India is emerging as a core pillar of IBM’s global strategy. Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India, tells Urvi Malvania how deep R&D, expanding software labs, and tier-2 city hubs are powering innovation and strengthening the company’s ‘technology trinity’ of hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum. Excerpts:
How do you describe IBM India’s focus today?
We operate as a microcosm of IBM globally, with our strategy centred on hybrid cloud and AI. Increasingly, we are also adding quantum computing to this mix. I call this our “technology trinity” of hybrid cloud, AI and quantum — building enterprise solutions that are responsible, scalable and sustainable over time.
What are the growth levers you are banking on in India?
Technology remains a deflationary force — helping businesses drive efficiencies, stay competitive in a digitally pervasive world, and build resilience. Combined with India’s digitisation push and global ambitions of local companies, these trends provide a strong tailwind for our sector.
Where do you see the biggest adoption of AI?
At least 90-95% of companies are experimenting with AI, but only around 28% are scaling it up in a big way. Financial services sector leads adoption, with manufacturing also showing movement. Key concerns remain around skills and trust in outcomes. Our governance framework is built on data provenance, model management, eliminating bias, and ensuring transparency. We also focus on democratising AI by developing smaller, fit-for-purpose models that are cheaper and faster to run.
How is IBM investing in India beyond service delivery?
India is not just a talent hub; it is a centre for deep R&D. Our research labs contribute significantly to AI and quantum development, our systems lab designs servers and firmware, and our software labs — now expanded beyond Bengaluru and Pune into Kochi, Gift City and Lucknow — are producing global innovations. Examples include large, India-origin enterprise solutions and governance frameworks now used globally.
What role do tier 2 and 3 cities play in IBM’s India strategy?
We deliberately expand into locations like Gift City, Kochi and Lucknow based on talent availability, supportive business environments, and strong ecosystems with universities and partners. These hubs allow us to attract local talent that prefers to stay in their hometowns, improve quality of life for employees, and reduce costs compared to metros. We are seeing strong growth in these centres, particularly for deeptech software development.
India is known to be a price-sensitive market. How do you handle pricing pressures?
Pricing pressures are always there, not just in India but across APAC. It depends on market cycles — sometimes clients prefer capex-heavy models, sometimes opex-driven. But ultimately, pricing adjusts to liquidity cycles and global realities.
How does IBM ensure its AI solutions comply with regulations such as India’s DPDP Act?
Data residency, privacy and sovereignty are global issues, and hybrid infrastructures are well suited to address them. Our approach is hybrid by design and open by nature — clients can run AI within their own firewall, on-premises, private or public cloud. Regulations affect how applications are deployed, not the core technology itself.