India’s AI Innovation Must Rely On Resilience And Trust

By Shobana Sruthi Mohan

India is on the cusp of a major transformation in AI adoption and integration. With the launch of the IndiaAI Mission, the government has laid out a bold vision to make the nation a global hub for AI infrastructure, foster open datasets to enhance learning, and upskill the workforce. These efforts indicate an era of not just AI adoption but indigenous innovation where India develops solutions tailored to its needs while contributing meaningfully to the global AI landscape.

This vision, grand as it is, cannot rest on innovation alone. It must be anchored in trust and resilience. In AI, progress without protection is short-lived. A recent survey by Boston Consulting Group found that only 36% of workers feel they have received enough training in AI, and 54% admitted they would use AI solutions without authorisation. Additionally, only 25% of frontline workers reported having sufficient AI guidance from their leaders.

A 2025 ManageEngine study on shadow AI found that 60% of employees use unapproved AI tools, and 93% of employees enter data into these tools without permission, even as 63% of IT leaders cite data leakage as the top risk of shadow AI. This reveals a striking mismatch: Without structured oversight, innovation quickly becomes a vector for risk.

The Role Of AI-Driven Cybersecurity  

The invisible scaffolding that sustains AI growth is cybersecurity. It is easy to picture AI fixing broken traffic signals or helping doctors diagnose patients, but every smart system must also guard against attackers. Data leaks and sabotage are not distant possibilities. Without strong safeguards, they can quickly become tomorrow’s headlines.

Recent incidents highlight these gaps. A car dealership’s chatbot was tricked into offering a Chevrolet vehicle for just $1. A major electronics company banned generative AI tools after confidential data was leaked by employees, and workplace AI assistants were manipulated into revealing sensitive information through prompt injection.

AI As The Defender

AI-powered security can serve as the core of a modern cyber immune system that is predictive, adaptive, and accurate. Unlike traditional rule-based systems, AI-driven detection systems evolve to catch subtle anomalies and intrusion patterns that even skilled analysts might miss.

During the 2025 Ganeshotsav immersion procession in Pune, the police deployed an AI-powered surveillance and analytics system that processed live CCTV feeds to generate over 30,000 safety alerts, flagging unattended objects, crowd surges, and unusual movements. The system even identified individuals with criminal records, leading to the apprehension of more than 100 suspects, some involved in serious crimes. This scale of autonomous risk mitigation is impossible with manual oversight alone.

Consider an IT services company deploying AI to manage security alerts. Instead of overwhelming security teams with irrelevant alerts, an AI-driven risk profiling system highlights only the few high-risk anomalies that require human attention. This shortens the response time and frees up the scarce talent for the most critical cases, strengthening the company's overall resilience. The outcome is a stronger human-machine partnership where AI is not just a guard at the gate but a vigilant, learning guardian across the digital estate.

The real frontier lies not only in anticipating risks but also in using AI itself as the defender. In enterprises, AI now goes beyond flagging anomalous logins to orchestrating full risk-aware responses. It can segment sensitive workflows, profile threats, identify compromised accounts, and trigger escalation protocols autonomously.

Building Resilience Into The Architecture  

For India’s AI mission to succeed, resilience must be built into the very architecture of every model, dataset, and digital process. The next decade will be defined not only by India's advancement in software and AI on its path to digital maturity but also by its ability to safeguard these solutions against misuse with confidence.

This will require continued investments in both technology and people. Organisations must empower developers to embed security into their designs. Cyber defenders and algorithm designers must collaborate closely. Organisations must integrate security considerations at every stage of AI’s life cycle. They should also invest in cutting-edge cyber surveillance technologies that proactively monitor, identify, and respond to emerging threats.

The Road Ahead: Security As A Competitive Edge  

The lesson for both visionaries and practitioners is clear: Secure, trustworthy AI is a competitive advantage. By leading with robust AI-enabled cybersecurity, India can distinguish itself as not only a builder of transformative intelligence but also a custodian of digital trust in a volatile, interconnected world.

In this convergence of innovation and protection lies the true promise of India’s AI revolution: a future where advancement is synonymous with assurance and ambition never outpaces security.

The author is Enterprise Analyst at ManageEngine.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.