How cyber resilience has become a boardroom imperative for India’s AI ambitions

India’s ambition to become a Viksit Bharat is inseparable from its ambition to become an AI-powered economy. AI is expected to contribute nearly $500 billion to India’s economy by 2030, as the country accelerates towards becoming a global hub for digital innovation, manufacturing and critical infrastructure. But as India’s digital footprint expands, so does its exposure to cyber threats. In the AI era, our competitive advantage will be determined not only by how quickly we innovate, but by how securely and responsibly we do so.

The same AI technologies accelerating innovation are also lowering the barriers for sophisticated cyberattacks. Cybercriminals, organised threat groups and state-backed actors are using AI to operate faster, scale attacks more efficiently, and exploit vulnerabilities with unprecedented precision.

This is why cybersecurity conversations are no longer confined to technology teams. They increasingly belong in the boardroom.

For business leaders, cyber resilience is no longer about preparing for a worst-case scenario. It is about enabling growth with confidence. The organisations that will lead in the AI era will not necessarily be those that adopt AI first. They will be the ones that can innovate securely, earn the trust of customers and partners, and recover quickly when disruptions occur.

Every organisation should assume it will face a cyberattack. The real differentiator is how well it is prepared to respond.

Recent incidents involving Indian organisations show that no sector is immune. As enterprises expand their digital footprint, the attack surface continues to grow. At the same time, the nature of cyber risk is changing. Attackers are using AI to automate reconnaissance, create convincing phishing campaigns, generate sophisticated deepfakes and identify vulnerabilities at a speed that was difficult to imagine just a few years ago. We are also seeing more autonomous attacks that can adapt and evolve with minimal human intervention.

The implications extend well beyond data theft. AI-enabled fraud, executive impersonation and synthetic identities can disrupt operations, weaken customer confidence and damage a company’s reputation in a matter of hours.

The latest findings from IBM’s ‘Cost of a Data Breach Report’ underline the urgency. The average cost of a data breach in India reached an all-time high of Rs 220 million in 2025, up 13% from the previous year. Yet 73% of surveyed organisations reported limited or no use of AI and security automation, even though these capabilities reduced the cost of a breach by more than half.

That should make every business leader pause. Yesterday’s security models are not designed for today’s threat landscape.

Technology, however, is only part of the answer. AI can help security teams detect threats earlier, reduce false alarms, and respond faster. But lasting resilience depends just as much on governance, discipline, and accountability.

As AI becomes embedded across business operations, organizations need stronger oversight, better access controls and continuous monitoring. Risks such as shadow AI—unsanctioned or unmanaged AI deployments—can quietly increase security exposure if they are left unchecked.

While, in this Mythos era (as the industry increasingly describes it), AI-driven attacks are expected to exponentially exploit vulnerabilities in how systems are designed, configured and operated, a parallel threat to traditional encryption methods is also emerging from advances in quantum computing. This creates an urgent need for quantum-safe security architectures.

Today, India’s critical infrastructure, including power grids, transportation systems, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the financial services sector, relies on classical cryptography to protect sensitive data. As we move forward, accelerating quantum-safe transformation and building crypto agility will be imperative. Post-quantum cryptography is emerging as the next frontier of cyber resilience, providing security mechanisms designed to withstand both classical and future quantum-powered threats. Trust cannot be treated as an afterthought. It has to be built into every stage of AI adoption and digital transformation while preparing for the quantum era.

Clear governance, transparent policies and responsible oversight are essential if organisations want customers, regulators, and stakeholders to have confidence in the systems they deploy. Collaborative initiatives will strengthen the security and resilience of open-source systems by integrating security patches directly into an organisation’s existing software supply chains reinforcing trust, governance and transparency that enterprises depend on.

India has a unique opportunity to lead not only in AI adoption but also in building one of the world’s most trusted digital economies. That will require us to treat cyber resilience as a strategic priority, not simply a technology function.

Our success in the AI era will ultimately depend not just on how quickly we innovate, but on how confidently we can earn and sustain trust. Cyber resilience is no longer just about protecting data. It is about protecting India’s next phase of growth and strengthening its competitiveness in the global economy.

(The author is Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia. Views are personal.)