India's GenAl push finds cloud, but fumbles on data

Cloud is accelerating India’s GenAl ambition, but poor data quality and weak governance threaten to stall the path to scale and measurable impact.

- SHUBHENDU PARTH

Cloud migration is rapidly emerging as a critical step in unlocking the potential of Generative AI (GenAI) in India, with 80% of enterprises in the country viewing it as a crucial enabler of their AI strategies, according to a new research report by International Data Corporation (IDC), commissioned by Qlik and co-sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The IDC report, The AI Pivot: Accelerating GenAI Adoption and Unlocking Data-Driven Business Value, indicates that India leads the ASEAN region in public cloud adoption, with 40% of organisations using one or more public clouds compared to ASEAN's 31%. Additionally, 30% of Indian enterprises favour a hybrid cloud model, which is significantly higher than the 19% reported in Australia.

This trend reflects the country's growing maturity in its digital infrastructure and its readiness to scale AI solutions using flexible and scalable computing environments.

GENAI INVESTMENTS RISE, BUT MATURITY LEVELS LAG

The report shows that 36% of Indian enterprises are already using GenAI technologies, with another 46% planning to invest within the next 12 to 24 months—the highest anticipated adoption across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. India’s AI-related spending is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35%, reaching USD 9.2 billion by 2028.