For Indian enterprises adopting AI, choosing the technology is only part of the challenge. Deciding what to own, how much to spend, and where AI can deliver measurable business value is becoming just as important.

A December 2025 government backgrounder, citing Nasscom’s AI Adoption Index, said 87% of enterprises in India were actively using AI solutions. As adoption expands, technology leaders face a more complex choice: buy ready-made solutions, build capabilities in-house, or access models from external providers.

Frontier models have made it easier to add AI capabilities to products and workflows. But the decisions around cost, speed, data, and business outcomes are increasingly intertwined. For enterprises and startups, the challenge is to identify which parts of the AI stack can create a lasting advantage and which to source externally as the technology evolves.

These questions shaped the second roundtable held on the sidelines of Inc42’s inaugural CTO Summit 2026, where technology leaders discussed how they are building AI-led systems and organisations.

Moderated by Abhinav Johri, partner, technology consulting, EY India, the conversation brought together:

The conversation began with a question: as AI moves from experimentation into core business processes, does every problem require a new technology layer?

Matters.ai’s Sahu argued that the starting point should be a deep understanding of the domain. Knowing where existing solutions fall short can help technology leaders build differentiated products.

“I feel that founders and tech leaders need to know their specific domain really well to not only see the existing gaps but also use AI to fill in those gaps in a way that was never done before,” said Sahu.

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