79% Indian firms to increase AI spending in 2025: Freshworks report

Indian companies are set to increase AI spending by an average of 41% in 2025—the highest growth rate globally, as 79% of organisations plan to increase their AI budgets. According to the latest Freshworks AI Workplace Report, Indian firms believe AI's integration is essential to drive business success, driven mainly by confidence in its ROI. 

The report surveyed 4,000 global professionals, including C-suite executives, spanning departments such as HR, IT, customer service and support, finance, accounting, sales, marketing, and legal.

Findings revealed India is leading the global benchmark for AI adoption, with 45% of professionals using AI daily—nearly double the global average of 26%. 

The report further highlighted that 74% of professionals rate themselves as knowledgeable or expert in AI, above the global average of 55%. Around 91% of Indian employees feel at ease using AI tools (compared to 67% globally) and 90% trust AI to improve work processes (66% globally).

“This report provides a fascinating overview of AI adoption globally, with India standing out with exceptional levels of usage and expertise. The combination of mandatory AI integration and workforce upskilling initiatives is driving India’s productivity and innovation to new heights,” said Shelton Rego, Vice President of Freshworks India, in a statement. 

According to the report, India also leads globally in workplace AI adoption, with 65% of employees reporting mandatory AI use policies within their workplace, particularly evident in IT and marketing, describing AI as powerful and even “necessary” to a few employees. 

The report highlighted that 88% of Indian workers use AI-powered software weekly, outpacing adoption rates in geographies such as the US, the UK, and Europe. As a result, 85% of leaders of organisations in India report improved ROI from their AI investments, with IT and marketing departments seeing the most returns.

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In India, 90% of businesses believe AI solutions are essential for achieving business success by 2025, with 88% focusing on AI training to future-proof their workforce—the highest rate globally compared to the UK (66%), Australia (62%), and Europe (67%). Some key initiatives include ongoing security training (50%) and upfront onboarding for AI tools (40%), reflecting the growing rate of AI adoption in the country. 

Among all workplace functions, 88% of IT service and customer service professionals in India consider AI chatbots essential to ease their workloads, which helps streamline operations and enhance service quality. 

“AI agents will increasingly be an integral part of how businesses approach delivering experiences to their customers while making lives easier for their employees. We have been empowering this change for businesses and the data now shows the large-scale impact AI has for these high volume, high-performance business functions,” Rego added.