AI Appreciation Day 2026: Trust and infrastructure emerge as the next frontier for AI, say experts

Vamsi Karatam, Founder & CEO of Deepfacts Private Limited

National AI Appreciation Day is a moment to recognise how artificial intelligence is helping healthcare move from information overload to meaningful clinical understanding. At proRITHM, we believe the true value of AI lies in its ability to support medical expertise, making complex healthcare information easier to interpret and enabling timely, informed decisions. Our focus is on using AI to strengthen remote monitoring and screening capabilities, extend access to specialised insights, and support healthcare professionals in delivering better care across diverse settings. The future of healthcare will be shaped by responsible innovation where technology and clinical knowledge work together to improve accuracy, efficiency, and patient outcomes. AI’s greatest achievement will be measured by how effectively it enhances human expertise and helps make preventive or proactive healthcare more accessible.

Vishal Rajani, CEO, Synergos

AI earned its place in marketing the hard way, by taking over the parts of the job nobody really enjoyed. Five years ago, a junior strategist spent two days pulling competitor data before a pitch even began. Today, that groundwork takes an afternoon, and the strategist spends the rest of the week on things that the human mind is exceptional at doing—reading a client’s real problem underneath the brief, asking the right questions and solving the right problems.

That shift is worth acknowledging today. AI is clearing the runway for marketers to exercise better judgement. Media buyers who used to babysit spreadsheets now spend time asking why a campaign underperformed, how to make it better and all sorts of right questions. Copywriters who burn a whole day on ten headline variants generate fifty in an hour and spend their energy on the one line that actually says something meaningful.

Some marketers are getting it wrong by treating AI as a shortcut to skip thinking altogether. The ones getting it right are treating AI as a way to do more thinking faster on questions that actually decide outcomes. Before AI became mainstream, a lot of people in the industry spent time honing skills needed for menial tasks. AI is pushing people to excel at exercising judgement because a tool that drafts a report is only useful if someone still asks whether the report says anything true.

Over two decades of being a marketer, I’ve learned that the scarce resource was always attention, the kind that notices when a strategy is technically correct but for the wrong client. AI has bought us more time to think strategically. To everyone building tools that free people up to do their best thinking, on this AI Appreciation Day, I’d like to say thank you.

Sandip Weling, Whole-time Director & Chief Business Officer – Global Retail Business, Aptech Limited

As Aptech marks 40 years of empowering learners through education and skilling, we believe the future of AI is not about replacing human potential but augmenting it responsibly. As AI reshapes the world of work across technology, business, AVGC-XR, beauty and wellness, hospitality, and the creator economy, Aptech’s priority is to build future-ready talent capable of applying AI with skill, creativity, judgement, and responsibility. A human-first approach will ensure AI becomes a catalyst for innovation, enabling the next generation of creators to lead India's digital and creative economy with confidence.

Umesh Shah, Director, Orient Technologies Limited

AI Appreciation Day is a moment to recognise AI’s potential, acknowledge the responsibility that comes with its adoption, and strengthen the relationship between people and technology. At Orient Technologies, we are bringing these principles to life by combining AI-powered ITSM, automated support processes and robust governance to transform service desks into strategic centres of innovation that deliver faster resolutions, better user experiences and greater business value.

Chetan Jain, Managing Director, Inspira Enterprise

AI is getting embedded in our digital infrastructure across sectors, contributing to increased production, accelerated innovation, maximized operational efficiency, and enhanced cybersecurity, among other capabilities. While AI Appreciation Day allows us to recognize the benefits and progress made by businesses with artificial intelligence, we also have a collective responsibility to leverage it wisely. In the cybersecurity domain, AI-driven security operations represent a strategic transformation in how organizations safeguard their digital ecosystems. At Inspira Enterprise, we use AI as a growth accelerator that enhances human capabilities, driving organizations to make quicker, faster, and more secure decisions. From automated threat detection, mitigation, response, and resilience, AI is the future of enterprise operations. It is all the more critical for government and enterprises to promote AI-driven innovations that are built on ethical principles, optimized for operational excellence, and socially conscious. As AI continues to evolve, Inspira’s commitment stays focused on building intelligent solutions that empower organizations, safeguard digital ecosystems, and create lasting value for society.

Niraj Kumar, CTO, Onix

World AI Appreciation Day is a good moment to step back from the hype and look at what AI is actually doing inside enterprises today. At Onix, we think about AI not as a standalone tool but as something that needs context to be genuinely useful. That is the thinking behind our Enterprise Intelligence Fabric, Wingspan, which gives enterprises a living, connected view of their data, systems, and business logic, so AI agents are not just fast, they are accurate and dependable. We are already seeing organizations modernize significantly faster and cut manual effort dramatically once their AI has this kind of grounded context to work with. What excites us most is the shift this creates, AI moving from isolated pilots to becoming a genuine operating layer for the enterprise, helping teams make real time decisions instead of waiting days for answers. That is what appreciating AI truly means to us, not marveling at the technology itself, but recognizing its power to make enterprises fundamentally smarter and faster.

Paritosh Gandhi, Country Head, India, Infobip

On World AI Appreciation Day, it is important to recognize AI’s potential not just as a tool for automation, but as a force for building more trusted, meaningful customer experiences. As customer expectations continue to rise, the focus of India’s CX story has moved from adding more channels to earning customer trust in every interaction. Today, 96% of brands automate parts of their journeys, yet only 27% use an orchestration platform and barely half possess API-ready tools. This leaves customer experiences fragmented and data governance inconsistent. Customers don’t leave because a brand is offline; they leave when every conversation feels like starting from scratch. That gap is also a reminder of what AI can do at its best: help brands make interactions more relevant, consistent, and human at scale. But realizing that value depends on using AI responsibly, with context, identity, and consent built in from the start.

At Infobip, we view ethics as an engineering discipline, not just a policy document. For us, responsible innovation means building agentic, AI-powered platforms where privacy, DPDP compliance, and human oversight are part of the architecture, so businesses can scale automation with confidence and accountability. Responsible advancement to us means helping businesses move from experimental bots to transparent, governed customer journeys, where AI augments human judgment and every message can stand up to scrutiny - from regulators, from customers, and from our own teams.

Brijesh Agarwal, CEO, Busy Infotech

The real promise of AI for India's MSMEs is not making a small business operate like a large enterprise. It is to remove repetitive work and make complex decisions easier, without taking control away from them. In accounting, AI can help surface errors before they become penalties, suggest the next step in a filing, simplify voucher posting, and make compliance workflows easier to navigate, so a business owner spends less time reacting to problems and more time running the business.

However, adoption will depend on trust. Small businesses need AI that is accurate, explainable, secure and affordable, not a black box making financial decisions on their behalf. At BUSY, our focus is on embedding intelligence into familiar accounting workflows so users gain speed without having to completely change the way they work. AI should support human judgement, not replace it, and its value should ultimately be measured in time saved, errors prevented and better decisions made.

Parag Khurana, Country Manager, India, Barracuda Networks

On AI Appreciation Day, organisations should celebrate not only the possibilities AI creates, but also the steps needed to use it responsibly. Sustainable AI success will depend on treating security, governance and innovation as complementary priorities rather than competing objectives.

Employees are often the first to identify opportunities for AI, bringing new tools into workflows long before formal policies are established. This reflects genuine enthusiasm for innovation, but it can also create blind spots around data protection, compliance and risk management. The challenge is not preventing the use of AI, but ensuring its use aligns with organisational and regulatory requirements.

Forward-looking organisations are responding by developing practical frameworks for responsible AI adoption. This includes understanding which AI tools are being used, setting clear expectations for employees and ensuring sensitive data remains protected. When governance supports innovation rather than restricting it, businesses can create a culture where AI delivers value without introducing unnecessary risk.

Dr Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director at Quick Heal Technologies

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming the nervous system of Digital India. As AI transforms how we work, learn, and innovate, it is also reshaping the cyber threat landscape. Our latest India Cyber Threat Report 2026 highlights how AI-assisted phishing, identity compromise, and data integrity attacks are accelerating, with social engineering emerging as one of the most effective attack vectors. This makes responsible, transparent, and well-governed AI not just an innovation imperative, but a national cybersecurity imperative.

At Quick Heal Technologies Limited, we believe AI should strengthen trust, not compromise it. That belief drives our AI-first cybersecurity innovations, from our patented GoDeep.AI technology to solutions that help combat digital fraud, protect personal data, and defend organisations against external threats such as impersonation and brand abuse. As regulations like the DPDP Act raise the bar for data protection, AI will play an increasingly important role in helping organisations stay secure and compliant.

On this AI Appreciation Day, we celebrate not just what AI can do, but how responsibly we choose to build and use it. The true measure of AI is not how intelligent it becomes, but how effectively it protects people, businesses, and the digital future we are all creating together.