New SAP research places India second globally for strategic AI investment.
Indian firms lead global AI adoption with a massive $25.9 million investment surge.
India is accelerating its trajectory as a global leader in enterprise-grade AI adoption, driven by a corporate shift from speculative proof-of-concept frameworks to high-ROI, production-ready deployments. Consequently, this maturation in strategic AI governance has elevated the nation to the world’s second-ranking position for investment maturity. Furthermore, to sustain this growth, Indian organisations are earmarking $25.9 million toward the expansion of advanced, scalable computational infrastructure.
Furthermore, enterprise capital expenditure (CapEx) is forecasted to surge by 45% over the upcoming biennium, reflecting a strategic intensification in infrastructure investment. In parallel, projected returns from agentic AI systems defined by their capacity for autonomous, multi-step orchestration and closed-loop decision-making are set to quintuple, reaching $14.4 million. Crucially, by abstracting away the requirement for persistent human-in-the-loop intervention, these architectures enable organisations to achieve exponential gains in operational throughput and efficiency.
The findings come from the SAP Value of AI report 2026. This global study involved 2,600 business leaders across thirteen countries. Notably, the research included two hundred respondents from the Indian market. Furthermore, Manos Raptopoulos of SAP SE suggests that AI serves as the vital backbone for modern enterprises. In addition, he believes these systems understand specific industry processes and data deeply.
Therefore, organisations become more adaptive and resilient in a dynamic environment. Indian businesses are moving rapidly from experimentation to active execution. Currently, seventy-one per cent of firms possess a defined AI strategy; these plans align closely with overall business objectives. AI currently supports thirty-three per cent of business tasks in India.
However, this level will likely rise to over half within two years. Most businesses report high satisfaction with their current returns on these investments. Adoption across different functions should double in the near future. Interestingly, India leads globally in appointing dedicated leaders to scale AI adoption. Over half of the surveyed organisations have already filled these critical roles.
(Source: BusinessLine)
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