Speaking to CNBC-TV18 ahead of the upcoming AI Impact Summit, Purushothaman KG of KPMG in India said the country’s preparedness is not accidental but the result of sustained investment and early adoption by corporates.
“India is already among the top three countries in AI readiness and competitiveness,” he said, adding that Indian companies began preparing for the shift almost alongside large global technology players because of their exposure to international markets.
The remarks come at a time when India is positioning itself as a key player in what many describe as a new digital world order. As geopolitical fault lines sharpen and nations reassess supply chains and technology dependencies, mid-sized economies are exploring alliances built on shared digital infrastructure and localised AI capabilities. Smaller nations see sovereign AI systems — powering trade, banking, governance and citizen services — as a path to resilience, rather than relying solely on hyperscalers.
Against this backdrop, Harjiv Singh of Cambrianedge.AI described the present moment as pivotal for India.
“I think it is indeed India’s moment,” Singh said. “This is a significant shift in the way the world will approach everything we do, from business to government to policy.”
He argued that India’s demographic profile gives it a structural advantage. With one of the world’s youngest populations and growing compute capacity, the country can play a leadership role in the AI revolution — provided it focuses on equipping its workforce.
“To revolutionise the world’s workforce, we must first revolutionise India’s workforce,” Singh said, stressing that AI fluency across enterprises and government will be “crucial” as capacity expands.
According to a 2025 KPMG survey, 74% of Indian CEOs believe AI workforce readiness will significantly impact their organisation’s growth over the next three years. Purushothaman said there is strong recognition at the top that AI will be the next game changer.
“The fact that they have started investing in it — both in technology and in their talent pool — demonstrates that they see their workforce as the future of the organisation,” he said. Companies that deeply embed AI into operations and simultaneously prepare employees to consume and innovate with AI tools are likely to secure the greatest advantage.
India is also emerging as a major consumer of AI solutions, not just a services provider. The India AI Mission, launched two years ago, has aligned institutes and educational bodies to create a pipeline of skilled AI engineers, reflecting a coordinated push to strengthen national capabilities.
Singh said one of the biggest challenges for enterprises is translating board-level AI mandates into day-to-day adoption. At Cambrianedge.AI, the focus is on enabling large organisations to embed AI in routine workflows, particularly in marketing. Citing industry estimates that global marketing salaries account for around $1.1 trillion annually, he said AI is often misunderstood as a threat to jobs.
“Our approach is human-led,” Singh said. “The more important question is whether teams are gaining the fluency to use AI daily and access large language models effectively.”
He noted that their platform, used by around 300 enterprises across 18 countries, integrates multiple models and collaborative features to accelerate adoption within teams.
On India’s broader development ambitions, including its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047, Singh said the country does not need to replicate the frontier model race between the United States and China. Instead, it can leverage lower-cost compute, strong digital public infrastructure and a track record of scaling technology nationwide.
India’s success with digital payments infrastructure, he argued, shows that the country can deploy complex systems at population scale. Replicating that model with AI could unlock productivity gains across governance, trade and citizen services.
For now, sectors that are closest to the consumer are leading adoption. Purushothaman identified financial services, telecom-media-technology and retail as the top three industries driving the AI shift.
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“These three are currently leading the way,” he said, adding that other sectors are likely to follow as use cases mature.
As global aid flows shrink and geopolitical alignments evolve, the race is no longer only about who builds the largest models. It is increasingly about who builds robust guardrails, trusted systems and a workforce capable of deploying AI responsibly at scale. On that front, India’s ranking may be strong — but sustaining it will depend on how quickly it can turn readiness into widespread capability.
Watch accompanying video for entire discussion.
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