70% See AI Business Gains in India : AI’s Crucial Ingredient’ Report

INDIA— Managing data responsibly and effectively for the AI age can give organisations a strong competitive advantage, but many are failing to harness this successfully, despite AI-readiness being a key strategic priority. Among global markets, India continues to accelerate AI adoption, leading to business benefits while still navigating challenges with AI readiness and information management.

New research from global information management leader Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) and FT Longitude examined how 500 large organisations are leveraging their information and datasets to be ‘AI-ready’.  India stood out as Indian organisations reported average revenue growth of $4.1 billion over the last 12 months as a direct result of information management systems and strategies — more than double the global average of $1.9 billion. The report, based on responses from senior decision-makers—including C-suite, VP, and Director-level executives — covered key industries in India such as IT and tech services, financial services, and retail, among others.

Varun Gupta, Head of Digital Business India, Iron Mountain, said: “With the rise of open-source and specialised AI models, data integrity, transparency and trust are more critical than ever. At Iron Mountain, we are investing in solutions such as our Iron Mountain InSight® Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to help our customers get their information ready for use in generative AI and other AI-powered applications. This enables organisations to illuminate dark, unstructured data by automating the processes for extracting and organising metadata at speed and scale, and with a high degree of accuracy.”

Data integrity is paramount

The report showed that India performed well in data integrity and responsible sourcing, as 50% of the respondents considered their activities in this area a crucial competitive advantage, compared to 32% globally and 23% in the U.K. This shows a strong focus on secure and ethical data management, which will prove valuable for feeding into AI models. India also led in being more transparent about AI models or systems, as 50% stated this to be a significant part of their processes to manage data integrity.

Further, adoption of Master Data Management (MDM) systems was also higher, with 43% of organisations using them to ensure accuracy and consistency across critical business data, compared to 21% in the U.K. and 18% in Australia. A strong 83% of Indian companies partnered with solution providers for information management, digital transformation, and secure storage — slightly above the global average of 81%.

However, 17% still lacked comprehensive data management and protection solutions. In the past year alone, data integrity flaws cost Indian businesses an average of $381,375.

Unstructured data strategies take the lead

The report found that Indian organisations are prioritising AI-powered decision-making and agility as the main goal for their unstructured data initiatives over the next two years. India had the highest priority (45%) for enhancing decision-making and response agility through AI and predictive models, surpassing Germany (32%), Brazil (40%), and the U.S. (39%).

Additionally, 53% of Indian organisations noted that AI-powered analytics for data quality control and assurance had been the most beneficial tactics for improving their unstructured data so far.

Cybersecurity risks, regulatory complexities, and workforce readiness emerged as critical challenges.
45% of the Indian organisations said their data compliance efforts consistently delivered value and served as a competitive edge, in addition to data encryption and security mechanisms being a priority, as 53% identified it as critical to their operations.

With rapid AI adoption and stricter data regulations, 43% of Indian organisations said compliance risks were the top concerns for them.

The report further showed that 40% of Indian organisations believed that a lack of skilled personnel for AI data management would hinder their AI readiness over the next three years — a notably high figure