New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) About 91 per cent of Indian companies will use half or more of their data to train artificial intelligence (AI) models in 2024, a new report said on Wednesday.

According to the intelligent data infrastructure company NetApp, India leads in AI and cloud innovation compared to its global counterparts.

India leads the way as an AI leader, with 70 per cent of enterprises having AI projects up and running or in progress. This stands in stark contrast to the global average of 49 per cent.

"India is a country of humungous data sets. No surprise then, that India leads the world, and corporations are embracing AI to further their IT agenda," said Puneet Gupta, VP & MD, NetApp India/SAARC.

The report surveyed 1,300 IT executives from key markets globally, including the US, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and India.

According to the report, 60 per cent of AI-leading countries such as India, Singapore, the UK, and the US have AI projects up and running or in the pilot, compared to 36 per cent in AI-lagging countries, including Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Japan.

About 87 per cent of Indian companies have optimised IT environments for AI, and some AI-lagging countries also have AI-ready IT environments, which includes Germany (67 per cent) and Spain (59 per cent).

"Data-ready enterprises that connect and unify broad structured and unstructured data sets into an intelligent data infrastructure are best positioned to win in the age of AI," said Gabie Boko, Chief Marketing Officer at NetApp.

In addition, 53 per cent of India-based companies reported being more likely to scale back or cut other parts of IT operations to make room for AI projects.