Indian organisations are moving beyond AI experimentation and increasingly treating artificial intelligence as a core business capability, according to Autodesk’s AI Pulse Report 2026.
The report finds that 91% of Indian organisations increased their AI investment over the past year, compared with 85% across APAC and 81% globally. At the same time, 63% are using AI assistants and chatbots, the highest adoption rate among the APAC markets surveyed. No Indian organisation surveyed reported operating without AI tools.
The investment trend is accompanied by growing confidence in enterprise AI. Ninety-three percent of Indian respondents believe their organisations can keep business data secure while using AI, the highest level reported globally in the survey. Meanwhile, 87% are actively exploring new markets, making India the most expansion-focused market surveyed.
AI adoption moves towards business outcomes
The report suggests that AI adoption in India is increasingly being measured through business outcomes rather than experimentation alone.
Nearly 88% of respondents say AI has improved productivity, while 84% report stronger innovation outcomes and 75% say AI is enabling better decision-making.
Investment priorities reflect the same shift. Generative AI remains the leading area of investment, cited by 74% of respondents, followed by process automation at 58% and decision-support AI at 54%. AI agents have also entered the investment agenda, with 51% of Indian organisations prioritising them.
The momentum is expected to continue. Sixty-nine percent of respondents expect their organisations to adopt agentic AI within the next year, pointing towards a growing willingness to deploy systems capable of performing more autonomous tasks.
“India’s rapid AI adoption reflects far more than technology uptake — it signals the country’s growing leadership as a global innovation and engineering powerhouse,” said Haresh Khoobchandani, Vice President, APAC & Japan, Autodesk.
For industries including infrastructure, manufacturing, architecture and construction, Khoobchandani said AI is increasingly becoming a strategic tool for design innovation, productivity and resilience.
Workforce readiness emerges as an advantage
The report also points to workforce preparedness as an area where India compares favourably with its regional peers.
Seventy percent of Indian respondents believe their organisation provides sufficient AI training, compared with 57% in APAC and 59% globally.
Leadership support is similarly strong. Eighty-eight percent of respondents say senior leaders actively encourage AI adoption, compared with 81% across APAC.
The figures suggest that organisations are not relying solely on technology investment to scale AI. Training and leadership engagement are becoming part of the implementation equation as companies seek to integrate AI into broader business operations.
However, the report also highlights several barriers that could slow that transition.
Regulatory uncertainty is cited by 50% of respondents as a major challenge, followed by AI skills shortages at 49%, system integration at 47% and data quality at 45%.
The combination of high investment, broad adoption and growing workforce preparedness puts India among the more mature AI markets covered by the report. But the remaining challenges indicate that the next stage of adoption will depend less on simply deploying AI tools and more on resolving the organisational, regulatory and technical constraints surrounding them.