At the end of 2025, Business Standard surveyed 30 chief executive officers from across India's major industries about their plans for the year ahead. 96.7% of CEOs surveyed said they would increase AI investments in 2026. Not explore. Not evaluate. Increase.
To put that number in context: it is rare for any business survey to record near-unanimity on any investment decision. The fact that virtually every CEO in this cohort is aligned on increasing AI spend tells you that this is no longer a strategic debate. The debate is over. The question is now one of execution.
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The companies that emerge from this cycle with a data and AI advantage will not simply be more efficient. They will operate in a fundamentally different way — faster decisions, lower operational costs, better client service, earlier risk detection. The businesses that arrive late will find that the bar has moved. Not slightly. Substantially.
But Investment Alone is Not Enough
Increasing AI investment is a decision. Generating returns from that investment is an outcome. And the gap between the two is almost always explained by one thing: the state of the underlying data.
Businesses that invest in AI tools while their data remains siloed, delayed, or inconsistently structured will not see the returns their CEOs are expecting. The last thing a business needs is to add AI spend to that list without first addressing the data foundation that determines whether AI actually works.