Immersive Outlook  

If a business enterprise were likened to a grand orchestra, its CEO would be the master conductor guiding the interplay of complex systems across a business value chain with the finesse of a maestro interpreting a difficult score. Today, that baton is shared with a new virtuoso: the agentic AI coworker, whose tempo is hyper-fast and whose precision rivals that of the finest performers.

This is no mere evolution, it is a revolution in work rhythm.

In a recent PwC survey, 75% of senior executives say they believe AI agents will reshape the workplace more than the internet did.¹ More than a ripple, it indicates a tidal shift. Emerging value pools are now infused with intelligent autonomy, while traditional sectors are yielding to new growth domains born of both related and unrelated diversification.

Agentic AI is not just a tool – it is a protagonist, a conductor in the business symphony. It redefines how we lead, how we manage risk, how we serve customers, and how we collaborate. Where software decisions once hinged on user counts, today’s calculus is about how many workflows can be autonomously orchestrated and optimised.

This paradigm shift has captivated leaders across industries. Demand is surging for AI models that reason deeply and interact naturally -– hallmarks of agentic intelligence. According to the survey, nearly 70% of executives report productivity gains and 57% cite cost savings, underscoring the tangible impact of these models.²

This edition of Immersive Outlook, ‘Catalysing intelligent autonomy to empower businesses’, explores this strategic force in a landscape where agents and humans coexist – each shaping the other in a dynamic interplay of intelligence and intent. These agents strive to understand and fulfill fundamental human needs – to move, make, feed, care, build, fuel, power, govern, serve, connect, compute, fund, and insure. In effect, they accentuate value in motion.

The first article, ‘Accelerating India’s rise as a global powerhouse of autonomous intelligence’, charts India’s ascent in the agentic AI landscape, powered by its internet-native population, mushrooming global capability centres, robust startup ecosystem, multilingual datasets, and policy support.

The country currently accounts for around 45% of global AI agent deployments,³, and hosts over 100 active agentic AI companies.⁴ Its emphasis on practical implementation and real-world transformation is grounded in its use case–first philosophy – an approach that is actively reshaping industries by using agentic AI as a strategic lever to drive measurable outcomes and unlock new value streams.

The second article, ‘Automation to autonomy: Redefining tomorrow’s enterprise and its workforce’, offers a blueprint for scaling agentic AI by aligning goals, setting guardrails, building data foundations, and preparing the workforce for human-agent collaboration. Going beyond a technical roadmap, it’s a call for strategic recalibration that harmonises innovation with risk, and agility with accountability. As AI agents gain greater autonomy to make decisions and execute tasks with increasing independence, they introduce new layers of complexity and risk. For instance, the HR function must reimagine its role to govern a blended workforce, one where digital agents and human employees co-create value, culture, and compliance.  

The next piece, ‘India will emerge as a leader in both agentic AI adoption and innovation’, is from the industry frontlines. In an online interview, Mr Sharad Kumar Agarwal, Chief Digital and Information Officer, JK Tyres and Industries Ltd., reflects on agentic AI’s transformative role in manufacturing, the imperative to adapt to Gen Z work culture, and the need for clear ROI and regulatory clarity while investing in agentic AI.  

The concluding case study, ‘Reimagining invoice validation and streamlining third-party risk management for a hyperscaler’, showcases how agentic AI automates complex workflows, enhancing control and compliance.

To truly unlock agentic AI’s potential, businesses must go beyond bolting it onto existing systems or using it merely as a productivity booster. The competitive edge lies with early movers who deploy multi-agent systems across the enterprise, rethinking business models and workflows from the ground up.

We hope this edition will be your overture to a new era where intelligence is not just artificial, but agentic, autonomous, and aligned with human purpose – empowering you to unlock value pools, redefine customer experiences, and shape the future of work itself. 

Raghav Narsalay and Vishnupriya Sengupta

With the rise of agentic AI, AI is evolving beyond traditional automation and moving towards attaining a higher level of autonomy. Rajnil Mallik and Dr. Indranil Mitra examine how India is uniquely positioned to lead the autonomous intelligence sector. 

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For Sharad Kumar Agarwal, Chief Digital and Information Officer, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, agentic AI plays the role of a symphony conductor. In an online conversation with Dr. Indranil Mitra, Partner, iDAC (intelligent data, agents and cloud) at PwC India, he shared how agentic AI is reshaping manufacturing through process automation, workforce adaptation, and ethical deployment - underscoring the importance of trustworthy data sources and responsible AI governance.

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