AI-Powered Digital Trust: Redefining Business Resilience in India

Q: How is India's digital transformation reshaping business trust and resilience?

India's digital transformation is entering a decisive new phase. Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just about innovation; it's fundamentally redefining how organisations build trust and resilience. Cyber threats are rising by more than 50% annually, and attackers are increasingly weaponising AI. This convergence of AI and digital trust is now what separates resilient organisations from vulnerable ones.

The government's renewed focus on AI skilling, announced recently by the finance minister, highlights AI's emergence as an economic imperative. From banks and insurers to hospitals, retailers, and agritech startups, AI is being woven into everyday operations. According to NASSCOM, AI adoption could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in value by 2030. Yet, as adoption accelerates, so does the risk of eroding trust, the most crucial currency in the digital economy.

Q: What are the emerging risks associated with AI adoption across industries?

AI is influencing decision-making across sectors, whether in lending, patient care, fraud detection, or supply chain management. But adversaries are advancing at the same pace. The India Cyber Threat Report 2025 reveals a sharp increase in AI-driven attacks, including deepfakes, automated phishing, and adversarial manipulation of AI models.

Compromised or "poisoned" training data can skew outcomes and lead to flawed business decisions. A fintech company could see its fraud-detection algorithms turned against it, or a hospital could face liability if a manipulated AI model misdiagnoses a patient. Cyber resilience has therefore evolved from being a technical concern to a core boardroom priority.

Q: Why is digital trust now considered a core business strategy?

Digital trust has become a measurable business asset. The PwC Global Digital Trust Insights 2025 survey stresses that resilience must be owned by the C-suite and tracked as rigorously as financial performance. Customers today make decisions based on how securely their data is managed and how transparent AI-driven systems are.

In India, where over 1,600 crore UPI transactions take place each month and 13.4 lakh cybercrime complaints have been filed since 2021, digital trust directly impacts competitiveness. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the forthcoming Digital India Act further reinforce that trust is central to India's $5 trillion digital economy vision.

Q: How is AI becoming a catalyst for business resilience?

AI is transforming resilience from a defensive concept into a proactive advantage. Today, AI systems can analyse millions of signals in real time to detect anomalies, enabling organisations to identify and neutralise threats faster than ever before. Homegrown innovations such as Vastav AI, which detects deepfakes, and MuleHunter.AI, which tracks mule accounts, reflect India's growing leadership in this space. Even the Department of Telecommunications has begun employing AI to curb fraudulent SIM activities. Beyond security, AI-driven analytics are empowering healthcare providers to allocate resources more effectively during crises and helping logistics companies anticipate and manage disruptions, turning foresight into a strategic strength. Meanwhile, Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms developed in India are revolutionising incident management by automating containment and remediation, dramatically improving response speed and resilience.

Q: What does India's AI readiness landscape look like today?

Adoption is progressing fast, but preparedness remains uneven. Research shows that only 8-19% of Indian organisations are fully equipped to counter AI-augmented cyber threats, with just 19% having clear generative AI (GenAI) governance policies in place. The remaining 81% operate within what we describe as the "Exposed Zone," marked by major strategy and governance gaps.

By contrast, organisations in the "Reinvention Ready Zone" report 69% fewer advanced attacks and significantly higher customer trust, translating into double-digit growth in both revenue and EBITDA.

Q: How is the government shaping India's AI and digital trust ecosystem?

The government's India AI Mission, supported by over ₹20,000 crore, is a game-changer. It prioritises compute infrastructure, innovation ecosystems, high-quality datasets, startups, and ethical AI use. India now boasts over 38,000 GPUs, more than 570 AI Data Labs, and an AI Safety Institute that is setting global benchmarks.

The Framework for Integrity, Security, and Trust (FIST) is another important initiative. It promotes real-time intelligence sharing between regulators, industry, and enterprises, essential for combating rapidly evolving threats.

Q: What are the key building blocks of digital trust?

Digital trust rests on four key pillars. Model and Data Governance ensure AI systems are transparent, unbiased, and tamper-proof, with frameworks like algorithm Bills of Materials enhancing accountability. Resilient Infrastructure built on zero-trust principles secures cloud and data operations. Auditability and Transparency through explainable AI strengthen confidence among customers and regulators. Finally, Shared Responsibility among regulators, industry bodies, and enterprises enables real-time threat intelligence and collective resilience.

Q: How important is human and cultural alignment in building digital trust?

Trust isn't built by technology alone; it's sustained by people and culture. Employees need to be trained to recognise deepfake-based scams. Leadership must make transparency and accountability non-negotiable. And customers should be treated as informed partners, with clarity on how their data is used and how AI decisions affect them.

As one CISO recently said, "We must treat AI model inventories the same way we treat financial ledgers." That requires continuous monitoring, third-party audits, and clear lines of ownership. In an era where ransomware and synthetic voice clones can be purchased online, overlooking this human and cultural alignment is no longer an option.

Q: What does the future of AI-powered digital trust look like for India?

By 2027, India's AI market is projected to reach $17 billion, growing at a 25% CAGR. The convergence of the Cyber-Physical Systems Mission, the semiconductor manufacturing push, and evolving data protection laws presents a powerful opportunity for AI-driven resilience.

Organisations will need to integrate security within every AI initiative, maintain detailed model inventories, and strengthen data governance frameworks. Cybersecurity can no longer be viewed as an IT function; it is a strategic enabler of growth.

At ValueMentor, we believe that when innovation, ethics, and cultural responsibility converge, Indian enterprises can set global benchmarks for digital trust. In the years ahead, AI-powered trust will determine which organisations truly thrive in a world where trust is the currency of progress.