- AHEAD India MD Sumed Marwaha predicts 2026 will move AI from experimental pilots to the enterprise operating layer.
- Agentic automation, AI-led cyber defence, hybrid cloud adoption and AI-ready data centres will accelerate enterprise transformation.
- Enterprises must prioritize data readiness, governance, security and cloud strategy now or risk being left behind.
Agentic AI to Become Core Enterprise Layer in 2026
AHEAD India managing director Sumed Marwaha says 2026 will be the year artificial intelligence stops being confined to pilots and point solutions and becomes the operating layer that runs enterprise processes. According to Marwaha, this shift will manifest in four interconnected trends: agentic automation, AI-led cyber defence, increasing hybrid cloud deployments and the rise of AI-ready data centres.
What is agentic AI and why it matters
Agentic AI refers to systems that can act autonomously on behalf of users or organisations — carrying out multi-step workflows, making decisions, and coordinating across services without constant human intervention. When these agents are embedded into enterprise operations, they can automate complex tasks, speed decision-making and enable new productivity gains. Marwaha’s forecast suggests these capabilities will move from experimental projects into the core operational fabric of businesses in 2026.
Four domains driving the transition
1. Agentic automation
Enterprises will increasingly deploy AI agents to handle end-to-end processes, reducing manual intervention for repetitive and decision-heavy workflows. This promises cost savings but also heightens the need for robust oversight and governance.
2. AI-led cyber defence
As attack surfaces expand, AI-driven threat detection and automated response will become central to security strategies. AI systems can accelerate detection and remediation, but organisations must ensure models are resilient and explainable to avoid new vulnerabilities.
3. Hybrid cloud as the infrastructure backbone
Hybrid cloud architectures are expected to grow as companies balance on-premise control with cloud scalability. This model supports agentic workloads while meeting regulatory and latency requirements.
4. AI-ready data centres
Data centres optimized for AI — with GPU acceleration, faster networking and specialised storage — will become critical. Firms that delay modernizing infrastructure may struggle to deploy agentic systems at scale.
What organisations should do now
Marwaha’s projection is a call to action. Organisations should focus on preparing three core areas today:
- Data readiness: Clean, well-governed data pipelines that feed reliable models.
- Governance and security: Policies, monitoring and validation to manage autonomous agents safely.
- Cloud and infrastructure strategy: Investing in hybrid cloud and AI-optimized data centre capabilities.
Bottom line
If 2026 is when AI becomes the enterprise operating layer, businesses that act now on data, security and infrastructure will gain decisive advantages. AHEAD’s forecast adds to growing industry signals that the next phase of AI adoption will be about embedding intelligence into the core of operations — not just experimenting at the edges.
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