AI could add $500b to India’s economy by 2030: Study

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to contribute over $500 billion (about Rs 47.81 lakh crore) to India’s economy by 2030, according to a new joint study by IBM and IndiaAI, a MeiTY initiative.

The report, titled “From Promise to Power: How AI Is Redefining India’s Economic Future”, surveyed 1,500 Indian executives from a range of industries and organisations, covering various leadership levels, including CXOs. The study was supplemented by a pulse survey of 405 Indian executives.

The report revealed that 80 per cent of Indian business leaders surveyed believe AI investments will directly influence the nation’s GDP growth.

“AI could contribute more than $500 billion to India’s economy by 2030, positioning the country among the world’s most dynamic AI-driven economies. Few countries are stepping into the AI era with India’s mix of scale, digital muscle, and ambition,” the report said.

Around 73 per cent of Indian executives believe the country will be a leading AI nation by 2030-a bet built on a vast market, a pioneering digital public infrastructure, and the world’s largest IT services workforce, according to the report. However, the research also highlighted a critical “inflection gap”, with 72 per cent of surveyed organisations acknowledging they currently lag behind their global peers in AI adoption. Currently, only 15 per cent of organisations are scaling AI through cross-functional investments, while the remaining 85 per cent are stuck in the pilot stage.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan said India is no longer just participating in the global AI conversation but helping shape it.

“Our vision is clear. AI must evolve as an extension of our people’s aspirations, driving inclusive growth and national progress. Guided by our vision of Viksit Bharat, we are advancing a human-centric approach to AI rooted in trust, ethics, and national sovereignty,” he said.

The study identified significant barriers to AI readiness. About 77 per cent of respondents cited a lack of accessible, affordable and secure cloud infrastructure as a major hurdle, while 57 per cent outlined uneven data quality.

Furthermore, a growing skills gap also poses challenges.

Currently, only about 30 per cent of employees possess the level of AI literacy that businesses require.

To meet future demands, respondents indicate this figure must rise to nearly 57 per cent by 2030, translating to a need for a talent pool of over 350 million AI-literate professionals in the country, as per the report.

Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India & South Asia, noted that AI could become one of the most powerful growth engines for the Indian economy.

“What will set India apart is not just the scale of adoption, but how organisations build trusted AI agents and systems on strong data foundations, hybrid architectures, and a workforce empowered to work alongside AI. With the right investments in skills, governance, and infrastructure, India can translate AI ambition into sustained economic impact,” he said.