As India moves toward 2026, its technology sector is entering a phase where scale, accountability and outcomes matter more than momentum alone, according to industry leaders.
Sindhu Gangadharan, Managing Director, SAP Labs India, and Chairperson, Nasscom, said the industry has built strong foundations across artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, cybersecurity and digital platforms, supported by deep talent and a mature ecosystem of startups, global capability centres (GCCs) and global enterprises.
“The next chapter is about converting capability into sustained business and societal impact. AI adoption is becoming sharper and more grounded in real use cases. Enterprises are asking clearer questions around productivity, resilience and trust,” she said.
Enterprises now expect technology to integrate seamlessly into core processes rather than remain on the fringes as experimentation. This shift places greater responsibility on the industry to design solutions that are secure, explainable and aligned with long-term value creation.
“India is well positioned to lead this phase. Our strength lies in combining engineering depth with domain understanding and the ability to execute at scale. As an industry, success in 2026 will depend on how well we collaborate across ecosystems, invest in skills and apply technology with purpose,” Gangadharan said.
She added that the opportunity ahead is significant — to strengthen enterprises, empower people and reinforce India’s role as a trusted global technology partner.
By 2026, the real measure of AI success will be its ability to deliver consistent, context-aware outcomes for customers.
“We are seeing a clear shift away from generic intelligence toward AI that understands the nuances of an enterprise — its data, processes, policies and customer behaviours. Customer-specific AI performs better because relevance drives decisions, not raw intelligence alone,” she noted.
As enterprises look ahead, the focus is clear: AI must move from novelty to reliability. The strongest advantage will come from intelligence that genuinely understands how a business operates and how it serves its customers every day.
–IANS
