India’s enterprise sector is broadly keeping pace with global markets in adopting artificial intelligence (AI), with investment growth expected to outstrip the global average, according to Lenovo’s latest CIO Playbook for 2026.

India stands out in  Asia-Pacific, with 99% of organisFations planning to increase AI investments over the next 12 months and the highest average year-on-year budget growth in the region at 19%. The findings, part of Lenovo’s fourth annual CIO Playbook for 2026, suggest that AI investment in India is accelerating even as companies demand faster and clearer returns from the technology.

Across Asia-Pacific, 96% of organisations plan to increase AI investments in 2026, with spending expected to grow by an average of 15%. India is slightly ahead of that curve, with AI investment projected to grow about 19% year-on-year, according to Lenovo. 

Shailendra Katyal, managing director at Lenovo India, said enterprise adoption in the country is already gathering pace. “About 60% of organisations are either already piloting or systematically adopting AI,” he said, adding that India is “fairly well placed compared with other markets” given the country's large technology talent base and its growing role in building AI applications.

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The survey covered CIOs and senior technology leaders across 10 Asia-Pacific markets and multiple sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, retail, banking, government and telecom. Respondents came from organisations ranging from 1,000 to more than 5,000 employees.

Infrastructure gaps, but strong fundamentals

Even as adoption accelerates, India still faces structural challenges such as limited infrastructure and data centre capacity, power availability and access to high-end GPUs - all critical for scaling AI infrastructure.

Katyal acknowledged these constraints but argued that the broader ecosystem still positions India strongly in the global AI race.

“This is a new and disruptive technology and the diffusion of any new technology does take time,” he said, drawing a parallel with the early years of the internet. “It’s not about one country over the other. It’s about how fast the technology can impact people at population scale.” 

He pointed to India’s large connected population and low-cost data as structural advantages. The country’s digital public infrastructure, including digital identity systems and payment platforms such as UPI, also creates a foundation for AI-led services at scale.

“I think it does position India quite well,” Katyal said, adding that the country is beginning to appear across all five layers of the AI ecosystem - from infrastructure and chips to large language models (LLMs) and applications.

India's role is likely to be strongest in the application layer, where the country's engineering talent and software ecosystem can develop AI-driven solutions for global markets.

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Enterprise priorities shift toward ROI

The CIO playbook also highlights a shift in how companies are evaluating AI investments.

According to the study, 96% of organisations plan to increase AI spending in 2026. However, enterprises are increasingly focused on measurable business outcomes rather than experimentation. Increasing revenue and profit growth has moved to the top of CIO priorities this year, compared with eight place previously, hinting at pressure to show returns from tech spending.

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“Increasing revenue and profit growth has moved to the number one priority,” said Sumir Bhatia, president for Asia-Pacific at Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group. Previously, it ranked eighth among CIO priorities. “Businesses are saying that if we’re investing in this, we do want return on investment.” 

Enterprises expect an average return of 2.8x that translates to about $2.85 for every dollar invested in AI, with improved customer service, faster decision-making and better employee engagement among the key benefits anticipated. The study also indicates a shift in architecture strategy, with CIOs increasingly favouring hybrid AI deployments that combine cloud and on-premise infrastructure rather than relying solely on public cloud environments.

For India, Katyal believes the real impact of AI will come from its widespread diffusion across industries and users.  “The real power of AI is not just in the cloud,” he said. “It will come when AI is in your hands and it makes all of us more productive in what we do every day.”

As Bhatia put it, the challenge now is scaling AI responsibly, “It’s not about replacing everything with new infrastructure. It’s about identifying the data, the workloads and the environments where AI can deliver real outcomes.”

On the backdrop of the recent AI Summit and with growing enterprise adoption, a strong developer base and increasing investment, India appears well position to remain competitive with other major economies as AI deployment accelerates.