World AI Appreciation Day Comments 1
Sunday, July 19, 2026
AI is becoming ever more significant for the industry today. Industry leaders are relying more and more on AI to grow in business. On the occasion of World AI Appreciation Day, many industry leaders commented on the significance of AI.
Following are some of these comments -
“AI has given cybersecurity something it has needed for a long time - leverage. Security teams have spent years contending with rising alert volumes, growing tool sprawl, increasingly complex environments, and constant pressure to respond faster. The challenge is not a lack of skill or commitment; it is that the problem has outgrown manual scale.
That is why AI deserves genuine appreciation from the cybersecurity industry. It is helping defenders identify patterns faster, reduce noise, automate repetitive work, and respond with greater speed and context.
At the same time, attackers are using AI to move faster too. That means the industry cannot afford to be tentative. We have to use AI to fight AI, secure machine identities and AI agents as seriously as human users, and move away from fragmented security architectures that make it harder to see, decide, and act quickly.
Cybersecurity has always been a race against time. AI gives defenders a better chance of keeping pace, and that is something the industry should genuinely appreciate.”
--Swapna Bapat, VP & MD, India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks
"While AI Appreciation Day is 'celebration' of the benefits of AI, it also serves as a timely reminder about the responsibility that comes with using it securely and safely.
There is no question that AI is changing cybersecurity. It helps defenders analyse threats faster and respond more efficiently, but also gives cybercriminals new ways to scale familiar attacks. The technology is evolving rapidly, yet the fundamentals of good cybersecurity remain remarkably consistent.
Even in an era of highly sophisticated technologies available to attackers, 79% of ransomware attacks in the APJ region still begin with identity-based techniques such as phishing, malicious emails and compromised credentials - according to the finding of the Sophos Ransomware Report released today. This shows that AI isn't replacing the tactics attackers rely on but it is making them faster, more convincing and easier to execute at scale.
Therefore, there is an imminent need to solidify the foundations of a robust defence system against these attacks which not just focuses on speed and scale but is also sustainable in the long run. That comes with embedding governance, visibility and security into AI initiatives from the outset, rather than treating them as an afterthought.
AI is an incredibly powerful tool, but like any tool, its value depends on how it's used. The organisations that will benefit most are those using AI to strengthen human expertise, accelerate response and build resilience, rather than assuming technology alone will solve their cybersecurity challenges."
--Aaron Bugal, Field CISO, APJ, Sophos
"On a day meant to celebrate AI's progress, it's worth remembering that none of it works without the infrastructure layer underneath. High-density computing puts real strain on power and cooling systems, and getting that right is what actually lets AI scale reliably. This layer determines whether AI adoption holds up outside a lab environment. That's the foundation we build at Vertiv."
--Rakesh Kumar, Infrastructure Solution Head, Vertiv
"Most enterprises are no longer asking whether AI works. They've seen it work in a pilot. The harder question, and the one that actually determines value, is whether it works reliably across a live business process, month after month, with the same data mess, the same edge cases, and the same regulatory scrutiny that every other system in the enterprise has to survive. That's a far higher bar than a proof of concept clearing a demo.
Three things separate organisations that get past the pilot stage from those stuck there -
- First, data readiness. AI is only as trustworthy as the data feeding it, and most enterprises underestimate how much foundational work - cleaning, structuring, and governing that data—has to happen before a model can be trusted with a real decision.
- Second, governance that is built in from day one rather than retrofitted after something goes wrong. Governance shouldn't be the function that slows AI down. Done well, it's what gives leadership the confidence to deploy at scale, because they know where humans stay in the loop, how decisions are audited, and what happens when the system makes a mistake.
- Third - and this is the mindset shift that matters most. AI has to be treated as a business enabler with an owner and a P&L outcome, not a technology initiative owned by IT in isolation. The enterprises seeing real transformation are the ones where business leaders, not just technologists, are accountable for AI outcomes.
On AI Appreciation Day, the most useful thing we can appreciate about AI isn't the technology itself. It's the discipline it's forcing on enterprises to finally fix the data and governance foundations they should have fixed years ago."
--Sachin Panicker, Chief AI Officer, Fulcrum Digital
"AI is rapidly transforming how organisations operate. It is reshaping investment priorities, redefining digital infrastructure and influencing the future competitiveness of industries ranging from manufacturing and healthcare to financial services and logistics. As AI moves from pilots to production, the conversation is shifting from what AI can do to whether the underlying infrastructure is ready to support it at scale.
The next chapter of AI will depend as much on resilient power, scalable compute, high-performance connectivity and sustainable infrastructure as it does on advances in models and applications. Organisations that invest in robust, future-ready digital infrastructure today will be better positioned to accelerate innovation, adapt to changing business needs and scale AI with confidence. At Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS), we see this evolution as an opportunity to innovate continuously by developing AI-ready data centres that deliver the performance, sustainability and operational excellence required for the next generation of AI workloads.
AI Appreciation Day is an opportunity to recognise that every advance in AI depends on the infrastructure that powers it, providing the compute, connectivity, resilience and sustainability needed to support AI at scale. The organisations that will achieve the greatest long-term advantage will be those that invest not only in smarter AI, but in the resilient, scalable foundations required to support its continued growth."
--Pratap Mane, President & Country Head, India, Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS)
"AI is no longer a technology conversation; it has become a boardroom imperative. Business leaders today are looking beyond experimentation and focusing on how AI can fundamentally improve decision making, customer engagement and long-term competitiveness. The next phase of AI adoption will be defined by organisations that seamlessly embed intelligence into everyday business interactions, enabling faster decisions, more meaningful customer experiences and greater operational agility.
In communications, AI has the potential to transform every interaction into one that is contextual, proactive and personalised, allowing enterprises to build stronger relationships at scale while maintaining trust and authenticity. However, sustainable value will come not from adopting AI for its own sake, but from deploying it responsibly with robust governance, transparency and human oversight.
As AI continues to reshape industries, leadership will be defined by those who can translate technological innovation into measurable business outcomes while keeping customer trust at the centre of every decision. AI Appreciation Day is a reminder that the greatest impact of AI will not be the intelligence of the technology itself, but the intelligence with which organisations choose to apply it."
--Tushar Agnihotri, CEO, Route Mobile
