India at defining moment, unique opportunity to shape exponential tech like AI: IBM India & South Asia MD

India is at a defining moment with a unique opportunity to shape exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, IBM India and South Asia Managing Director Sandip Patel said on Tuesday, noting that "when India builds, it builds for billions," which allows impact to scale.

Speaking at the IBM Think 2026 event in Mumbai, Patel said it is still 'day zero' of the AI revolution.

Most enterprises already run it, but only at the margins, a workflow here, a use case there, he said, and observed that this was valuable, but with 'marginal gains."


The winners, he said, won't simply deploy more AI. They'll redesign how they work around agents, real-time data, automation, hybrid architecture and, above all, trust.

Enterprises that race ahead will be those who, in the AI era, fundamentally redesign how they work.

"...and that requires more than a frontier model or model discussions. It requires a new AI-led business model that truly brings together agents, real-time data, automation, hybrid architecture, and most importantly, trust," he said.

At the 'Think' keynote, Patel emphasised that India is at a defining moment.

"We have a unique opportunity to shape the future of exponential technologies like AI, because when India builds, it builds for billions, and when you build for billions, the impact scales for everyone," he elaborated.

A lot rests on data, he said. Beyond stored data lies data in motion, which can lose value within nanoseconds. A fraud-detection agent working on yesterday's data will always get it wrong, no matter how capable the model.

Hence IBM's push, l -- including the Confluent acquisition, and what it has built with watsonx.data -- unite data at rest and in motion, to make timely governed information available to all application and AI systems.

As AI accelerates, so do vulnerabilities, Patel cautioned.

Business and government leaders alike are worried about what happens if regulations or geopolitics shift and the infrastructure their operations rely on is no longer available on the terms they need, Patel said.

This is where sovereignty, or what he calls "digital swaraj" in the Indian context, comes in. IBM has been building layers of sovereignty and privacy across infrastructure environments.

What matters, he said, is making sovereignty operational by giving enterprises control over their operating environment, data, technology and AI execution. This is one of the reasons IBM built Sovereign Core.

Sovereignty, Patel stressed, is not a trade-off between control and innovation, but what gives enterprises the confidence to innovate at scale while staying in control.

IBM also announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) to accelerate India's deep tech innovation and startup ecosystem.

Startups will get access to IBM's technology expertise, mentorship, enterprise engagement opportunities and skilling programmes.

As part of this collaboration, startups will get access to IBM's portfolio of enterprise technologies and innovation platforms to solve business use cases.

"This includes technical guidance and enablement on technologies such as IBM watsonx, an enterprise-ready AI and data platform; IBM Bob, an AI coding agent for enterprises; IBM Sovereign Core, an AI-ready software stack for digital sovereignty; technical orientation on IBM's hybrid cloud and quantum computing; and security and automation solutions," according to a release.

Under the pact, IBM and MSH will jointly explore initiatives that support startups across multiple stages of growth and across sectors such as banking, finance, government, industrial and more.

The collaboration will focus on enterprise proofs of concept, sovereign AI innovation, open-source ecosystem development and founder mentorship. A key priority will be identifying promising innovators from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

This collaboration reflects shared commitment to fostering innovation and strengthening the country's deep-tech startup ecosystem, Patel said.

"Together with MeitY Startup Hub, we aim to help founders innovate faster, scale responsibly, and build solutions that address both national and global challenges, turning promising innovation into real-world impact," he said.

Panneerselvam Madanagopal, CEO, MSH, believes India's startup ecosystem is emerging as a global engine for technology innovation.

"Through this collaboration with IBM, we aim to strengthen indigenous deep tech capabilities, foster technology-led entrepreneurship and create greater opportunity for innovators to build solutions that contribute to a Viksit Bharat," Madanagopal added.