Accenture’s latest survey of executives and employees across the largest India businesses shows that adoption of generative AI is accelerating. 78% of India businesses plan to ramp up AI investment to ready operations for a year of rapid change in 2025. However, that investment is focused on technology, rather than people that will have to use it. This highlights the biggest challenge when it comes to unlocking the full potential of gen AI.
That changes in talent are not being addressed in the appropriate way and with the required urgency, is demonstrated by data from 2,000 gen AI related projects conducted by Accenture, three times more budget is spent on technology than on people.
TECHNOLOGY
The vast majority (78%) of India C-suite leaders feel prepared to up their investment in gen AI in 2025.
The top three reasons for higher investment in gen AI executives cite are:
- Capitalising on advances in the technology (29%)
- Increasing confidence in managing associated business risk (23%)
- Maintaining business competitiveness (17%)
67% of C-suite leaders feel their organisation’s gen AI development is going faster than initially expected.
India executives’ primary focus for investment in gen AI is enhancing processes by completing specific tasks or workflows (56%), which is higher than the executives in other regions.
Though investment is increasing, both executives and employees are not fully sold on the potential value of gen AI:
While 66% of C-suite leaders claim they understand the potential value of gen AI “to a great extent”, only 45% of employees say the same.
TALENT
Work will be significantly affected by gen AI: 77% of employees believe their roles will be impacted.
Training is occurring, but perhaps not at the right level or on the right topics:
- While 93% of C-suite leaders believe people in their organisation have received the training needed to use AI / gen AI efficiently, only 86% of employees agree with this sentiment.
- Employees who are not currently using gen AI tools cite concerns over the accuracy of the output (33%), a lack of resources (38%) and difficulty with integration (10%) as primary reasons.
CHANGE
When asked about the current business environment, most India executives (84%) expect a higher level of change in 2025 than in 2024.
At the same time C-suite leaders (49%) say their organisations are less prepared for disruption in 2025 than in 2024 – across every dimension of change we measured.
- Geopolitical disruption: 51% are not fully prepared (38% somewhat prepared, 11% not very prepared, 2% not at all prepared).
- Talent disruption: 44% are not fully prepared (41% somewhat prepared, 2% not very prepared, 1% not at all prepared).
- Economic disruption: 48% are not fully prepared (45% somewhat prepared, 3% not very prepared, 1% not at all prepared).
Employees are even less confident in their organisation’s preparedness to respond to any changes in the business environment with 54% reporting their company is not fully prepared.
Saurabh Kumar Sahu, MD and Lead for India Business at Accenture said, “While the excitement around generative AI is palpable, it is crucial for Indian businesses to balance their investments in technology with a strong focus on talent development. By aligning people, processes, and technology, we can create a robust ecosystem that not only enhances operational efficiency but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation. This is the path to staying competitive in a rapidly evolving market.”
Survey Methodology
Most recently fielded in November/December 2024, the Accenture Pulse of Change and Employee Surveys gathered insights from 790 C-suite executives as well as 687 non-C-suite level employees across 22 industries and 5 countries in Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, India, Japan, and Singapore).
