Software

69% of Indian businesses continue driving sustainability goals, finds Kyndryl and Microsoft

Kyndryl in collaboration with Microsoft has announced findings from the India edition of the 2025 Global Sustainability Barometer Study, conducted by Ecosystm.

The study reveals that 69% of Indian organizations rate sustainability as a top strategic priority, with 76% leveraging digital solutions that improve resource efficiency and lower environmental impact across operations. However, the findings also highlight a gap between ambition and execution. While 47% organizations are driving environmental sustainability through proactive or consistent initiatives, only 15% have embedded it as a driver of innovation, cost savings and long-term resilience – indicating that sustainability efforts remain fragmented in many organizations. This gap highlights the need for more integrated approaches that combine strategy, technology and governance.

“Indian organizations are realising that sustainability requirements are more complex than initially thought. This has led to deeper collaboration between operations, finance and compliance teams for achieving sustainability goals and reporting. Companies are also required to obtain more reasonable assurances on key environmental disclosures which require additional investments”, said Girija Mukund, Director of Global Citizenship and Sustainability, Kyndryl India and ASEAN. “Companies need to embed AI, trusted data and governance into the decision-making process to translate these actions into measurable outcomes.”

AI Adoption in Sustainability Still Limited

The India findings indicate that although organizations recognize the potential of AI to transform their sustainability posture – through resource optimization, smarter decision making and driving innovation – adoption of AI lags. Despite 58% of Indian organizations reporting strong alignment between technology and sustainability teams, only 31% leverage AI centrally to drive environmental sustainability and informed decisions.

The adoption of agentic AI for sustainability remains nascent in India, with only 9% of organizations piloting or implementing it, and just 1% having fully deployed it, highlighting that autonomous, AI-driven sustainability execution is still largely exploratory. This presents a clear opportunity for organizations to leapfrog into next-generation, data-driven sustainability practices, following the example of global leaders who are turning AI into a core strategic capability.

“The 2025 Global Sustainability Barometer Study shows that more than half of leading organizations now use predictive AI to anticipate and act on sustainability challenges – rather than just to track and analyse – making forward-looking intelligence central to sustainability strategy,” said Ricardo Davila, GM, Enterprise Partner Solutions, Microsoft. “We’re proud to partner across the ecosystem to help every organization turn sustainability into a data-driven operating capability.”

Key India Findings:

· Clearer ROI Drives Action: 58% of organizations accelerated sustainability initiatives because they see clearer ROI and stronger business case. Furthermore, 49% of all respondents cite the lack of measurable ROI and impact as the biggest barrier, highlighting the central role of demonstrating value realization to sustain momentum and scale sustainability.

· Data Collected, but Underutilized: While 74% of organizations track environmental metrics centrally, just 34% actively use this data to inform decisions and optimize performance, suggesting that sustainability data are still primarily used for reporting rather than continuous improvement.

· Employees Emerge as Top Voice: In India, employees (62%) are found to be the top voice shaping sustainability action, followed by investors/shareholders (56%) and customers (54%). Globally, employees rank fourth.

“The results show that Indian organizations are at a critical inflection point,” said Sash Mukherjee, Vice President, Industry Insights, Ecosystm. “Predictive and AI-driven insights can help close the gap between strategy and execution, enabling organizations to move beyond reporting toward continuous optimization and long-term resilience.”