Dun & Bradstreet AI Momentum Survey: 7 in 10 Indian Businesses Plan to Increase AI Investment, but Data Readiness Remains a Key Challenge

Businesses With Fully AI-Ready Data Are 6.3x More Likely to Report Broad or Strong ROI Than Business with Partially AI-Ready Data

Mumbai, November 02, 2026: Nearly seven in ten Indian businesses plan to increase spending on AI over the next 12 months, while 30% report broad or strong returns from their AI initiatives, according to Dun & Bradstreet's latest AI Momentum Survey. Only 3% of surveyed Indian businesses describe their enterprise data as fully ready to support AI at scale, compared with 8% globally, highlighting a five percentage-point readiness gap. A further 44% of Indian businesses describe their data as partially ready. For Indian businesses seeking to scale AI and generate consistent returns, closing this data-readiness gap is essential as AI investment and implementations accelerate.

Businesses in India with fully AI-ready data report broad or strong AI ROI at 6.3x the rate of businesses whose data is partially ready, underscoring the strong relationship between data readiness and AI returns.

"India has reached an exciting inflection point in its AI journey. The ambition is clearly visible, and businesses are increasingly seeing tangible returns from their AI investments," said Julian Prower, Executive Vice President, Global Business Operations & Transformation and Managing Director & CEO, India & Taiwan, Dun & Bradstreet. "But the next chapter will be about moving from AI adoption to AI advantage. As enterprises embed AI more deeply across operations and decision-making, the quality of the underlying foundation will determine the quality of the outcomes. Trusted, connected and well-governed data, combined with an AI-ready workforce, will be critical to scaling AI responsibly and effectively. Businesses that get these fundamentals right will be able to make sharper decisions, innovate with greater confidence and convert AI momentum into sustainable growth and enduring competitive advantage."

Key Q4 survey findings include:

Data readiness is strongly associated with AI ROI

• Businesses with fully AI-ready data report broad or strong AI ROI at 6.3x the rate of businesses whose data is partially ready.
• More than 60% of businesses have moved beyond planning and piloting, with 35% scaling pilots into production and 26% reporting that AI is already embedded across multiple core processes.

Enterprise data is not yet fully ready for AI at scale

• Only 3% say their enterprise data is fully ready to support AI at scale.
• 44% describe their data as partially ready, while 42% say it is mostly ready.
• Only 25% of Indian businesses report strong or very strong workforce readiness. Half of respondents describe workforce capability as mixed, indicating that access to technology is advancing faster than the skills and organisational capacity required to use it effectively.

AI continues to move into production

• 69% of Indian businesses expect to increase AI spending over the next 12 months.
• Nearly 70% of Indian businesses believe AI will contribute towards new products, services, business models or operational improvements in the next quarter.

Businesses are seeing measurable AI returns

• 30% report broad or strong ROI.
• 46% report pockets of ROI, while 10% say most pilots have scaled with clear gains.

Methodology

The Dun & Bradstreet AI Momentum Survey is a quarterly global survey of 10,000 businesses across 32 countries that tracks enterprise AI adoption, investment, deployment, and business outcomes over time.

About Dun & Bradstreet:

Dun & Bradstreet provides the verified commercial identity foundation for enterprises to deploy AI at scale. The company originated the D-U-N-S^® Number in 1963, now the global standard for identifying commercial entities. Anchored by this identifier, the D&B Commercial Graph structures and connects business identity consistently across systems, enabling AI to operate on accurate, validated data. Since 1841, businesses of every size have relied on Dun & Bradstreet to navigate change and accelerate growth. For more information, www.dnb.com.

Dun & Bradstreet Information Services India Private Limited is headquartered in Mumbai and provides clients with data-driven products and technology-driven platforms to help them take faster and more accurate decisions across finance, risk, compliance, information technology and marketing. Working towards Government of India's vision of creating an Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) by supporting the Make in India initiative, Dun & Bradstreet India has a special focus on helping entrepreneurs enhance their visibility, increase their credibility, expand access to global markets, and identify potential customers & suppliers, while managing risk and opportunity.

For further information, please contact:

Silvia Dsouza

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Raashi Jethani

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