2026 And The End Of AI Hype: Cost, Control, And Clarity |
In boardroom huddles between CXOs and cafe meetings between startup founders, AI is no longer the last word or a prickly subject. It’s not something people are sceptical to talk about, and, in fact, many are happy to stick their necks out and share their AI predictions in 2026.
Before we get started, it’s hard to talk about AI without acknowledging that it has an impact on pretty much every sector and app out there. At the same time, AI-native startups have become a focal point, along with startups building the infrastructure and rails for an AI future. It’s hard to predict which part of the AI ecosystem will gather the most momentum.
What we know is that Indian tech companies and startups have raced from pilots to production so quickly that nearly half of the large enterprises now run multiple AI use cases live. As highlighted in Inc42’s upcoming Annual Indian Startup Trends Report, 2025, India is home to more than 1,20,000 AI professionals and 185 AI/ML GCC hubs, which make the country a frontline base for model development, MLOps, automation, and predictive engineering.
Inc42 predicts that up to 15–20 AI-native and deeptech startups are likely to emerge in 2026 as GCC spin-outs, led by globally trained operators.
This is the backdrop against which 2026 arrives: a year where AI stops being a side project and becomes the way Indian companies are built, operated, and secured. Government programmes like the IndiaAI Mission are pouring capital into indigenous models, compute and infrastructure. Founders are rebuilding everything from contact centres to core banking on top of agents, small models, and voice‑first interfaces for an AI world.
This concoction can unlock a whole lot for the Indian tech economy.
In 2026, AI will be treated as critical infrastructure; apps will turn into AI companions; agents will step into real workflows; and infrastructure, cost, and governance will continue to remain make‑or‑break questions, but with clearer answers on each front.
The Shift From Pilots To Infrastructure
Enterprises are rewriting systems and rebuilding their architecture to ensure AI is embedded into the core, not sprinkled on top. Discussions are now less about discovery of AI capabilities — some of that has already been done in 2025 — but more about uptime, latency, FinOps, and governance.
Anindya Das, the cofounder and CTO at AI cloud company Neysa, believes that 2026 will result in the end of experimentation and the beginning of AI accountability. “Enterprises are now designing AI as critical infrastructure. That changes every decision around architecture, cost, security and ownership,” Das told Inc42.
Teams are moving toward smaller tuned........