Companies Step Up Investments in AI, Sustainability to Stay Ahead of the Game As enterprises are undergoing massive digital transformation, AI has become more pertinent than ever. But at the same time, companies are taking conscious efforts to ensure their tech initiatives are sustainable in nature

Over the last few years, India has made rapid strides in technology, coming to be recognized as a global leader in tech-led innovation. As digital transformation becomes a top priority across sectors, companies are increasingly investing in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, cloud, and automation to stay ahead of the game in a dynamic business environment.

Enterprise data company NetApp believes that India's great strides in emerging technologies, particularly AI, is inevitably causing a data explosion and a consequent surge in power consumption.

"At a time when every byte draws power, a robust data infrastructure becomes more than just a technical foundation - it becomes an imperative. NetApp's Intelligent Data Infrastructure empowers businesses to act on this responsibility by reducing digital waste, optimising storage, and minimising energy consumption. The shift toward sustainability isn't an add-on; it's built right into how we store, manage, and scale data. For India, this is a defining opportunity, to lead the world in demonstrating that digital acceleration and environmental responsibility can grow in lockstep," said Puneet Gupta, Vice President and MD, NetApp India and SAARC.

Major technology companies also opine that the future of AI lies in using it in a sustainable manner. According to Wipro, "Sustainability is of strategic importance to global enterprises. The focus will be on using AI and non-AI systems to optimize resource usage, reduce waste, and improve energy efficiency. AI will augment existing solutions in telemetry and visual analytics for sustainability. However, the AI-Tech remains resource intensive. Energy consumption by AI and the proliferation of data centres are major concerns, and efforts are underway to make the AI stack more sustainable from silicon to software."

Sanket Atal, Managing Director, Operations and Tech, Salesforce India, believes that as India moves towards a Viksit Bharat by 2047, "the real differentiator will not be how fast we innovate, but how intentionally we innovate—ensuring that technology serves society, preserves the planet, and uplifts every individual it touches. By combining public ambition, private sector commitment, and strong industry-academia collaboration, we can ensure that Indian youth are not only prepared for the future - they are building it."

As the demand for AI workloads is increasing by the day, the limits of what our data centres can handle are being pushed. "This is a matter of capacity, adaptability, resilience, and foresight, and Vertiv strives to support India's data mission. The infrastructure supporting AI must evolve just as fast as the technology itself. We are seeing steep increases in rack densities, shifts toward liquid cooling, and the need for more responsive, scalable power systems. These are strategic imperatives for every organisation that intends to harness AI meaningfully," said Shrirang Deshpande, Country Head, Strategic Programmes, Vertiv India.

AI has also been a huge boon in the healthcare sector that has long grappled with chronic challenges from slow drug discovery and limited access to capital for cutting-edge research to ensuring scalable quality healthcare.

"Today, we stand at the dawn of the H.E.A.L.T.H era – Harnessing Evolutionary AI for Lifesaving Technologies and Healthcare. In a few remarkable instances, drug discovery timelines have shrunk by up to 70 per cent. AI-driven bioinformatics and digital twins are optimising vaccine formulations, patient-donor matching, and reducing R&D costs by as much as 40 per cent. With deeper insights, capital is now being directed more efficiently into high-impact development pipelines (target diseases). Specialised language models (LLMS) are also acting as co-pilots for physicians, instantly surfacing insights from millions of clinical papers, enabling faster diagnostics and unlocking new treatment pathways for patients," said Raj Babu, Founder and CEO, Agilisium, a lifesciences tech company.

Fidelity Investments' India global capability center (GCC) is looking to develop solutions and experiences to meet the dynamic business requirements.

"We have embedded this culture of constant upskilling and reskilling across all levels of the organization. Whether it's through structured programs like LEAP, an upskilling cohort for early-career technologists, role-based learning journeys, internal technology communities, niche hackathon events, our innovation and patent programs, or regular hands-on certification and training programs, we provide a host of opportunities for our technologists to learn and work on the latest emerging technologies in financial services, to innovate for the future," said Srinivas Gururaja Rau, Head of Fidelity Fund and Investment Operations Technology India, Fidelity Investments.