A vast majority of Indian organisations are accelerating their adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), with 93% of business leaders planning to deploy AI agents to enhance workforce capabilities within the next 12 to 18 months, according to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index for India. The study highlights that nearly two-thirds of leaders rank productivity gains as their top priority, while 90% believe 2025 marks a critical year to fundamentally rethink strategies and operations—the highest percentage globally.
Microsoft described India’s most innovative companies, termed “Frontier Firms”, as those embedding human–AI collaboration into their daily processes. The report revealed that 59% of leaders are already leveraging AI agents to automate workflows and business processes at scale.
At the report launch, Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India & South Asia, emphasised that the country is “firmly in its AI-first era”, noting how organisations are now using AI to transform operations. He explained that AI is rapidly evolving into a “thought partner”, enhancing creativity, speeding up decision-making, and reshaping collaboration.
The research also points to a shift in workforce structures, with 92% of leaders considering the creation of AI-specific roles. About 57% expect teams to design multi-agent systems to manage complex, cross-functional tasks. As a result, new roles such as “AI Workflow Designers” and “Agent Bosses” are projected to emerge as AI adoption deepens.
Upskilling remains a central priority, with 51% of leaders committed to reskilling employees over the next year and a half. Meanwhile, 63% of managers believe AI training will become an essential responsibility for all teams within five years. Encouragingly, Microsoft noted that 66% of employees and 80% of leaders in India are already familiar with AI agents, underlining strong readiness for this transition.
On a global scale, Microsoft reported that AI adoption is gathering momentum. Its Microsoft 365 Copilot apps have crossed 100 million monthly active users, while more than 230,000 organisations are using Copilot Studio to create and deploy custom AI agents. In FY25 alone, users built over three million agents, with one million created in the last quarter.
With leadership commitment, workforce preparedness, and robust technical infrastructure, the report concludes that India is well-positioned to lead the next phase of AI-powered work worldwide.
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