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India and Singapore outpace global peers in agentic AI adoption
Research from Thoughtworks reveals that while 77% of global businesses are focused on generating revenue from AI initiatives, Asian markets are leading the charge in agentic AI adoption, job creation and executive confidence
Organisations in Asian markets are moving faster than their Western counterparts in monetising artificial intelligence (AI), with India and Singapore leading the global shift from cost-cutting to revenue generation.
According to new research from Thoughtworks, a technology consultancy, the “era of efficiency” is effectively over. The study, which surveyed 3,500 IT decision-makers and C-suite leaders globally, found that 77% of business leaders have evolved their AI strategies from identifying cost savings to driving growth and innovation.
However, the speed of this transition varies by region, with Asian nations having the highest levels of optimism and adoption around AI.
India has emerged as the most aggressive adopter of growth-focused AI strategies. Along with Brazil, India is the most optimistic market surveyed, with 49.2% of executives expecting more than 15% revenue uplift from AI in the next five years. Germany is more cautious at 28.8%, and Australia sits at 20%. Nearly half of global leaders expect AI to deliver more than 15% revenue uplift within a decade.
On the prevalence of “AI FOMO” (fear of missing out) among business leaders, the research revealed that those in Singapore reported the highest level of competitive anxiety globally, with 66% of Singapore executives stating they feel pressure to adopt AI quickly, followed closely by India at 62.8%.
The rise of agentic AI
The research singled out agentic AI – systems capable of autonomous action and decision-making – as a key dividing line between fast-moving regions and laggards.
While 35% of global leaders view agentic AI as a top priority, India leads the world, with 48.6% of organisations citing it as a primary future focus. Singapore follows as the second most aggressive adopter at 40.8%, placing both nations ahead of the UK (40%) and the US (28%).
In the wider Asia-Pacific region, Australia appears to be falling behind its regional neighbours, reporting the lowest focus on agentic AI, at just 23.4%.
Contrary to fears about AI displacing workers, the report suggested a positive impact on employment in Asian tech hubs. India leads the world in AI-driven job creation, with 57.1% of organisations in the subcontinent reporting a net increase in roles created through human-AI collaboration.
The research also shows a significant change inside boardrooms. The prevalence of the chief AI officer (CAIO) role is highest in India. Among organisations with CAIOs, 72% said that the role holds distinct budget authority and accountability for return on investment.
“The CAIO role is no longer experimental,” said Shayan Mohanty, chief AI officer at Thoughtworks. “It sits at the centre of strategy. The companies that are separating from the pack are the ones that make AI part of their foundation rather than a side project.”
The regulatory environment may also influence the speed of adoption in Asia. While Brazil faces high regulatory pressure (cited by 28% as a main barrier), India has significantly lower hurdles, with only 9.6% of leaders citing regulation as a primary constraint for realising AI’s potential.
Rachel Laycock, chief technology officer at Thoughtworks, noted that the research marked a structural change in how organisations plan for growth.
“Leaders are no longer asking how efficient they can become. They are asking how expansive they can be,” Laycock said. “The organisations moving fastest are integrating AI into the core of how they operate.”
In a separate global study by the Cloud Security Alliance and Google Cloud, organisations with comprehensive policies are nearly twice as likely to report early adoption of agentic AI (46%) compared to those with only partial guidelines (25%) or policies still in development (12%).
They are also far more likely to have tested AI capabilities for security, with 70% reporting experimentation compared to 43% of those with partial governance and just 39% among those still developing their policies.
Read more about AI in APAC
- Malaysia’s Ryt Bank is using its own LLM and agentic AI framework to allow customers to perform banking transactions in natural language, replacing traditional menus and buttons.
- Microsoft has expanded its AI footprint in India, teaming up with four of the country’s largest IT services companies to deploy agentic AI capabilities across enterprises.
- Australian organisations are lagging behind their regional peers in adopting AI, putting A$142bn worth of economic opportunity at risk, a report has found.
- Singlife has started deploying Salesforce Agentforce to assist customer service teams as part of a broader move to harness the capabilities of agentic AI across its business.
