Indian enterprises race to adopt AI but workforce readiness lags

Artificial intelligence adoption is accelerating across Indian enterprises, but only one in four organisations believe their workforce is adequately prepared to leverage the technology, according to Kyndryl's latest People Readiness Report.

The study, which surveyed 1,100 senior business and technology leaders across eight countries, found that just 25% of Indian organisations consider their workforce AI-ready, marking a 12-percentage-point decline from last year despite broader AI deployment across businesses.

The report comes as enterprises move beyond AI experimentation towards large-scale implementation. According to the findings, 56% of Indian organisations have deployed AI broadly or embedded it into core business processes, up from 36% in 2025.

However, the pace of AI adoption is raising concerns over workforce preparedness and governance. Around 81% of Indian business leaders said they are worried that AI advancements are outpacing workforce capabilities, governance frameworks and operating models.

To bridge the gap, companies are increasingly redesigning jobs and investing in organisational transformation. Nearly 69% of organisations said they have redesigned roles across business functions to support AI adoption, while 33% have allocated formal budgets and launched structured upskilling initiatives.

The report also highlights growing concerns around autonomous AI systems. While 84% of Indian organisations expect AI agents to make material business decisions within the next 12 months, only 28% said they fully trust autonomous AI systems operating without human oversight.

"India has consistently demonstrated leadership in technology adoption, and enterprises are moving quickly to integrate AI into their operations," said Lingraju Sawkar, President, Asia Pacific, Kyndryl India. "Scaling AI successfully will require organisations to rethink how work gets done, redesign roles, build new capabilities and establish governance frameworks that foster trust and responsible adoption."

Globally, workforce readiness is also emerging as a key challenge. Only 23% of organisations worldwide believe their employees are fully prepared for AI, while 79% said AI is advancing faster than their workforce, governance and operating models can adapt.

The report identified a small group of organisations—about 9% globally—that Kyndryl describes as "Pacesetters". These companies combine AI-led job redesign, structured change management and workforce readiness initiatives, making them 1.5 times more likely to achieve AI-driven revenue growth and 1.6 times more likely to report stronger product and service innovation than their peers.

The findings come as global AI spending is projected to reach $2.52 trillion in 2026, up 44% year-on-year, according to Gartner, underscoring the growing pressure on enterprises to align technology investments with workforce transformation.