Sumir Bhatia – President, Asia Pacific, Lenovo ISG: Encouraging AI adoption by enterprises & organizations in the Asia-Pacific region
In a new study commissioned by Lenovo and conducted by IDC, this has been revealed that the IT decision-makers confirm the accelerating shift toward AI (artificial intelligence) investments as organizations increase spending on AI by 3.3x in the Asia-Pacific region and 2.7x in India. These ongoing trends have been recorded in the just published third edition of Lenovo’s CIO Playbook 2025 – It’s Time for AI-nomics. The study is based on a global IDC study of 2,900-plus respondents including over 900 IT and business decision-makers (ITBDMs) from 12 markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
Early stages of AI adoption
Despite the increasing spends, AI adoption in India remains in its early stage with 49 percent of organizations either evaluating or planning to implement AI in the next 12 months. This lags behind the AP average (56 percent) and aligns with the global average (49 percent) with ROI emerging as the key barrier to quick adoption.
Delivering ROI for AI is a long-term endeavor that requires balancing AI experiments with those that can be scaled. Interestingly, AP organizations expect a 3.6x ROI on average from their AI projects, which requires a measured approach to scaling AI and building internal capabilities. India’s gradual pace reflects a focus on improving regulatory compliance, enhancing customer experience, and accelerating time to market while overcoming business challenges such as data quality issues, unavailability of AI expertise and IT infrastructure costs.
Overcoming stymies
Evolving business priorities each year reflect a deeper understanding of what it takes to drive AI growth, bringing greater awareness of its risks as well. Ethical issues and biases are the top AI risks this year, yet only 24 percent globally and 25 percent in AP have fully enforced AI GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) policies. In India, 19 percent of CIOs report fully implemented enterprise AI GRC policies. This highlights the urgent need for a structured approach for what has emerged as the #1 priority for businesses in AP. Effective AI governance requires explainability, ethical frameworks, accountability, model governance, enhanced privacy, security and integrated human oversight.
(L-R): Flynn Maloy – Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo ISG; Sumir Bhatia – President, Asia Pacific, Lenovo ISG; Fan Ho – Executive Director & General Manager, Asia Pacific Solutions & Services Group; and Amit Luthra, MD – India, Lenovo ISG
Sumir Bhatia, President, Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo, said, “Business priorities are shifting in Asia Pacific. For 2025, governance, risk and compliance have jumped 12 spots to become the top priority, highlighting the focus on secure and responsible AI. Employee productivity has also climbed from #7 to #2, underscoring its growing importance. Lenovo is committed to making AI accessible, ethical, and impactful—helping businesses of all sizes thrive in the AI era.”
On-Prem and Hybrid infrastructures dominate
The report reveals that 65 percent of organizations in Asia-Pacific are opting for on-premise or hybrid solutions to power AI workloads. This preference is driven by the need for secure, low-latency environments, and operational flexibility. Meanwhile, 19 percent still rely on public cloud services.India reflects a similar trend, with 63 percent using hybrid or on-premises, while the remainder depend on public cloud.
“Hybrid architectures offer the best of both worlds—scalability and control,” noted Amit Luthra, Managing Director, Lenovo ISG India. ” Globally, 63 percent of organizations prefer on-premise and hybrid infrastructures for AI, with India mirroring this trend. This alignment demonstrates a clear focus on driving innovation while staying secure and compliant for the unique demands of AI. With its end-to-end cutting-edge AI solutions, smarter infrastructure, and strategic partnerships, Lenovo is driving Smarter AI for all.”
AI PCs: Early adoption signals productivity gains
The AI-powered PCs are gaining traction in AP, with 43 percent of organizations seeing significant productivity gains. While awareness is increasing, local adoption remains slow across markets. In India, 53 percent of organizations are already in the planning stage for AI-powered PC adoption. As the technology matures and demonstrates ROI, the adoption curve will accelerate, driving more digital workplace solutions.
Skilled partnerships
With organizations scaling their AI efforts, 34 percent of AP CIOs and 29 percent of Indian CIOs are actively leveraging professional AI services to navigate complexities in data management, talent shortages, and cost efficiency. Interestingly, an additional 54 percent of CIOs in India are exploring or planning to engage these services in the near future. These collaborations help bridge internal capability gaps, enabling organizations to focus on upskilling their teams and building long-term resilience.
“The AI adoption is not just about the short-term gains. Organizations need to invest in the efficiency of the design, deployment and integration of AI solutions to their operations that enable tracking of the impact. Professional AI services play a key role here and help organizations successfully adopt AI through outcome-led approach. Solutions like Lenovo’s AI Fast Start further accelerate this process, helping businesses quickly pilot, optimize, and scale AI initiatives with expert guidance and tested frameworks,” said Fan Ho, Executive Director & General Manager, Solutions and Services Group, Lenovo, Asia-Pacific.
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