Enterprises in India will spend slightly more in process automation and smarter analytics compared to the companies in rest of the world, according to a new report by global professional services firm KPMG and HFS Research released on Monday. The report surveyed 900 technology executives worldwide to explore the current and future state of emerging technologies and demonstrates a dramatic shift in how businesses are approaching emerging technology now versus just a few months ago before the onset of COVID-19.

While higher investments appear to be correlated with realised value, respondents in India strongly believe in emerging technologies for future survival, said the report titled ‘Enterprise Reboot — Scale digital technologies to grow and thrive in the new reality.’ Improved decision-making is the top criteria for investments in emerging technologies in India and process improvement is not seen as a major investment driver in India.

More than 90 per cent of companies are investing across emerging technologies as enterprises believe more in combined use of emerging technologies, it said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the way we work and perceive the work around us. We are seeing digital and emerging technologies adoption on steroids by organisations globally,” said Sachin Arora, Partner and Head for analytics, AI and big data at KPMG in India.

“This has helped putting customer at the centre of corporate strategy. Traditional business models have struggled to survive or have been disrupted massively. The potential of technologies like cloud, analytics and AI is unequivocal,” he said. “Transformation can be hard and digital ones can be harder if we are not bold to question the status quo. It is a reboot/reset moment for all of us. We either ride the wave or get drowned. It is all about the choice we make,” said Arora.

On a global level, said the report, 57 per cent of executives say COVID-19 has significantly changed their organisation’s strategic priorities for emerging technologies. Over the next 12 months, executives expect to increase spending across nearly all technology areas. The crisis is driving clarity in technology investments with 56 per cent of executives agreeing that cloud migration has become an absolute necessity.