NetApp, an intelligent data infrastructure company, has released its second annual Cloud Complexity Report, highlighting India’s position as the top country for the global implementation of AI projects.

The report, which analyses the experiences of global technology decision-makers deploying AI at scale, reveals that 70% of companies in India have AI projects up and running or in motion, significantly higher than the global average of 49%.

Furthermore, 91% of India-based companies plan to use half or more of their data to train AI models in 2024.

Puneet Gupta, Vice President & Managing Director of NetApp India/SAARC, emphasised the critical role of data in enhancing AI capabilities, stating, “India is a country of humungous data sets. It’s no surprise then that India leads the world, and corporations are embracing AI to further their IT agenda.”

The report also revealed a stark divide between AI leaders and AI laggards across various regions, industries, and company sizes.

AI-leading countries, such as India, Singapore, the UK, and the USA, have 60% of their AI projects up and running or in the pilot, compared to only 36% in AI-lagging countries like Spain, Australia/New Zealand, Germany, and Japan.

Despite the challenges posed by rising IT costs and data security concerns, AI leaders are determined to continue their AI progress by scaling back, cutting other IT operations, or reallocating costs from other parts of the business.

In India, 53% of companies reported being more likely to scale back or cut other parts of IT operations to make room for AI projects.

As global companies increase investments in AI, they rely on the cloud to support their goals.

Increasing data security investments is a global priority, with 82% of Indian companies planning to improve security within their public cloud usage in 2024.

The report’s findings underscore the importance of unified data infrastructure in achieving AI success and the need for AI laggards to swiftly innovate to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.