Trust as the New Currency: Reimagining Cybersecurity for the AI Era

Anand Jethalia, Country Head of Cybersecurity, Microsoft India & South Asia, on the company's shift from PC maker to AI-driven enterprise partner.

- By Jagrati Rakheja | By [e-mail]

ANAND JETHALIA, Country Head of Cybersecurity at Microsoft India & South Asia, believes digital trust now depends on viewing security not as a cost, but as a catalyst for resilience, confidence, and innovation.

In an era where artificial intelligence and cloud innovation are redefining business models, cybersecurity has moved from the backroom to the boardroom. For Anand Jethalia, Country Head of Cybersecurity at Microsoft India & South Asia, the future of digital trust lies in seeing security not as a defensive cost but as a strategic driver of resilience, confidence, and Innovation.

At the heart of this transformation is Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative (SFI) — a blueprint for embedding secure-by-design principles, AI-first defense, and end-to-end Zero Trust into every layer of enterprise technology. Under Jethalia's leadership, this approach is helping organizations simplify their fragmented security ecosystems, accelerate the adoption of responsible AI, and turn compliance into a catalyst for growth.

In this exclusive conversation with CISO Forum, Jethalia unpacks how Indian enterprises are navigating the convergence of AI, identity, and trust, how Microsoft is reshaping cyber resilience across industries, and why he believes security is the true enabler of Innovation in the digital economy.

CIO&Leader: What key strategic objectives are your clients focusing on today, and how do you ensure Microsoft's cybersecurity solutions not only meet technical requirements but also support these broader business goals?

ANAND JETHALIA: Microsoft's strategy is to position cybersecurity not as a cost center that merely meets technical requirements, but as a strategic business enabler that fosters the trust necessary for clients to adopt transformative technologies like AI and the cloud confidently.