Indian Businesses Ramp Up IT Investments to Drive Sustainability with AI as a Key Tool
As Indian businesses focus more on achieving their sustainability goals, technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), is emerging as a critical enabler. According to the “State of Sustainability Readiness 2024” report by IBM, nearly 98% of Indian business leaders are planning to increase their IT investments to support sustainability efforts in the next year. These are investments that not only have been seen to be very essential for environmental responsibility but also would help strengthen the long-run business resilience and brand reputation.
This suggests that Indian business leaders now consider sustainability in their growth strategy. Since there is growing acknowledgment of the environmental-related problems, it becomes evident that sustainability will play a central role in ensuring competitiveness.
This change is increasingly playing the most important role with the use of AI. Accordingly, 9 out of 10 Indian executives believe AI has the potential to achieve sustainable outcomes, and 96% of them see good opportunities for the technology in support of their sustainability work.
This increasingly reveals AI’s contribution toward sustainability. The report indicates that already, 64% of Indian companies are applying AI for improving their sustainability efforts. This includes carbon footprint reductions, optimization of energy usage, and improved resource utilization in all operations of businesses. Business leaders from every sector also recognize that this new role of AI in fostering responsible growth will be the game-changer for realizing their sustainability objectives.
Another major issue of water usage is also there, for Indian businesses, and most companies are now realising the importance of proper water resource management. This concern towards water sustainability is in turn a part of wider pressure to use AI that track, manage, and improves several aspects of environmental accountability.
The findings from IBM’s report indicate that the reasons for investing in IT towards sustainability in India are both strategic and reputational. 64% of business leaders point to the improvement of brand reputation as the main driver for sustainability investment, while 61% note long-term business resilience. All these factors are compelling companies to invest in technologies that can reduce environmental impact but also guarantee financial stability.
Besides, 81 percent of Indian business leaders is adapting proactive approaches to climate resilience. For more than half or at 54 percent of all Indian companies, there would be an opportunity-driven investments in sustainability, like an adoption of technology, building new business models which at the same time have great potential in both environmental and monetary terms. Looking ahead as companies advance, 79 percent claim that mature system exists in tracking its way to sustainability through data thus helping in measuring and manifesting environmental impact. In addition to the role of AI in India, a global perspective on AI’s potential in sustainability is highlighted by the UN Global Compact. According to a report, generative AI is seen as a key driver for advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly as the 2030 deadline approaches and many global targets are still out of reach.
According to the report, 97% of business leaders across many sectors believe that “generative AI is central in how businesses will be rewired over the next several years,” further underpinning AI as one of the key engines driving systemic change in relation to sustainable progress. None should equal this. Business is urgently called to embrace the technologies in AI that will buttress efforts in realizing the Agenda on Sustainable Development for 2030. Indeed, AI shows tremendous potential in being one of the best and possibly strongest tools that can meet sustainability at any level of its growth urgency.
Indian business enterprises have every reason to believe that the next 12 months will be the make-or-break period, and investment in IT towards sustainability is likely to shape both environmental impact and business performance going forward.
This sums it all up: India positioning itself as a leader in AI-driven sustainability, with business leaders across the country recognizing how this technology can be transformational to support responsible growth. As AI continues to be at the core of reducing footprints on the environment and optimizing resource use, businesses in India make more ambitious goals about greater sustainability in the near future.