Priyanka Tiwari
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In a recent statement at NTT DATA, CEO Abhijit Dubey shared his perspective on the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in business. According to Dubey, while AI was largely in the “playtime” phase last year, 2025 will mark the start of “game time” for AI, as businesses increasingly deploy AI projects for productivity gains.
“We call it playtime is over. Now it’s game time,” Dubey remarked, indicating that businesses are now ready to scale up their AI initiatives. He pointed out a notable trend where IT services deals are consolidating among a select few players in the sector, with many organizations seeking large-scale transformations using AI.
The Growing Divide: Large-Scale Transformations and Smaller Deals
Dubey highlighted what he referred to as the “barbell effect” in AI-related deals. This phenomenon shows two distinct trends in AI adoption:
- Large-scale deals: These often involve significant transformations, such as modernizing core operations or overhauling existing systems to integrate AI capabilities.
- Smaller deals: These are typically more velocity-driven, focusing on specific use cases or business problems that AI can solve on a smaller, more targeted scale.
Despite the increased sophistication in deploying AI solutions, Dubey acknowledged that AI’s impact on company financials, specifically in terms of profit and loss statements, has yet to be fully realized. “I don’t think we are at that level of adoption and impact yet,” he commented.
AI’s Impact on Data Centers and Cloud Migration
As AI adoption accelerates, NTT DATA’s data center business is experiencing rapid growth, particularly in India, one of the company’s top 10 revenue-generating markets. With investments totaling over $3 billion in India, the company plans to invest an additional $500 million over the next few years, with projections to rank among India’s top five markets in the next three years.
NTT Holdings CEO Akira Shimada emphasized India’s importance to the company’s global strategy, particularly driven by the country’s rapid digital transformation and economic growth.
“India is key in our global strategy, fuelled by its rapid economic and digital expansion,” Shimada noted.
Growth in Data Centers Driven by AI Workloads
NTT DATA, which controls 30% of India’s data center market, is witnessing surging demand as businesses migrate to the cloud and integrate AI workloads. Dubey remarked that the shift to AI has significantly accelerated the demand for data centers, stating:
“The world has transformed to digital at a much faster pace than we can build data centers. Pre-AI, we were looking at about 15 percent growth in the data center business globally. Post-AI, that’s added about five to seven points of additional growth.”
The rise of cost-efficient AI models, such as those from the Chinese startup DeepSeek, is benefiting NTT DATA, particularly in AI inferencing-oriented data centers. According to Dubey, the introduction of these models helps reduce unit cost economics, unlocking more demand for AI-driven data centers.
“We don’t do massive data centers for frontier model training. What we do is inferencing-oriented data centers in tier-one and tier-two markets,” Dubey explained. “As unit cost economics go down, that should be a net positive for us.”
Trump Tariffs and Their Impact on IT Growth
Dubey also acknowledged the challenges posed by the Trump administration’s tariff war, which has contributed to market uncertainty, especially in sectors like manufacturing, automotive, retail, and consumer packaged goods (CPG).
He noted that the banking sector is likely to remain more resilient, due to expected deregulation efforts. However, Dubey stressed that the uncertainty surrounding tariffs and global trade will likely reduce discretionary spending, particularly in sectors focused on supply chain and manufacturing operations.
While the uncertainty continues, Dubey remains hopeful that once the situation stabilizes, there will be a significant demand for reconfiguring supply chains and technological infrastructure.
NTT Group’s Strategic Investments in AI and Data Centers
Globally, NTT Group is investing approximately $59 billion between FY23 to FY27, focusing on growth areas such as data centers, AI, cloud solutions, and security services. Through these investments, the company aims to deliver its integrated full-stack propositions, helping clients across sectors achieve digital transformation through AI, data management, and cloud solutions.
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