Outlook Business Desk
The Biz Staffing Comrade survey, released at the HR Conclave, shows AI’s growing role in enterprise transformation. It reveals that 59.1% of HR leaders see lack of trust in AI-driven decisions as the biggest barrier, marking trust as a major concern shaping India’s AI readiness.
The report shows that 27.3% of HR leaders cite weak communication and poor change management as key barriers to AI adoption. Many organisations still fail to clearly explain AI’s purpose and benefits, making confusion a bigger obstacle than technical limitations.
Another 9.1% of leaders pointed to hesitation or lack of clarity among senior management about steering AI initiatives, reflecting uncertainty at the top. Only 4.5% linked AI resistance to job-loss fears, countering perceptions that employees mainly oppose AI due to insecurity.
During Biz Staffing Comrade’s roundtable, led by moderator Achyuta Ghosh, over 30 HR and Talent Acquisition leaders from major tech and product companies shared key observations. Their discussions made it clear that Indian enterprises want AI adoption, but trust and transparency now define real readiness.
Although AI interest is high, very few organisations are truly prepared. Only 8% said they are already scaling human–AI collaboration, 40% are somewhat prepared, 44% are still in pilot stages and another 8% have not started yet, showing adoption is still early.
India’s readiness levels mirror global trends, with most organisations still in early or partial stages of AI adoption. Even as global companies invest more in automation, real differentiation now comes from human capability, giving India an opportunity to turn its demographic and digital strengths into long-term AI maturity.
The discussion also highlighted a clear shift from hiring skills to developing them internally. Around 38% prioritise upskilling employees in AI capabilities, 25% are hiring AI or data specialists, 21% are reshaping roles for human–machine collaboration and 16% say talent impacts are still unclear.
Leaders said legacy systems and siloed processes, often called ‘enterprise debt’, still slow down AI transformation. Many organisations find that automation reveals deeper structural issues instead of solving them, reflecting global trends where such inefficiencies lead to huge productivity losses.
The roundtable concluded that while AI will reshape work, humans will still set purpose and direction. Sustainable transformation will depend on trust, adaptability, transparency and inclusion. Leaders agreed that real progress will come from human judgement, guiding the next phase of human–AI collaboration.