A staggering 75% of Indian companies express the belief that they have a mere year, at most, to have an AI strategy before their business faces repercussions. The urgency to deploy AI technologies has spiked in the past six months, with IT infrastructure and cybersecurity emerging as the top priority areas for AI deployments.

A hint of anxiety is also visible in the startup ecosystem with companies like Zomato, OYO, ixigo, Freshworks and others having launched generative AI-enabled products and services in their respective domains. Even a company like Zerodha, which initially had a no-AI policy, has decided to explore the spectrum. 

These sentiments were reflected in the AI Readiness Index conducted by Cisco. In the survey, it was observed that only 26% of organisations in India are fully equipped to deploy and leverage AI-powered technologies. The index, a product of a comprehensive survey involving 8,161 business and IT leaders from the private sector across 30 markets, talks about the AI readiness among companies with 500 or more employees.

On a positive note, Indian companies are actively taking strides to prepare for an AI-centric future. About 95% already have a sturdy AI strategy in place or are in the process of developing one. For instance, Project Indus by Tech Mahindra, which is an Indic-based foundational model, is expected to be launched in the next month or two. 

“As companies rush to deploy AI solutions, they must assess where investments are needed to ensure their infrastructure can best support the demands of AI workloads,” said Liz Centoni, executive vice president and general manager, applications, and chief strategy officer, Cisco. “Organisations also need to be able to observe with context how AI is being used to ensure ROI, security, and especially responsibility.”

Globally, 95% of businesses acknowledge that AI will ramp up infrastructure workloads. However, in India, only 39% believe their infrastructure is highly scalable. This same group contends with limited or no scalability when confronting new AI challenges within their existing IT frameworks.

To meet the power and computing demands of AI, over two-thirds (68%) of Indian companies anticipate the need for additional data centre graphics processing units (GPUs) to support current and future AI workloads.

GitHub Report Tells the Tale

GitHub’s State of the Octoverse 2023 report, which was released just a week ago, shows Indian developers’ trajectory in AI development. With a community of 13.2 million developers now active on GitHub within its borders, India has firmly established itself as the globe’s second-largest contributor to AI projects, after the United States.

Notably, 3.5 million new developers joined GitHub’s ranks in 2023 alone.

The significance of this surge is not lost on Sharryn Napier, VP of APAC at GitHub as she said, “Just imagine what India will be able to achieve if its 13.2M developers are empowered with AI. Not only will this transform enterprise innovation and productivity, but it will elevate developer happiness and make a substantial impact on India’s economy and society as a whole.”

Examining the data shows a consistent year-on-year growth rate of 148% within the Indian developer community, as underscored by GitHub’s projections forecasting India’s overtaking of the United States in total developer population by the year 2027.

This momentum signifies a seismic shift in the tech landscape due to AI, more specifically, generative AI. The stark difference between researchers and enterprise-level businesses in India highlights how tricky the AI scene in the country is.

India has always adopted new technologies launched in the West, but now with generative AI, things are changing. According to GitHub, India is now one of the “top contributors” to the global AI open-source ecosystem. This shift is a big deal showing India’s involvement in the AI landscape.