As Indian enterprises accelerate digital transformation, AI security has emerged as a top priority—second only to cloud protection, according to the 2025 Thales Cloud Security Study by S&P Global Market Intelligence. With the rapid growth of hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, cybersecurity strategies are being overhauled, and AI-specific security budgets are now replacing traditional ones for over 56% of Indian organizations.
Cloud Infrastructure Under Fire
India’s cloud ecosystem is facing mounting cyber threats, with 63% of organizations reporting increases in credential theft, secret leaks, and direct attacks on infrastructure. Alarmingly, four out of five of the most-targeted assets are cloud-based. While the volume of sensitive data stored in the cloud has risen to 53% from 46% last year, only 7% of firms encrypt more than 80% of their cloud data, highlighting a major gap in security practices amid escalating risks.
Encryption, MFA, and Human Error Gaps
According to the report, security weaknesses surrounding India’s cloud adoption are concerning, with only 66% of businesses deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA). Human error, including unintentional credential weakness and configuration errors, is still the number one breach type.
Further, managing multiple clouds in complex cloud environments only exacerbates risk, as dozens of organizations are using multiple fragmented tools for updating, data discovery, encryption, and monitoring and thus increasing the chances of oversight and exposure.
AI Expands, Security Lags
India’s embrace of AI and SaaS is rapid, with an average of 85 SaaS apps per enterprise and 2.1 public cloud providers in use, alongside on-premises infrastructure. But with growing digital sprawl, many firms are struggling to enforce uniform security policies across platforms.
While 41% believe encryption and key management meet data sovereignty needs, 35% emphasize portability and future-proofing, highlighting ongoing tension between compliance and cloud agility.
Conclusion
As digital spaces become increasingly fragmented and AI utilization proliferates, Indian organizations need to reevaluate cybersecurity in its entirety. AI security is beginning to encroach on legacy IT security budgets, and wherever the money goes, the priority goes.
The priority is clear: we need to create adaptive, AI-aware defenses that will secure data, operations, and customers all simultaneously.
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