Avaali, a leading technology solutions company specializing in cost optimization and margin improvement for upper mid and large-sized enterprises, hosted an exclusive roundtable in Bangalore to deliberate on the urgent theme: “India’s AI Moment: The Enterprise Prioritisation Challenge Behind Scalable Impact.” Led by Ms Srividya Kannan, Founder and CEO of Avaali, the session brought together distinguished industry leaders, including Mr Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, CEO of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), and Ms Ohmna Sinha, Global Head of Data & Analytics Governance at Nielsen.
The roundtable took place at a definitive inflection point. Backed by the government’s landmark ₹10,300-crore IndiaAI Mission and the broader economic roadmap of Viksit Bharat @ 2047, AI is projected to potentially add $1.7 trillion to India’s economy by 2035. However, recent data from the Nasscom AI Adoption Index reveals that 87% of Indian enterprises are actively deploying AI solutions. But a critical gap remains between widespread adoption and deep operational readiness.
In her opening address, Ms Srividya Kannan, Founder and CEO of Avaali, underscored that the national AI conversation has rapidly shifted from ambition to execution, leaving enterprises with an operational “absorption gap”:
“India AI story will be written within enterprises. AI adoption is no longer the difficult conversation in most boardrooms; the harder question is readiness. Do enterprises know which processes are worth transforming first, do they have the data and governance to support AI, and can they convert experimentation into measurable outcomes?
The next digital divide will not be between companies that use AI and those that do not. It will be between enterprises that can absorb AI into the way they work, decide, and govern, and those that remain AI-curious but operationally unprepared. AI pilots create excitement. AI readiness creates economic value.”
The panel highlighted a stark execution paradox, and to translate this into enterprise productivity, the leaders outlined a strategic framework focused on thorough data readiness, building hybrid talent that pairs domain expertise with AI skills, and elevating AI from isolated IT tasks to absolute boardroom accountability.
Addressing regional execution,MrSanjeev Kumar Gupta, CEO of KDEM, highlighted that Karnataka commands over 40% of India’s overall tech capabilities, housing the largest concentration of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and nearly 39% of the country’s AI startups. Driven by Bengaluru’s tech ecosystem, which accounts for an 30% share of all AI job postings nationwide – demand being 300,000 per year currently, the state serves as the primary engine behind India’s march toward a $1 trillion digital economy.
Mr Gupta emphasized that while India has built an exceptional supply side, including the injection of 38,000 GPUs, robust public data sources, and the IndiaAI Datasets Platform (AI Kosh), the true test lies in enterprise commitment. He noted that While 88% of organizations globally use AI in at least one business function, but only 7% have successfully adopted it for real business outcomes.
“To bridge the gap and achieve real business value, enterprises must overcome three core operational barriers: real data availability, hybrid skills that blend domain expertise with AI, and bridging the boardroom understanding gap so directors can actively steer investments.
Large enterprises must move away from isolated pilots and start publishing concrete case studies on how AI has optimized internal processes. Every technology shift presents friction, but by focusing on execution, we transform challenges into sustained economic leadership.”
The panel also addressed how India is proactively tackling the environmental and sustainability challenges of massive AI computation. Mr Gupta highlighted strategic shifts toward renewable energy sourcing, stating, “There is a huge policy push that we have. We are working to come out with a sustainable data center policy. For the first time, we will introduce a very thoughtful process on how we can make data centres structurally sustainable. As more states and country-level discussions come forward, we will look ahead to embedding more of these sustainability parameters into our foundational frameworks.” He also pointed to breakthrough domestic eco-innovations alongside these policy steps, such as room-temperature servers from Vigyan Labs and advanced hypercooling infrastructure. Karnataka is leading as a role model on these initiatives. While we talk about the growth factors our Beyond Bengaluru emerging tech clusters – Mysuru, Hubballil-Dharwad-Belagavi, Mangaluru, Kalaburgi, Shivamoga & Tumakuru, are also scaling fast and are becoming the new powerhouse of Viksit Bharat for the globe.
Addressing the foundational requirement of trust, Ms Ohmna Sinha, Global Head of Data & Analytics Governance at Nielsen, warned against a corporate mindset of speed over substance, citing that around 85% of AI pilots ultimately fail to make it to production (Source: Gartner)
“Enterprises are no longer asking whether AI matters; they are asking how to operationalize it meaningfully. However, leaders must critically ask: Do we really need AI for every single process? The ultimate metric should not merely be speed; it must be AI Quality First and AI Faster.
As organizations mature, success will depend on clean data, clear governance, compliance readiness, and practical use cases that solve real problems rather than chasing hype. India’s evolving digital regulatory landscape is making this journey even more critical, encouraging organizations to build with accountability and transparency from the outset.”
Key Recommendations from the Roundtable:
- Move AI to the Boardroom: AI must become a board-level strategic priority with defined productivity, operational, and customer impact goals tied to investments.
- Build a prioritization discipline: Enterprises should build an objective prioritization discipline around AI. Rather than asking “where do we use AI’ they should ask Where should we apply AI first to create measurable business impact?
- Adopt a ‘Data Quality First’ Mindset: Scalable adoption begins with clean, governed, and compliant data foundations equipped with responsible AI guardrails.
- Strengthen Domain-Led AI Skilling: Future success depends on combining technical AI capabilities with deep, industry and functional specific expertise (Manufacturing, BFSI, Retail, Energy, Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain etc.).
- Enable MSME Inclusion: Large enterprises must bring their supplier and partner ecosystems into the digital transformation journey to ensure inclusive growth.
- Promote Sustainable Infrastructure: Commercialize green data center initiatives and domestic hardware innovations to scale computing sustainably.
Concluding the session, the panel emphasized that India’s AI moment is real. The ambition is real. The opportunity is real.But the next milestone will not be defined by how many AI pilots we launch. It will be defined by how effectively enterprises convert AI into productivity, resilience, governance, and measurable business outcomes and all this starts with the right prioritization.