The 2026 Process Optimization Report:Inside India’s Business-Critical Processes
328 Indian business leaders on making Enterprise AI work
Is this the year of the agentic enterprise? What does Enterprise AI need to succeed? And what role do processes play in getting AI ROI? Discover what India business leaders are really saying about AI.
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AI, ROI, and a survey of India's enterprise market
73%
say their processes only run well enough to get by
93%
say they are confident AI can transform the way they do business
94%
say it’s crucial AI has the context of how their business runs
The year the agentic enterprise takes flight?
Business leaders in India have high hopes for Enterprise AI. Autonomous agents, capable of dynamic reasoning and decision-making, are at the center of the story. In fact, 95% of businesses in India aim to become ‘agentic enterprises’ that use AI agents to automate tasks and make decisions by the end of the decade.
Siloes and legacy techniques stand in AI’s way
While the appetite for AI is massive, operational friction is holding back optimization.
In India, 65% of leaders admit that individual departments have different, siloed views of the same process.
Furthermore, businesses are heavily relying on traditional, static visibility tools like business intelligence software (84%) and process mapping workshops (78%) that fail to deliver an accurate, real-time view of end-to-end operations.
Indian business leaders report their top three hurdles to process improvement as:
- Lack of coordination between departments / siloed ways of working (53%)
- Difficulty building a strong business case for process improvement (40%)
- Complex, outdated, or disconnected corporate systems (34%)
Unlocking AI’s next level
91% believe that AI solutions can only deliver ROI if they have the context of how the business runs. How will context help make agentic ambitions a reality? By introducing Process Intelligence, which extracts raw system data to build a living, real-time digital twin of operations.
When processes run as intended, the payoff is massive: 86% of Indian leaders cite increased productivity and efficiency, while 66% see an immediate boost in revenue. Find out how to scale your operational value with just one click below..
Careers_celonis_world_tour.jpg https://celonis-videos.wistia.com/medias/haxy6na0cy
Carsten Thoma
President, Celonis
“While business leaders are leaning boldly into an agentic AI future, the reality is that many are struggling to translate that ambition into tangible ROI right now. For AI to truly work for the enterprise, it needs more than just data—it needs context. By using Process Intelligence to give AI a shared understanding of how a business actually flows, we’re finally turning that ambition into continuous, measurable value.”
Process Optimization Report 2026: Inside India’s Business-Critical Processes
Get the key findings by department
Supply Chain
85% of India's supply chain leaders report that their processes only run well enough to 'get by'. Discover how they are navigating siloed systems to secure end-to-end operational visibility and scale new tech.
Process Optimization
India is leading on continuous optimization, with 31% managing business-critical workflows continuously. Find out how Process Optimization leaders are leveraging these frameworks to unlock definitive AI ROI
IT
74% of tech leaders are looking for better process visibility. Find out how India’s IT leaders use real-time data foundations to de-risk modernization projects and deploy AI tools effectively
Finance & Shared Services
While 37% of Finance leaders say their workflows run very well, siloes still hold back wider enterprise visibility. Discover how Finance teams are industrializing Enterprise AI to maximize resource constraints and increase revenue.
The 2026 Process Optimization Report: Inside India’s Business-Critical Processes
Read our third annual Process Optimization Report and discover how 328 senior business leaders across India are using AI to transform their operations.
The 2026 Process Optimization Report: Inside India’s Business-Critical Processes
Is this the year of the agentic enterprise? What does Enterprise AI need to succeed? And what role do processes play in getting AI ROI? Discover what business leaders are really saying about AI.