New HubSpot research with 1,000 Indian business leaders reveals that AI is driving a fundamental shift in business operations, yet fragmented data and legacy systems remain major hurdles towards scaling AI beyond early wins.
HubSpot, the agentic customer platform for scaling businesses, today unveiled new research showing that AI is rapidly reshaping day-to-day operations across Indian organisations as they pursue growth. Nearly four in five (79%) businesses now apply AI consistently across their workflows rather than limiting it to isolated experiments - signalling that AI adoption is moving beyond pilots and into core operations.
Despite high adoption rates, the research found that scaling AI reliably remains constrained by foundational gaps such as legacy systems, access to quality data, skills and change management, as well as trust and governance readiness. Findings also suggest that the real competitive differentiator is whether organisations have the right context - integrated data, connected systems, and the governance needed to turn AI output into consistent business outcomes.
Bridging barriers to maximise AI-powered growth
To understand what’s holding organisations back from scaling beyond early wins, the research examined the top factors cited by business leaders as limiting deeper AI deployment within their organisations.
Half cited trust and reliability (50%) and technology limitations or legacy systems (49%) as the top factors limiting further use of AI in their organisations. Skills and change management (46%) also remain a barrier - suggesting that the talent required to lead AI-driven teams is still maturing - alongside governance concerns (37%).
Data quality and integration (44%) also emerged as one of the biggest challenges faced by local businesses, even as 63% recognise that providing AI with access to relevant business context and data is one of the most essential requirements for ensuring AI agents can be effective and reliable.
“The real competitive differentiator isn’t whether a business is using AI, but whether the AI has access to shared context,” said Adarsh Noronha, Country Director, India & SAARC, HubSpot. “Without this data-rich foundation, AI outputs like email, research, or content summaries don’t reliably translate into better business outcomes. Meaningful, large-scale impact requires AI to be powered by customer data, an understanding of how teams and processes operate, and the ability to learn over time. By bringing these elements together, businesses can transform AI from standalone tools into reliable teammates that collaborate with humans to deliver sustained, AI-augmented growth.”
The research reveals that these hurdles become even more pronounced as organisations move toward higher-maturity AI use. Among businesses already deploying fully autonomous AI agents, reported constraints increase significantly across key categories compared to the national average. This includes trust and reliability concerns (57% from 50%), technology limitations and legacy systems (60% from 49%), skills challenges (55% from 46%), data integration issues (51% from 44%), and governance hurdles (43% from 37%), suggesting that operational friction tends to intensify as AI maturity deepens.
AI agents as the new business growth engine for India
While foundational barriers remain a reality, the drive for competitiveness is already propelling Indian enterprises toward more advanced AI use cases, most notably a shift toward agentic AI.
HubSpot’s research confirms that organisations across the country are moving beyond experimental use of AI or simple task automation to more sophisticated applications. More than seven in ten (73%) Indian organisations are already deploying hybrid teams where humans and AI work together to accelerate business outcomes. In addition, two in five (40%) are currently utilising fully autonomous AI agents capable of making decisions and executing tasks across multiple systems without the need for human approval.
Nearly three-fifths (57%) of business leaders identify improving speed of delivery and time-to-market as the single most important outcome they expect from AI agents over the next 12 months. Furthermore, 52% of leaders are looking to AI agents to improve overall team capacity and output, while 51% aim to strategically free up their workforce to focus on higher-value work that can benefit from the human touch — such as strategic or creative tasks — to drive long-term brand differentiation.
More than a third (34%) of business leaders also report that AI has fundamentally changed how their teams operate, suggesting that structural transformation to meet the needs of the AI era is well underway. By bridging human empathy and machine precision with hybrid teams, enterprises are building a foundation for agentic AI to autonomously make decisions that prioritise customer connection for sustained growth.
Competitive pressures driving adoption
The urgency to effectively adopt and deploy advanced AI at scale is driven by intense market competition. 31% of Indian organisations cited falling behind their competitors who adopted AI faster as their biggest concern regarding long-term growth. Even mid-sized firms (50-99 employees) are showing aggressive adoption rates of 73%, suggesting that AI is effectively leveling the playing field for India’s growing enterprises.
“In 2026, the businesses that thrive will be those that see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a way to augment human ingenuity,” added Noronha. “When teams combine human empathy with AI that has the right context, businesses can move faster, work smarter, and deliver better customer experiences at scale. This isn’t just about working better, but about setting a new global standard for how businesses can succeed in the AI era with hybrid teams and unified context.”
Methodology: The research was commissioned by HubSpot and was conducted by Lonergan Research. Lonergan Research surveyed 1,007 Indian Business Leaders in organisations of 50+ employees between 19 February and 26 February 2026. Data was weighted to the latest population estimates sourced from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Disclaimer: This is a press-release.
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