In the final months of 2025, India seemed to have become the gravitational centre of the global technology industry. Between October and December, a cascade of announcements from Google, Microsoft and Amazon pledged nearly USD 70 billion in cumulative investments into the country’s cloud, data centre and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Tata Consultancy Services’ move into the AI data-centre space, alongside frontier AI players OpenAI and Anthropic announcing a formal presence in India, reinforced the sense that a threshold had been crossed. Yet even as 2025 is remembered as a breakout year for Indian technology, the question now confronting policymakers and boardrooms alike is not how much capital is coming in, but whether India can convert this moment into durable, large-scale impact in 2026 and beyond.
"As we move toward 2026, India’s technology sector is entering a phase where scale, accountability, and outcomes matter more than momentum alone," said Sindhu Gangadharan, Managing Director at SAP Labs India and chairperson of IT industry body Nasscom. "The industry has built strong foundations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital platforms, supported by deep talent and a mature ecosystem of startups, GCCs, and global enterprises. The next chapter is about converting capability into sustained business and societal impact."
AI Moves From Experiments To Enterprise Core
An important theme for 2026 will be the deep embedding of artificial intelligence into core business processes, as enterprises move beyond pilots and proofs of concept.
"AI adoption is becoming sharper and more grounded in real use cases," Gangadharan said. "Enterprises are asking clearer questions around productivity, resilience, and trust. They expect technology to integrate seamlessly into core processes, not sit at the edges as experimentation."
This clear transition places greater responsibility on technology providers, she added. "This shift places responsibility on the industry to design solutions that are secure, explainable, and aligned with long-term value creation."
Wipro Chief Technology Officer Sandhya Arun said 2025 was a turning point, with enterprises moving from experimentation to meaningful AI adoption, a trend she expects to accelerate in 2026.
"As we look ahead to 2026, the focus will decisively shift to AI systems operating at scale, embedded within critical business workflows," Arun said. "We will see the rise of collaborative AI and importantly, this evolution elevates the role of people, from execution to orchestration, where human judgment, governance, and strategic intent remain paramount."
She added that regulatory frameworks and talent readiness would be key enablers. "Enterprises are increasingly prepared for large-scale deployment, while regulators worldwide are shaping frameworks that balance innovation with responsibility."
GCCs Evolve From Scale To Precision
India’s global capability centre (GCC) ecosystem seems to be also undergoing a structural change, moving away from large, cost-focused delivery hubs towards smaller, innovation-led centres.
"2025 marked a clear shifting point for India’s GCC landscape from giant, cost-focused delivery centres to smaller, high-impact, innovation-led GCCs," said Monica Pirgal, CEO at Bhartiya Converge. "Increasingly, firms are setting up agile centers of 100-500 professionals working at the forefront of AI, cloud, cybersecurity, product engineering and R&D, where speed-to-value, IP ownership and strategic influence matter more than scale alone."
This momentum is expected to accelerate in 2026, she said, driving demand for partners who can integrate strategy, talent and operations. "The next phase of GCC growth in India will be defined not by size, but by precision, agility and long-term value creation."
‘Deeptech Set For Breakout Year’
India’s deeptech ecosystem is pegged for a potential inflection point in 2026, with higher capital allocation, maturing startups and the prospect of landmark public listings.
"India’s deeptech ecosystem is set for a breakout year in 2026," said Ravi Jain, Investment Director at TDK Ventures. "Allocations to deeptech are likely to rise from about 10 per cent today to nearly 15 per cent, crossing the two-billion-dollar mark."
He expects long-scarce growth-stage capital to become more accessible as companies mature. "The year should also see two to three iconic deeptech IPOs of around USD 500 million or more, challenging the long-held belief that deeptech takes longer to monetise."
Government support and academic incubation are also expected to play a larger role. "With Indian conglomerates stepping up strategic acquisitions and the government’s RDI fund of funds catalysing new deeptech-focused funds, momentum should be strong," Jain said.
Voice And Conversational AI Gain Ground
Another area gaining traction is voice and conversational AI, particularly in India’s multilingual, consumer-driven market.
"Looking ahead to 2026, the focus is shifting from standalone voice models to conversational agents that can create, understand, and act across audio, video, images, and text within a single, continuous experience," said Carles Reina, go-to-market lead at ElevenLabs.
"In India, our first full year brought exceptional enterprise adoption," he said, citing use cases across customer engagement, education, healthcare and government services. "By 2026, conversational agents are expected to evolve from helpful tools into trusted digital counterparts supporting creativity, widening access to information, and shaping how people learn, work, and collaborate with technology."
Data Sovereignty, Compliance And Infrastructure Strategy
Data governance and infrastructure decisions are set to move decisively into boardroom territory in 2026, as geopolitical uncertainty converges with tightening domestic regulation. The stakes rose further in November, when India notified rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) rules, formally starting an 18-month countdown for companies to align systems, data flows and governance frameworks with the new regime.
For enterprises, the shift is forcing a rethink of where data resides, how it moves across borders, and how quickly infrastructure can adapt to regulatory or geopolitical shocks.
"In 2026, data sovereignty will evolve from a compliance checkbox into a boardroom priority," said Ramanujam Komanduri, country manager for India at Pure Storage. "Organisations that can pivot between sovereign, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments will be best equipped to navigate geopolitical uncertainty and supply chain constraints while maintaining business continuity."
He added that subscription-based infrastructure models would increasingly replace ownership. "In 2026, subscription overtakes ownership as the dominant model for how organisations fund and deploy AI and digital infrastructure."
Security Risks Intensify With AI
Cybersecurity leaders warn that AI will also reshape the threat landscape in 2026, amplifying both the scale and sophistication of attacks.
"In 2026, AI will shift from an attacker’s ‘helper’ to an autonomous force multiplier, fundamentally rewiring how cyberattacks work," said Grant Bourzikas, Chief Security Officer at Cloudflare.
He cautioned that many organisations remain weighed down by outdated security tools. "One of the largest barriers to securing an organisation will be wasted budget on tech that is old and antiquated."
Identity security is emerging as a critical control point in this environment, according to Rohan Vaidya, Area Vice President for India and SAARC at CyberArk.
"Identity security will be central to the conflict between human adaptability and technological advancement in 2026," said Vaidya. "Autonomous AI agents will become a standard part of business workflows… It will be the only reliable ‘kill switch’ when an AI agent acts unpredictably or gets compromised." |
