New Delhi, Jan. 2 -- India's enterprise-tech journey has moved in waves. The first wave gathered momentum post Y2K, when India scaled global delivery, modernised enterprise systems, and built an engine of operational excellence. The second wave arrived in the 2010s, when cloud and digital-native thinking rewired how businesses-built products, used data, and served customers. Both waves created winners through adoption at scale.

Now comes thethird wave, driven by AI. And this wave will not be defined by who talks the most about technology, but by who turns it into tangible change. By 2026, AI is firmly in the "rubber meets the road" phase, where the market stops rewarding experimentation theatre and starts rewarding execution. The questio...