83% of Organisations in India Have Appointed Chief AI Officers to Fast-Track Generative AI Innovation, AWS Study Reveals

In 2025, more organisations in India will prioritise investments in generative AI (64%) followed by security (21%) and compute (10%) combined

INDIA—June 19, 2025 — Amazon Web Services (AWS) today released a study commissioned in collaboration with Access Partnership, which reveals that generative AI (Gen AI) adoption in India surged in 2024. A top finding is that 83% of organisations in India have appointed a dedicated AI executive, namely a Chief AI Officer (CAIO), to accelerate adoption and manage implementation complexity, with another 15% planning to do so by 2026. The research study titled, “Generative AI Adoption Index” identifies patterns and insights from organisations in India successfully moving Gen AI from experimentation to full-scale implementation, revealing actionable strategies for accelerating business value.

While Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), and Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) currently lead most generative AI innovation initiatives, leadership structures are evolving to meet new demands and creating new career opportunities for AI-skilled talent at the highest levels of organisations. The appointment of a dedicated AI executive is a result of organisations having Gen AI as the top priority in their budget for 2025 (64%), followed by security (21%) and compute (10%).

“We see a growing recognition of AI as a transformative technology that requires strategic leadership at the highest levels and a structured approach to change management,” said Satinder Pal Singh, Head of Solution Architecture, AWS India and South Asia. “For India, this is not merely about technology adoption; it’s about cultivating a mindset of continuous innovation and harnessing AI as a strategic lever to reimagine customer experiences and rearchitect how work gets done.”

The study surveyed 415 senior IT decision-makers in India across industries such as financial services, information and communications technology, manufacturing, and retail.

Key insights uncovered include:

Dedicated AI leadership positions to drive organisational-wide transformation

Executing an organisation-wide AI strategy and fostering a culture of AI innovation through effective change management is a priority.

While 75% of organisations do not have a change management strategy to help employees navigate a future shaped by Gen AI today, the number is expected to drop to 9% by the end of 2026.

Extensive Gen AI integration in workflows

43% of organisations have fully integrated Gen AI into their workflows, reflecting India’s accelerating pace of AI-powered transformation at scale.

Gen AI adoption in India is near universal, with 98% of organisations using Gen AI tools, with 95% actively experimenting to unlock new applications. 49% of these experiments are expected to move to production in 2025.

Bridging the Gen AI talent gap

81% of organisations have developed Gen AI training plans, while 11% will develop one by the end of 2025 to meet the growing demand for AI talent.

IT decision makers cite three key hurdles in developing training plans: limited understanding of employees’ generative AI skilling needs, uncertainty about effective implementation, and budget constraints. Given these limitations, training alone is unlikely to bridge the skills gap.

Demand for generative AI talent in India will be widespread, with 99% of organisations expecting to hire for roles requiring generative AI skills in 2025.

Adopting a blended approach to drive Gen AI business transformation

Organisations are increasingly combining their proprietary data with customisation capabilities to achieve efficiency, scalability, and high performance, all while keeping their data safe during AI adoption.

While 62% plan to deploy custom applications on out-of-the-box models, 71% aim to deploy custom applications on fine-tuned pre-existing models with proprietary data for greater performance and scalability in 2025. 42% of organisations will use of out-of-the-box models with little or no customization.

Partnerships are pivotal, with 45% planning to use a mix of in-house and third-party vendors for deployment, while only 15% intend to rely solely on external vendors.

How AWS is helping customers accelerate Gen AI gains

To help organisations accelerate Gen AI adoption, AWS launched the Generative AI Innovation Center, a $100 million investment that connects organisations with AWS AI experts through free workshops, engagements, and training. AWS is also addressing the critical AI skills gap through comprehensive training initiatives, including AWS Skill Builder, which offers more than 80 free Gen AI courses and learning paths as part of AWS’s commitment to train millions of people globally in AI and machine learning by 2025. Additionally, the AWS Partner Network provides organisations with access to thousands of experienced consulting and technology partners, such as TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, who can help accelerate AI adoption with industry-specific expertise.

Visit this webpage to learn more about generative AI on AWS.