Indian Enterprises Are Finally Scaling AI: The Numbers Show It

For years, Indian enterprises lagged behind Silicon Valley in adopting emerging tech, especially when it demanded internal transformation. But that hesitation is fading fast. A new study shows that companies across India are no longer just experimenting with generative AI — they’re beginning to scale it. Nearly half of the organisations surveyed run multiple live AI use cases within their organisation and another quarter is testing AI pilot projects – this trend speaks to Indian businesses' increasing recognition that AI can serve as a strategic advantage today – be it automation, customer experience or faster decision-making – thus becoming part of enterprise workflow processes in India.

AI Adoption in India Is Reaching a New Phase

EY India, in collaboration with CII has released its third annual AIdea of India: Outlook 2026 survey report. Respondents came from 200 organisations spanning 20 sectors – startups, PSUs, MNCs and government bodies alike. CXOs and senior leaders who directly oversee digital transformation efforts provided their input.

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A standout insight:

- 47% of Indian enterprises now have more than one AI use case running in production, while 23% have their projects in the pilot stage. For a business environment that historically avoids large-scale internal restructuring, this is a significant cultural shift.

- The push is backed by leadership confidence.

- 76% of business leaders believe GenAI will have a “significant business impact”.

- 63% say they’re ready to leverage it effectively.

Where Indian Companies Want AI to Make the Biggest Impact

The report shows that three divisions are expected to see the highest acceleration in AI adoption:

Operations (63%) – automation, optimisation, and efficiency gains

Customer service (54%) – chatbots, smart workflows, faster resolutions

Marketing (33%) – personalisation, content generation, campaign insights

Speed of deployment has become the key criterion in choosing between buying or building AI tools internally, leading to global players such as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI taking an aggressive stance towards tailoring enterprise offerings specifically to India.

Budgets Still Don’t Match the Optimism

Despite strong conviction at the leadership level, budgets tell a different story.

Over 95% of surveyed organisations allocate less than 20% of their IT budget to AI.

Only 4% spend more than that.

EY suggests a key reason: organisations still struggle to justify AI investments in traditional ROI terms. Transformative technologies don’t pay back in linear, immediate ways, and many businesses are still adjusting to that reality.

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Startups and Enterprises Are Teaming Up

One of the report's most encouraging trends is the growing collaboration between large corporations and young AI startup businesses.

Nearly 60% of enterprises are now co-innovating with startups to remain competitive, taking advantage of their agility and experimentation to keep pace with competitors. Many organisations find this model more efficient than relying solely on in-house development for innovation.

Conclusion

Indian enterprises may have come late to AI adoption, but they're making up ground quickly. Backed by strong leadership support and rising use cases as well as an expanding startup-enterprise ecosystem, India now has all of the ingredients for widespread AI adoption – if their current momentum keeps up it won't remain an open gap for too long!