Kyndryl has announced the release of its second annual People Readiness report, a global study of 1,100 senior business and technology leaders across eight countries including India, revealing a notable drop in workforce artificial intelligence (AI) readiness and a widening gap between AI expectations and execution.

The report illustrated what leaders are doing right to ride the AI surge, and that AI success is not driven solely by different strategies, use cases or technologies – it is driven by whether organisations redesign work and manage those changes throughout their organisations. The data also shows that trust in AI can be built through deliberate operating model and governance changes.

According to the India report, only 25 per cent of organisations believe their workforce is adequately prepared to successfully leverage AI – 12-point decline from 2025. The findings showed a widening gap between AI ambitions and workforce readiness, as organisations continue to grapple with the challenge of equipping employees with the skills and capabilities required to thrive in an AI-driven environment.

At the same time, enterprises are taking significant steps to prepare for this shift. 69 per cent of organisations surveyed in India have redesigned roles within or across functions to support AI adoption, while 33 per cent have implemented formal budgets and proactive upskilling strategies. However, the pace of organisational transformation appears to be outstripping the development of governance, trust, and oversight frameworks.

Commenting on the report, president, Asia Pacific, Kyndryl India, said, “India has consistently demonstrated leadership in technology adoption, and enterprises are moving quickly to integrate AI into their operations. While organisations continue to invest in AI technologies and expand use cases, scaling impact will require businesses to rethink how work gets done, redesign roles, build new capabilities and establish governance frameworks that foster trust and responsible adoption.”

Key India findings:

  • AI adoption accelerates, but readiness remains a challenge:56 per cent of Indian organisations report AI is deployed broadly or embedded in core business processes, compared to 36 per cent respondents saying AI was fully integrated across their organisations in 2025. However, only 25 per cent say their workforce is fully ready for AI, reflecting a 12-point decline year-over-year.
  • AI ambitions are outpacing organisational readiness:81 per cent of Indian leaders are concerned that AI advancement will outpace their workforce capabilities, governance frameworks and operating models.
  • AI agents introduce new governance considerations and trust gap:84 per cent of Indian organisations expect autonomous AI agents to make material decisions within the next 12 months, while only 28 per cent fully trust autonomous AI systems operating without human oversight.

Meanwhile, chief information officer, Kyndryl, said, “This is a critical moment for global enterprises as they race to adopt AI, redesign workflows and pursue innovation, yet they’re finding that their greatest assets – their people – need more attention. The data shows that the organisations investing in people – whether it’s rethinking roles and workflows, dedicating resources for upskilling and retraining, or guiding employees through change – are experiencing positive outcomes at a much higher rate.”

In addition, chief human resources officer, Kyndryl, said, “AI’s ability to reshape work is challenging organisations to reshape their workforce more rapidly than ever before. The leaders pulling ahead are aligning skills, roles and decision-making with how work is actually changing. When people understand their role in that system, trust and performance scale together.”

The study identifies a Pacesetters group, the 9 per cent of global organisations that have done three things: they redesign roles around AI, implement change management so the workforce understands its new operating model and has guardrails in place, and have built workforce readiness. These three behaviors are the operational foundations that consistently distinguish the organisations achieving the strongest results from AI. As they do these things, at each stage they are building the important governance frameworks. Pacesetters are roughly twice as likely to have fully implemented every governance dimension measured.

According to the global study, Pacesetters are:

  • 5 times more likely to achieve AI-related revenue growth.
  • 6 times more likely to report better innovation for products and services.

Global business leaders consistently rank workforce readiness among the most challenging aspects of AI adoption:

  • Just 23 per cent of organisations think their workforces are fully ready for AI, a six-point drop from last year.
  • And 79 per cent agree that the speed of AI will outpace their organisations’ workforce, governance and operating models.

The risk of falling behind is increasing as more organisations adopt autonomous AI agents.

81 per cent of global organisations expect AI agents to make impactful decisions for their organisations within the next year, but today just 25 per cent completely trust AI systems operating without human oversight.

The report identified actions that organisations are taking to get their workforces ready for an AI-enabled workplace:

  • Redesigning roles for the future: 61 per cent say their organisations have already redesigned roles, and 24 per cent are creating new roles focused on AI management.
  • Addressing skills gaps: Half of leaders (52 per cent) say it has become more challenging to find employees with the right skills to advance their AI strategy, and a third have fully implemented training programs focused on helping employees effectively collaborate with AI tools.
  • Building trust through governance: A third of organisations (33 per cent) claim they have clear policies on which decisions AI can and can’t make, and 27 per cent are using a registry and monitoring capabilities for all their AI systems. Organisations with stronger governance assert their workforces trust more in AI strategy and execution, and high-trust organisations are significantly more likely to report transformative outcomes from their AI investments.