Indian enterprises are moving past the experimental phase of artificial intelligence to achieve measurable financial gains. A new global research report from Snowflake and Omdia, “The ROI of Gen AI and Agents,” indicates that 71% of Indian organisations now report a positive return on investment from generative AI. This figure stands ten percentage points higher than the global average of 61%.
The survey, which gathered data from 2,050 technology leaders across ten countries, places India among the top three global adopters alongside the United States and Germany. Currently, 42% of Indian companies utilise generative AI across multiple departments.
High adoption in technical workflows
The data shows that Indian firms apply these tools heavily within technical functions. While global adoption in software development sits at 48%, Indian firms report a 65% adoption rate. This trend extends to several core operations:
- IT Operations: 76% in India against 61% globally.
- Data Analytics: 75% in India against 57% globally.
- Cybersecurity: 69% in India against 52% globally.
These figures suggest that Indian businesses are prioritising under-the-hood improvements to their digital infrastructure. Organisations by automating routine engineering tasks, are aiming to shorten development cycles and improve system reliability.
Measurable business outcomes
The shift toward AI is yielding specific operational improvements. According to the report, 94% of Indian respondents noted gains in operational capacity, while 86% reported direct improvements in financial performance.
Specific use cases in software engineering illustrate this trend. In India, 77% of organizations use AI for code generation, and 76% use it for debugging and reviews. In contrast, global averages for these tasks are 64% and 65%, respectively. These tools allow engineers to focus on higher-level architecture rather than repetitive syntax.
Projected spending and agentic AI
India is also expected to lead global spending on these technologies over the next year. Indian enterprises plan to allocate 28% of their total technology budgets to generative AI initiatives. This is the highest planned allocation among all surveyed nations and exceeds the global average of 22%.
The next phase involves agentic AI systems capable of executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention. While 56% of global organisations plan to implement these agents, 66% of Indian firms have already started or intend to start within the next 12 months.