Indian companies now include AI in long-term strategy, reveals new IBM study

Many respondents from India expect AI to bring long-term benefits in areas like innovation (26%), revenue generation (21%), cost savings (12%), and enhanced employee productivity (12%), the report said.

“In 2025, AI is set to be the game-changer for Indian enterprises, revolutionising productivity and enabling unprecedented scalability,” said Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia.

“As we work towards the vision of a Viksit Bharat, the focus will be on leveraging AI responsibly to drive real business value—moving beyond low-risk experiments to strategic initiatives that provide a competitive edge and improved ROI. Additionally, the rise of small, high-performing AI models will redefine efficiency, delivering task-specific results that rival larger models at a fraction of the cost,” he added.

What more did IBM’s report predict?

In 2025, Indian organisations will primarily focus their AI investments on enhancing customer experience (27%), planning and strategy (16%), and optimising IT functions (16%). To achieve these goals, they must tackle challenges such as data accessibility (46%), limited AI skills (42%), and integration and scaling difficulties (38%).

The key to success lies in developing cost-effective AI solutions that offer flexibility to use custom-built open-source models and seamless integration between multiple vendors.

The early focus on short-term wins in generative AI projects is evolving into a deeper understanding of AI’s potential. There is a shift from low-risk, non-core applications to deploying generative AI in core business functions, aiming for a competitive edge and better ROI.

Nearly 60% of organisations across the Asia-Pacific region expect to see the benefits of their AI investments within two to five years, while only 11% anticipate returns within the next two years.

The APAC AI Outlook 2025 outlines the key trends and challenges organisations must address to unlock AI’s transformative potential. It offers insights from 17 industry leaders in the region and a blueprint for accelerating AI initiatives while managing associated risks.

The five strategic trends shaping the region’s AI future

• Organisations are set to adopt a “Strategic AI” approach in 2025, focusing on projects that are both feasible and impactful for the business. This shift reflects a more mature understanding that short-term successes are important for gaining trust and buy-in but must be balanced with long-term AI strategies. The challenge will be scaling AI through use cases that maximise revenue opportunities and ROI.
• Purpose-built AI models will gain popularity, especially those tailored for local languages, regional contexts, and simpler computational tasks. The “Rightsizing AI” approach will require significantly less training data and produce a smaller carbon footprint compared to the large language models that have dominated discussions in AI so far.
• Organisations across the Asia-Pacific region will increasingly adopt open-source AI models to foster innovation and efficiency. The “Unified AI” approach, with robust orchestration tools, will improve management, offering flexibility, cost-effectiveness, enhanced security, and smooth integration between different vendors.
• Businesses will increasingly implement agentic workflows, powered by AI agents, to autonomously handle tasks, collaborate with human workers, and drive value throughout the organisation. “Agentic AI,” which combines AI with automation, can significantly improve operational efficiency, customer experience, and decision-making. However, businesses must establish internal guidelines and regularly assess models to ensure ethical and responsible usage.
• While AI adoption has largely focused on productivity tools, the future will focus on using AI to enhance human capabilities and experiences. The “Human-Centric AI” approach will become a vital tool for employees to augment their roles, automate routine tasks, and open up opportunities for creativity and innovation. By emphasising the empathetic design of AI solutions, companies can strengthen customer relationships and brand loyalty.

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