Around 59% of Indian enterprises have actively adopted technologies like Artificial Intelligence, making India among the countries with the most extensive AI adoption, a survey by IBM revealed. According to the ‘IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023’ conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, early adopters are leading the way. They have increased their investments in AI in the past 24 months in areas like R&D and workforce reskilling. The report found that ongoing challenges of AI adoption remain, including hiring employees with the proper skills and ethical concerns. Hence, in the year 2024, addressing such problems would be a priority.

Managing director of IBM India & South Asia, Sandip Patel, commented, “The increase in AI adoption and investments by Indian enterprises is a good indicator that they are already experiencing the benefits of AI. However, there is still a significant opportunity to accelerate as many businesses hesitate to move beyond experimentation and deploy AI at scale.”

“To harness its full potential in the coming months, data and AI governance tools will be critical for building AI models that enterprises can trust and confidently adopt. Without governance tools, AI can expose companies to data privacy issues, legal complications, and ethical dilemmas – cases we have already seen plaguing many worldwide,” he added.

The IBM research further found that AI adoption has remained steady over the last several years at large organisations. About 59 per cent of IT professionals at large organisations report that they have actively deployed AI, while an additional 27 per cent are actively exploring using the technology. Similarly, around 6 in 10 IT professionals at enterprises reported that their company is actively implementing generative AI, and another 34 per cent are exploring it.

The report further highlighted that 74 per cent of IT professionals at companies deploying or exploring AI indicate that their company has accelerated their investments in the rollout of AI in the past 24 months in areas like R&D (67 per cent), reskilling of the workforce, development (55 per cent) and building proprietary AI solutions (53 per cent).

The report further said easier-to-use AI tools and the need to reduce costs and automate processes drive AI adoption among surveyed companies. According to the report, the skills gap remains the most significant barrier to AI adoption in India, and the lack of tools and platforms for developing AI models is also a substantial hindrance to AI adoption in India. Besides, it said, many found that the AI projects were too complex or difficult to integrate and scale, and there were ethical concerns and too much data complexity.