India’s Agentic AI Returns Projected to Hit $14.4 Million: SAP

India has climbed to the No. 2 slot worldwide for strategic AI investment, with agentic AI returns in the country projected to quintuple to $14.4 million over the next two years, according to SAP’s Value of AI 2026 report released on June 12, 2026, at the SAP NOW AI Tour India in Mumbai. The study was built with Oxford Economics and is based on 2,600 business leaders across 13 countries, including 200 respondents from India. It is the first SAP Value of AI survey to span 13 markets, up from 8 in the prior 2025 edition.

Indian organisations plan to invest an average of $25.9 million in AI, with spending set to rise 45% over the same period, the report says. The headline agentic AI number is the one Indian boards are most likely to quote: SAP defines agentic AI as autonomous systems that plan multi-step actions and execute tasks without constant human prompts, and projects their returns in India to grow fivefold to $14.4 million. The report also lifts overall AI ROI expectations for Indian enterprises from 22% today to 39% within two years. Manos Raptopoulos, Global President of Customer Success for Europe, APAC, and the Middle East and Africa at SAP SE, framed the moment as the start of AI moving from the back office into the core of the enterprise. The shift is what SAP calls the autonomous enterprise, a model in which AI agents act on production systems rather than only advising humans.

India Sits at No. 2 in Strategic AI Spending

The SAP Value of AI 2026 report surveyed 2,600 senior leaders across 13 countries, with 200 respondents drawn from India. It was built in partnership with Oxford Economics and unveiled at SAP’s NOW AI Tour India in Mumbai on Friday, June 12, 2026. Indian organisations plan to invest an average of $25.9 million in AI, with spending set to rise 45% over the next two years. India also leads the survey on a related measure: 55% of organisations have employed dedicated AI leaders to scale adoption, the highest share globally.

SAP’s overall AI ROI projection for Indian enterprises moves from 22% today to 39% within two years. In the company’s prior 2025 Value of AI report, the same two-year horizon was forecast to take ROI from 15% to 31% for Indian organisations. The 2026 survey widened the global footprint to 13 countries from 8 in the 2025 study. The 2025 study surveyed 1,600 leaders; the 2026 version surveyed 2,600. Both reports kept the Indian sub-sample at 200 respondents. The wider 2026 sample produced a lower average AI investment figure in dollar terms, $25.9 million against the 2025 reading of $31 million per Indian organisation.

AI currently supports 33% of business tasks in India, with that share projected to climb to 51% over the next two years. End-to-end, cross-functional AI adoption is forecast to more than double to 40% over the same window. The data describes a country that has stopped framing AI as a side project.

74% of businesses are satisfied with current AI returns, with value creation emerging as a key measure of success, the study found. The investment curve and the satisfaction curve both lean upward in the same report.

Agentic AI’s Fivefold Return Is the Story

The single figure drawing the most attention in the 2026 report is the projected fivefold rise in agentic AI returns, to $14.4 million in India over the next two years. Agentic AI refers to autonomous systems capable of independently making decisions, planning multi-step actions, and executing tasks to achieve a specific goal without constant human prompts, SAP says. The category sits one layer above the chatbots and copilots most Indian enterprises have piloted to date. It promises, in SAP’s framing, to take AI out of the side projects and into the operating system of the enterprise. The 2026 survey is also the first SAP Value of AI edition to put a fivefold-return number on agentic AI in India.

Indian businesses are already moving on the category. 67% are piloting agentic AI use cases, and 85% of organisations believe agentic AI has moderate-to-very high potential to transform their business. The report’s full set of agentic AI markers, set out in the bullet list below, fills in the build-out picture. The same Deccan Herald coverage of the SAP findings tracks the 67% pilot figure and the 85% potential number, providing a third-party read on the same survey.

Five agentic AI markers SAP used to size the 2026 outlook.

• 67% are piloting agentic AI use cases
• 85% see moderate-to-very high potential to transform their business
• 52% report a clear and shared understanding of agentic AI
• 66% believe soft skills are a core job requirement in an AI-driven workplace
• 80% agree workforce transformation is needed beyond upskilling

The $14.4 million fivefold projection is the one Indian CIOs are most likely to cite in board materials over the next 12 months. The three Indian customers named in the press release as already running the build-out are PI Industries, UPL Ltd., and Parle Products. PI Industries is exploring agentic AI on the SAP Business AI Platform; UPL Ltd. is using SAP Business AI across finance, HR, supply chain, and IT; and Parle Products is moving toward a data-driven, cloud-first enterprise model. The Economic Times report on the same SAP study names the same three customers and breaks the $14.4 million figure down against the prior baseline.

How Indian Enterprises Are Operationalizing AI

The 2026 report is also a portrait of the operating model that the money is buying. 71% of Indian businesses have defined an AI strategy that is aligned with their business goals. The same report records 55% of organisations with a dedicated AI leader in place, the highest share globally. The 71% and the 55% are the structural backbone of the rest of the survey.

Data quality sits behind the structural story. 78% of organisations believe data availability and quality are critical to AI-driven decision-making. Operations leads AI data readiness, followed by Sales and Marketing, Product Development, IT, and HR, the report says.

The order is notable: Operations ranks first, IT ranks fourth, HR ranks fifth, the same report says. The data readiness gain is the largest year-on-year jump globally, with 63% of Indian organisations now data ready for AI, up from 42% a year earlier. The data readiness layer is what the next two years of agentic AI spending will sit on top of. AI currently supports 33% of business tasks in India, with that share projected to climb to 51% over the next two years. Independent Businessworld analysis of the SAP findings treats the 63% data-ready figure as the leading edge of the operational build-out.

The structural setup is what the next two years of spending are buying. The next layer of operationalizing is the work of putting the data and the leaders in place to act on it.

Where Indian AI Programs Are Missing the Mark

Strategy and budget are not the parts that need work. The 2026 report also lays out where Indian AI programs are still missing the mark, and the gaps are operational rather than financial. 76% of organisations face challenges with incomplete data, while 67% struggle with low-quality data. The data readiness gain is the largest year-on-year jump globally, the same report says. The same report flags governance as the binding constraint: only 11% of organisations are fully ready on skills to govern AI, and 14% on processes.

Almost 8 in 10 organisations are not convinced their upskilling programmes can keep up with AI advancements, the report says. 80% agree that maximising AI value requires workforce transformation beyond upskilling. 66% believe soft skills are a core job requirement in an AI-driven workplace. The four items in the list below are the operational gaps the survey records on the people side.

Four operational gaps show up in the same report.

• 76% face challenges with incomplete data
• 67% struggle with low-quality data
• Only 11% are fully ready on the skills to govern AI; 14% on the processes
• Almost 8 in 10 are not convinced their upskilling programmes can keep up with AI advancements

Together, the four items point to a story the data tells plainly: strategy is in place, but the operating model is still catching up. The BusinessLine coverage of the SAP study places the same governance numbers in the context of India’s wider enterprise technology market.

Voices from SAP NOW AI Tour Mumbai

The 2026 report was unveiled at SAP’s NOW AI Tour India in Mumbai on Friday, June 12, 2026. Manos Raptopoulos, Global President of Customer Success for Europe, APAC, and the Middle East and Africa at SAP SE, used his keynote to set the frame for the rest of the event. He sits on SAP’s Extended Board, the executive committee that approves strategic direction at the German enterprise software vendor.

AI is the backbone of the Autonomous Enterprise. In SAP, AI is grounded in deep industry context and rich business semantics, meaning AI that truly understands the processes, and data of your specific industry.

The 13-country framing of the report was deliberate, Raptopoulos said: the autonomous enterprise is not a single-market story. It is a model in which AI agents act on production systems under defined governance, with humans reviewing the exceptions. Raptopoulos also pointed to the 22% to 39% AI ROI projection as the data point that converts an AI strategy into a budget item. The agentic AI fivefold return, to $14.4 million, is the same kind of number, applied to a single category. Both are central to the case SAP is making to Indian CIOs and CFOs over the next 12 months. The Indian customer examples cited in the press release show the build-out is already underway in three sectors. The MSN syndication of the SAP announcement carries the same fivefold framing to a general business audience.

Manish Prasad, President and Managing Director of SAP Indian Subcontinent, picked up the same thread from the customer side of the room. His framing is the one Indian enterprises will hear in board-level briefings, not just the SAP keynote. Prasad’s argument is that India is moving beyond AI experimentation to embedding AI in the core of the business. The 2026 survey, he said, is the evidence that the move is real and measurable.

Independent reporting has tracked similar moves in the wider Indian IT services market, including Wipro’s ServiceNow agentic AI partnership work. The pattern is the same: an Indian systems integrator embedding an external agentic AI platform into a specific enterprise function. Indian enterprises inside the SAP customer base and outside it are arriving at the same agentic AI build-out from different starting points. The broader Economic Times Enterprise AI agentic AI coverage tracks the same pattern across multiple Indian service providers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did the SAP Value of AI 2026 report find about India?

SAP’s Value of AI 2026 report puts India second worldwide in strategic approaches to AI investment and projects agentic AI returns in the country to grow fivefold to $14.4 million over the next two years. The report was built with Oxford Economics and is based on 2,600 business leaders across 13 countries, including 200 from India.

What is agentic AI?

Agentic AI refers to autonomous artificial intelligence systems that independently make decisions, plan multi-step actions, and execute tasks to achieve a specific goal without constant human prompts. The category sits above the chatbots and copilots most enterprises have piloted to date, and is positioned by SAP as the foundation of what it calls the autonomous enterprise.

How much are Indian enterprises investing in AI in 2026?

Indian organisations plan to invest an average of $25.9 million in AI in 2026, with spending set to rise 45% over the next two years. The overall AI ROI projection moves from 22% today to 39% within two years for Indian enterprises, the report says.

Why does India rank second globally in strategic AI investment?

SAP’s report does not break out which country sits at No. 1, but the 2026 study places India second on a strategic-investment ranking across 13 markets. India also leads the survey on a related measure: 55% of organisations have employed dedicated AI leaders to scale adoption, the highest share globally.

What are the biggest barriers to AI adoption in Indian enterprises?

The 2026 report flags four operational gaps: 76% of organisations face challenges with incomplete data, 67% struggle with low-quality data, almost 8 in 10 are not convinced their upskilling programmes can keep up with AI advancements, and only 11% and 14% say they are fully ready to govern AI on skills and processes respectively. The skills gap is the most pronounced: 80% agree that maximising AI value requires workforce transformation beyond upskilling.