excited to present the first-ever virtual tractor drive, a brand-new initiative that represents our brand at the forefront of technology beyond just our products for a deeper connection with our new and evolving farmers. The new initiative is a testament to the power of AI, through which we have already enabled over 250,000 experiences."
— Vikram Wagh, CEO, Mahindra Tractors
"Leveraging Vitra.ai's state-of-the-art personalised and augmented AI-generated face-swap video technology for farm tractors gives farmers an immersive experience, enabling them to connect with the Mahindra brand like never before. We are thrilled to have scaled this innovation to meet Mahindra's high engagement goals, effectively and efficiently personalising their customer engagements for their widest range of tractors."
— Satvik Jagannath, Co-founder and CEO, Vitra.ai
The same video personalization engine underpins Vitra.ai campaigns in banking, insurance and retail, where the unit economics of one-to-one video decide whether a campaign ships at all.
Full coverage
This story was carried across the Indian business press. Every outlet that ran it is linked below.
- ETAuto — Mahindra Tractors launches AI-powered virtual tractor drive to celebrate 60th anniversary
- AgroSpectrum India — Mahindra Tractors launches unique virtual tractor drive
- MediaBrief — Mahindra Tractors celebrates 60 years with unique virtual tractor drive experience
- Autocar Professional — Mahindra Tractors launches personalised virtual drive experience
- Krishi Jagran — Mahindra Tractors Launches Personalized Virtual Tractor Drive
- Autonexa — Mahindra Tractors Introduces AI-Powered Virtual Tractor Drive for 60th Anniversary Celebration
- Manufacturing Today India — Mahindra Tractors offers farmers a unique virtual drive experience with AI technology
- Business News This Week — A personalized virtual tractor drive, a unique initiative by Mahindra Tractors
- IndianWeb2 — A Personalized Virtual Tractor Drive, a Unique Initiative by Mahindra Tractors
