Key takeaways
- Leverage AI agents as 93% of Indian leaders plan deployment within 12-18 months.
- Prioritize new AI-specific roles; 92% of leaders are considering these positions.
- Focus on productivity gains; 64% of leaders highlight this as a key strategy.
- Upskill workforce; 51% of leaders rank training as their top priority.
- Adopt multi-agent systems for complex tasks; 57% of leaders expect this development.
Indian organisations are moving quickly to embed AI agents into core operations, according to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index. The study reveals that 93% of Indian leaders plan to utilise AI agents to augment workforce capacity within the next 12–18 months, marking the highest level of confidence globally.
The report identifies “Frontier Firms” as the companies leading this shift. Microsoft noted that 59% of leaders in these firms are already using AI agents to automate workstreams across teams, pointing to a move from fixed hierarchies toward more adaptive structures.
Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India & South Asia, said, “India is firmly in its AI-first era, with AI agility accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Leaders are scaling operations with AI emerging as a true thought partner—fuelling creativity, fast-tracking decisions, and redefining collaboration.”
The report also highlights a strategic reset in boardrooms. 90% of Indian leaders said 2025 is a pivotal year to rethink strategies and operations. Of these, 64% prioritised productivity gains, while nearly all said they would expand workforce capacity with digital agents over the next year and a half.
New roles are emerging in response. 92% of leaders are considering AI-specific positions, while 57% expect teams to build multi-agent systems for complex tasks. Job titles such as “Agent Bosses” and “AI Workflow Designers” are beginning to appear.
Skilling has been identified as critical to this transformation. 51% of leaders named upskilling as their top priority in the coming 12–18 months. A majority of managers (63%) expect AI training to become a core responsibility for teams within five years.
Himani Agrawal, chief operating officer, Microsoft India & South Asia, said, “Today, we’re not just leading businesses—we’re leading them with AI. This isn’t a simple tech upgrade; it’s a cultural transformation rooted in continuous learning, application, refinement, and scale.”
Industry leaders also shared their experiences. PwC India reported that 30,000 employees gained access to an AI platform, with a 70% adoption rate within seven months. “Our leaders are hands-on with AI, and we’re seeing deeper returns and tangible impact from that commitment,” said Manpreet Singh Ahuja, chief clients and alliances officer, PwC India.
LTIMindtree’s CIO, Rajesh Kumar R, said the company is embedding AI into daily employee systems, adding, “Our vision is to provide every employee with a digital companion, starting right from onboarding.”
Cognizant’s global solutioning head, Poornima Sathy, pointed to a workforce-wide effort.“Through our Synapse program, we’ve made a bold commitment to empower 1 million people with AI fluency globally. When we design workflows, it’s an orchestration of human effort, automation, generative AI agents, autonomous agents—and even ambient intelligence.”
Globally, Microsoft said its AI-powered tools are seeing strong adoption. Microsoft 365 Copilot apps have surpassed 100 million monthly active users, while over 3 million AI agents were created by customers in FY25 using Copilot Studio and SharePoint.
The findings suggest that Indian enterprises are moving beyond pilots to operationalising AI at scale, with leadership, workforce familiarity, and technical adoption aligning to make AI part of mainstream work.
