1. 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."
2. 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."
3. 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,”
4. 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.”
5. Ravindra Singh, Managing Director, Delcom Telesystems
“World AI Appreciation Day is a timely reminder that the true value of artificial intelligence lies not in the technology itself, but in its ability to solve real-world challenges across critical infrastructure sectors. In India's power transmission and distribution ecosystem, where reliability, resilience, and operational continuity are paramount, AI is increasingly becoming a strategic capability rather than an emerging trend. As utilities accelerate investments in smart grids, digital substations, and modernized infrastructure, they are managing more distributed and interconnected environments than ever before. This calls for systems that can do more than simply record or report incidents after they occur. AI is helping drive this shift from reactive operations to predictive intelligence. AI-powered video analytics, anomaly detection, edge computing, and intelligent monitoring are enabling utilities to identify potential security threats, equipment failures, and operational disruptions before they escalate into larger incidents. The result is improved situational awareness, faster response times, and more resilient infrastructure. At Delcom Telesystems, we view AI as an enabler that strengthens the convergence of surveillance, networking, cybersecurity, and operational technologies into a unified infrastructure ecosystem. The organizations that embrace AI-driven intelligence today will be better positioned to build the secure, resilient, and future-ready power networks that India's growth ambitions demand.”
6. Saurav Kasera, Co-Founder, CLIRNET
"Artificial Intelligence is redefining healthcare at a pace we've never witnessed before not by replacing clinicians, but by amplifying their ability to make faster, more informed decisions. From accelerating access to medical evidence and personalized learning to reducing administrative burden, AI is enabling healthcare professionals to spend more time where it matters most: improving patient outcomes. However, the true measure of AI's success will not be the sophistication of the technology, but the trust it earns. Responsible AI adoption demands transparency, clinical validation, strong data governance, and human oversight at every stage. As the healthcare ecosystem embraces this transformation, organisations that combine technological innovation with scientific credibility and ethical responsibility will be the ones shaping the future of care. AI is no longer an emerging trend—it is becoming foundational to the next era of healthcare delivery and medical education."
7. Amit Relan, Co-Founder and CEO, mFilterIt
On AI Appreciation Day, it's worth recognizing that AI's greatest contribution isn't automation, it's transformation. Its real value lies in helping businesses make better decisions, faster, by connecting intelligence across fragmented systems, people, and processes. The result goes beyond operational efficiency: stronger outcomes, greater resilience, and the confidence to navigate change rather than react to it. At mFilterIt, we have seen this firsthand when AI orchestrates rather than simply automates, businesses gain the upper hand in their operations: their digital investments stay protected, their decisions turn sharper and real-time, and their growth becomes harder to disrupt. But technology alone is never the answer. AI brings speed, scale, and precision; people bring context, ethics, creativity, and judgment. The future will belong to organizations that unite the strengths of both. Together, human intelligence and AI won't just improve business, they will redefine what's possible and create wonders we have yet to imagine.
