Indian organisations are seeing returns from AI. But their readiness to manage the risks is falling, according to Kyndryl’s 2026 Readiness Report.
Returns up, readiness down
The report found that 60% of Indian business leaders reported positive returns on AI investments. That is up three percentage points from 2025. Average readiness to manage external risks fell eight percentage points to 27%. This points to a widening gap between AI adoption and preparedness.
Only 35% of Indian organisations said they were completely ready to manage cyberattacks. That is down 10 percentage points from 2025. The global figure was 26%.
Three in four leaders said AI helps them spot threats faster. Even so, their confidence in responding to attacks has weakened.
The findings come from a survey of 3,700 senior business leaders across 21 countries. It included 200 respondents from India.
Kyndryl Chairman and CEO Martin Schroeter said organisations now want to make early returns last. He said AI ambitions are moving faster than the systems that support them. The bar for readiness keeps moving as AI spreads through enterprises, he added.
From pilots to production
The report found that 85% of Indian organisations use AI in workflows beyond pilot projects. The share still experimenting fell 15 percentage points to 56%.
Scaling remains hard. About 70% of leaders said they have more AI pilots than they can realistically scale. Another 58% said innovation often stalls after the proof-of-concept stage.
Infrastructure gaps
Some 71% of Indian leaders see their IT infrastructure as mostly or fully modernised. Yet 59% said significant re-architecture is needed to support AI at scale.
Half of the organisations surveyed have significantly changed their AI strategy over the past year. Some 31% have had an AI investment fail.
Leadership alignment
The report also found that 37% of Indian organisations see disagreements between their CHROs and their CTOs or CIOs over AI strategy. This points to organisational alignment as a further barrier to scaling AI.
