Artificial intelligence is entering a decisive phase of enterprise adoption, transitioning from isolated pilots to embedding into core business processes, decision-making and service models. Organisations are increasingly treating AI as a foundational capability - one that must be aligned with strategy, supported by robust data infrastructure and governed with clear frameworks to deliver value at scale. This shift is particularly evident in domains such as cybersecurity, where AI is no longer experimental but a critical defence capability, enabling faster threat detection, response and resilience in an environment where risks are evolving at machine speed.
At the same time, the focus is moving from technology adoption to structured execution and value realisation, with organisations looking to scale AI in a disciplined and outcome-led manner.
India’s AI trajectory is being shaped by a powerful combination of digital public infrastructure, expanding compute capacity and data-led ecosystems, enabling large-scale adoption across sectors.
Overall, these trends signal a shift toward an AI-driven economy, where innovation, resilience, trust and execution capability will define long-term value creation.
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Driving growth with AI trends
- ET Edge AI Summit 2026
- Tricentis AI Tour 2026
- From AI initiative to business transformation
- Reorganize or fall behind: The real race in the AI decade
- AI-ready infrastructure and operational capacity
- India data centre opportunity
- Accelerating AI with managed services
- AI reshaping the boardroom
- From AI adoption to AI leadership
- AI agents are fundamentally reshaping business models
India’s infrastructure constraints are no longer a limiting factor. By combining state-backed digital public infrastructure with strong private-sector innovation, India is forging a distinct AI pathway. Across the sovereign stack, the focus is on expanding compute capacity, building domain-specific models, and leveraging semiconductor expertise. More importantly, India is transforming solutions in healthcare, finance, and agriculture into scalable innovations and exportable models for global adoption.
Organisations with strong automation foundations adapt faster to change. Autonomous agents act across multiple enterprise systems simultaneously - a single bad decision can cascade across finance, procurement, HR, and customer data in seconds; the blast radius is far larger than a traditional software bug.
Clients who invested in test automation as a programme asset - not just a project expense - consistently recover faster from change: upgrades, regulatory shifts, and new AI feature rollouts all move faster.
As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, the real differentiator will be the ability to combine strong leadership accountability with clear visibility into AI costs and outcomes. Organisations that treat AI as a business transformation agenda - not just a technology initiative - will be best positioned to unlock sustainable value and measurable returns.
- Shalini Pillay
- Sunit Sinha
- Arun Sharma
As organisations accelerate their AI journey, the ability to build future-ready talent and continuously evolve capabilities will be a key differentiator. India has a unique opportunity to strengthen its position as a global hub for innovation and talent by fostering stronger collaboration between industry, academia and the wider ecosystem. Organisations that invest in workforce readiness today will be better equipped to create long-term value in an AI-driven economy.
AI presents organisations with an opportunity to reimagine how work is structured, how talent is developed and how value is created. As enterprises move beyond experimentation, success will depend on their ability to build workforce readiness, redesign operating models and create capability systems that evolve with the pace of change. The organisations that act with clarity and intent today will be best positioned to lead in the AI decade.
The future of work will be defined by readiness, not just resources. Building deployable skills, fostering continuous learning and strengthening collaboration across industry, academia and government will be essential to creating a workforce that can thrive in an AI-driven economy.
India currently has over 150 data centres with about 1.5 GW operational capacity as of early 2026, including emerging AI-focussed facilities driven by GPU deployments. The capacity to surpass 1.8 GW by the end of 2026 and reach over 8 GW by 2030 is fuelled by a shift toward AI-ready infrastructure encompassing hyperscale, specialised hardware like GPUs, software platforms, and edge computing.
Standard data centres currently yield Ebitda margins of 20-30%, while AI-optimised centres, with premium pricing for high-performance compute, are expected to achieve margins in excess of 50% due to elevated demand and utilisation.
- Rohan Rao
- Raghavan Viswanathan
India’s data centre sector is at an inflection point where demand, capital and technology are converging to drive large-scale infrastructure development. The transition toward AI-led workloads is fundamentally changing the design, scale and economics of data centres across the country.
With strong domestic demand and favourable cost structures, India is well positioned to become a key node in the global digital infrastructure ecosystem.
The rapid evolution of digital consumption, alongside regulatory push for data localisation, is creating sustained demand for domestic data centre capacity. At the same time, the emergence of AI-centric infrastructure is reshaping requirements across power, cooling and compute layers. These structural shifts present a significant opportunity for India to build a resilient, scalable and globally competitive data centre ecosystem.
Maneesha Garg
Partner & Head – Managed Services, Forensic, F&A, HR, Learning, Insight Led sales, Digital business operations and Sourcing
KPMG in India
As AI becomes central to enterprise transformation, organisations in India today are now eager to move from pilots to production, while managing legacy systems, scarce skills, and escalating cyber risk. Managed Services are fast evolving from a support function into a strategiv foundation, with AI-led scaling and transformation.
By integrating new technologies with existing platforms, strengthening data and AI governance, and bringing deep domain expertise, managed services offer a space where Indian organisations can accelerate value creation, through focus on mission-critical processes, and build sustainable, future-ready business innovation, while maintaining the resilience and discipline required to operate at scale.
Indian boards must move from passive oversight to active AI stewardship, embedding accountability, risk discipline, and value creation at the core of governance.
As firms scale from pilots to enterprise adoption, boards must navigate a landscape defined by speed, uncertainty and structural change - without managing AI directly.
AI has moved to the core of enterprise strategy, driving transformation beyond efficiency. With India’s Digital Public Infrastructure scaling and AI talent expanding rapidly, the focus now is execution.
Being AI first is not about experimentation. It is about aligning AI with core business priorities and embedding it across the value chain. As Agentic AI reshapes roles and workflows, enterprises must act with intent.
Three priorities stand out:
- Scale from pilots to enterprise wide deployment
- Treat trust as a strategic differentiator
- Build a truly AI native workforce and culture
The shift is clear. The question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how fast and how well it can be scaled for impact.
Prasad Jayaraman
Principal, BPG, Advisory Strategy & Markets
KPMG United States of America
- AI agents are moving far beyond simple tasks, they are taking on complex, end-to-end workflows and redefining how value is created. As they scale, they are not just expanding markets, they are reshaping them by going after the largest piece of all, human effort.
- Vertical agents are succeeding because they solve real problems in context, not in isolation. The bigger shift is that every business model, including ours, is being questioned. The firms that win will be the ones that combine technology with a point of view that clients cannot find anywhere else.
