Event · Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi
Maruti Suzuki Vendor Conference 2026: an AI avatar for suppliers
Maruti Suzuki opened its Vendor Conference 2026 at Bharat Mandapam with a life-size HoloBox hologram: an AI avatar that answered suppliers’ questions from the company’s own project records.
The Vendor Conference is Maruti Suzuki’s closed-door gathering for its supplier network, where the company sets the targets and direction for the year ahead. The 2026 theme was "Powering the Future, Agility, Technology & Global Quality".
The brief was to open with something as forward-looking as that message, rather than a standard keynote set-up, so that delegates felt it as soon as they walked in.
The full case study
Maruti Suzuki opens its Vendor Conference 2026 with a life-size hologram
Summary
Maruti Suzuki brought its supply chain to Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, for its Annual Vendor Conference 2026. We opened the conference with a HoloBox: a life-size hologram standing in the room and speaking directly to the company's suppliers, in place of an opening slide or video.
The brief
The Vendor Conference is Maruti Suzuki's main gathering for its supplier network. It is a closed-door event where the company sets the targets and direction for the year ahead.
The 2026 theme was "Powering the Future, Agility, Technology & Global Quality". The company wanted an opening that matched that message and held a room of senior decision-makers from the first moment. A standard keynote set-up was not going to do that.
What we built
We set up a HoloBox, an 86-inch 4K display that shows life-size, photorealistic visuals inside a transparent enclosure. The audience sees the effect without headsets or 3D glasses.
The format suited a room of senior suppliers for four reasons:
- Presenters and content appear at human scale, which holds attention better than a flat screen.
- HoloBox can stream a senior leader in live, as a hologram, from anywhere in the world.
- AI-powered 3D avatars can greet guests, guide them and answer questions.
- Every guest sees the effect straight away, with nothing to wear or set up.
How it worked on the day
The hologram opened the conference. Instead of a slide or a video, suppliers walking in saw a life-size figure standing in the room and addressing them directly, which set the tone for the rest of the agenda on the future of mobility.
Results
Maruti Suzuki got an opening that matched the forward-looking theme of the conference. The format did three jobs in the room:
- It held the attention of a senior audience from the moment it appeared.
- It backed up the message: a company talking about technology opened with technology.
- It gave guests a moment to talk about after the event.
The same approach works for product launches, dealer conferences, experience centres and other flagship events.
About the solution
HoloBox: life-size hologram display
HoloBox is an 86-inch 4K transparent display that shows a person or product as a life-size hologram. Use it to bring your managing director to a conference live from another city, or to run an AI avatar that answers visitor questions at your booth, in several languages.
- Live two-way holographic streaming of leaders and experts
- AI avatar trained on your product catalogue and FAQs
- 3D product showcases and interactive quizzes
- Available to buy or rent for an event
About the Vendor Conference 2026
The Vendor Conference is an annual, closed-door event Maruti Suzuki India Limited holds for the component suppliers and vendor partners that supply its plants. Attendance is by invitation; there is no public registration. Its published focus areas are supply chain excellence, quality benchmarks, localisation targets and alignment with the company’s production and technology roadmap.
Date, venue and organiser
- Dates: May 2026. An events directory lists 21–23 May; the HoloBox911 case study refers to 21–22 May. Maruti Suzuki has not published a programme.
- Venue: Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
- Organiser: Maruti Suzuki India Limited
- Theme: "Powering the Future, Agility, Technology & Global Quality"
The series is annual: component maker Subros recorded its participation in the 2025 edition on 28 April 2025. The Vendor Conference is separate from MQFC 2.0, Maruti Suzuki’s dealer convention, and from the ACMA–Maruti Suzuki Supplier Development Conference held on 10 July 2026 in Gurugram.
Why a carmaker brings its suppliers together
Almost every part of a modern car is made by another company, so a carmaker’s quality, cost and launch timing depend on hundreds of suppliers. A conference sets out the year’s expectations to all of them at once: quality standards, localisation targets, the model and technology roadmap they need to tool up for, and recognition for strong performers.
Localisation, moving a part from an imported source to a domestic one, shortens lead times and removes currency and freight exposure. It needs tooling investment and proven quality before a single part ships, which is why targets are set a year or more ahead.
About Maruti Suzuki
Maruti Suzuki is India’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturer and a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation. It runs four plants, at Gurugram, Manesar and Kharkhoda in Haryana and Hansalpur in Gujarat, with installed capacity of about 24 lakh units a year.
- Over 23.4 lakh units produced in FY2025-26, an all-time high and up 11.66% on the previous year
- Five models each crossed 2 lakh units: Dzire, Fronx, Swift, Ertiga and Baleno
- A fifth plant planned at Khoraj Industrial Estate, Sanand, Gujarat, with 10 lakh units of annual capacity, towards an ambition of about 40 lakh units a year
Running that close to capacity while planning expansion makes supplier readiness central. Publicly known suppliers include Subros for air-conditioning systems and Rane Group companies for steering systems.
What we delivered
We supplied and ran one HoloBox911 enclosure at Bharat Mandapam, doing two jobs on one deployment day:
- DigiLib AI avatar: a life-size avatar that took spoken questions from vendors and answered aloud, lip-synced. It answered only from 750+ project records exported from Maruti Suzuki’s internal DigiLib knowledge base, with supporting detail on a 22-inch touch panel.
- On-premise AI: the model was trained on-premise using Ollama, so the records never left Maruti Suzuki’s own infrastructure and no external API saw them.
- Supplier film: a film of the quality head of supplier Rane, captured in one session and edited to about ten minutes, played in the same enclosure the same day.
The unit is an 86-inch 4K transparent LCD, viewed without glasses or headsets under normal room lighting. The 750+ figure is the size of the knowledge base, not a count of questions answered.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Maruti Suzuki Vendor Conference?
An annual, closed-door conference Maruti Suzuki holds for its component suppliers and vendor partners, covering supply chain, quality, localisation and its production roadmap.
When and where was the 2026 edition?
In May 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. Listings give 21–23 May; Maruti Suzuki has not published a programme.
Can my company attend?
Not by public registration. Attendance is by Maruti Suzuki’s invitation, for existing suppliers and vendor partners.
Is it the same as MQFC 2.0?
No. MQFC 2.0 is Maruti Suzuki’s dealer convention, with a different date, venue and HoloBox deployment. The ACMA–Maruti Suzuki Supplier Development Conference is also a separate event.
How many people attended?
Maruti Suzuki has published no attendance figure. Our case study reports that the avatar welcomed 1,000+ vendors.
What did the HoloBox911 deliver?
A life-size AI avatar that answered vendors’ spoken questions from 750+ DigiLib project records, and a ten-minute film of Rane’s quality head, both in the same 86-inch enclosure on the same day.
Does 750+ records mean 750+ questions were answered?
No. It is the number of project records in the knowledge base the avatar answered from, not a count of questions.
Did Maruti Suzuki’s data leave its own systems?
No. The model was trained on-premise using Ollama, so the records stayed on Maruti Suzuki’s infrastructure and no external API received them.
This guide was first published on holobox911.com.
