Pune: AI Appreciation Day 2026 has prompted industry leaders across technology, education, enterprise software and cybersecurity to share their perspectives on how artificial intelligence is transforming enterprise operations while reshaping the future of education, workforce development and digital security.
The leaders emphasized that AI Appreciation Day 2026 is not only an opportunity to recognize AI’s growing capabilities but also a reminder of the importance of responsible adoption, robust governance, human oversight and building future-ready talent.
They highlighted how AI-powered IT service management, automation and intelligent enterprise platforms are improving operational efficiency, while AI-driven education and skilling initiatives are preparing professionals for emerging industries.
Orient Technologies Focuses on AI-Powered IT Service Management
Umesh Shah, Director, Orient Technologies Limited, said AI Appreciation Day 2026 serves as a reminder to recognize AI’s potential while ensuring responsible adoption across enterprises.
“AI Appreciation Day is a moment to recognise AI’s potential, acknowledge the responsibility that comes with its adoption, and strengthen the relationship between people and technology.
At Orient Technologies, we are bringing these principles to life by combining AI-powered ITSM, automated support processes and robust governance to transform service desks into strategic centres of innovation that deliver faster resolutions, better user experiences and greater business value.”
According to the company, combining AI-powered IT service management (ITSM), automated support processes and governance frameworks can help transform service desks into strategic innovation hubs capable of delivering improved user experiences, faster issue resolution and enhanced business value.
Aptech Highlights Human-First AI and Future-Ready Talent
Sharing his views on AI Appreciation Day 2026, Sandip Weling, Whole-time Director & Chief Business Officer – Global Retail Business, Aptech Limited, emphasized that AI should augment rather than replace human capabilities.
“As Aptech marks 40 years of empowering learners through education and skilling, we believe the future of AI is not about replacing human potential but augmenting it responsibly. As AI reshapes the world of work across technology, business, AVGC-XR, beauty and wellness, hospitality, and the creator economy, Aptech’s priority is to build future-ready talent capable of applying AI with skill, creativity, judgement, and responsibility.
A human-first approach will ensure AI becomes a catalyst for innovation, enabling the next generation of creators to lead India’s digital and creative economy with confidence.”
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Whatfix Stresses Trust and AI-Driven Enterprise Transformation
Discussing AI Appreciation Day 2026, Khadim Batti, CEO and Co-Founder at Whatfix, said the greatest benefits of AI will be realized by organizations that establish trust in enterprise AI implementations.
“AI Appreciation Day is a reminder that the biggest gains are still ahead, particularly for the organizations willing to build the trust to get there. We’ve seen this pattern before.
Every major technology wave, from the internet to the cloud, has unfolded in several acts: infrastructure first, platforms second, and enterprise transformation last. This happens because business-critical workflows demand a level of reliability that takes time to earn.
Building that trust starts with how we deploy AI. Too often, AI fatigue gets blamed on the tools themselves, when it’s really an implementation failure. Employees are left to guess at boundaries, prompt their way through ambiguity, and absorb friction that good design should have removed.
The organizations that will lead when AI reaches its next inflection point will be the ones that treat AI as an operating model transformation, rethinking how work gets structured so AI can execute autonomously within clear guardrails, while employees focus their energy on judgment, strategy, and creativity.
That’s the vision behind Whatfix AI. Powered by ScreenSense, our AI engine that understands context and intent, Whatfix AI embeds agentic intelligence directly into enterprise workflows.
Rather than expecting employees to navigate an ever-growing collection of AI tools, AI agents operate within enterprise guardrails to deliver contextual guidance, accelerate execution, surface adoption friction, and continuously optimize how work gets done.
The real promise of AI is that intelligence becomes an invisible part of the operating model, empowering people with the right support, at the right moment, while organizations retain the governance and control needed to scale AI with confidence.
When organizations get this right, AI starts to feel less like another application employees have to learn and more like a trusted collaborator woven into every workflow.
It stops competing for people’s attention and starts compounding their impact, giving them back time to focus on the work that requires unique human judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking.”
TrendAI Calls for AI-Native Security and Governance
On AI Appreciation Day 2026, Sharda Tickoo, Country Manager for India and SAARC at TrendAI, highlighted the growing importance of AI-powered cybersecurity as organizations adopt increasingly autonomous AI systems.
“AI has become the frontline of enterprise defence, reading through logs at a scale no human team could match. However, the uncomfortable truth is that the same intelligence defending our systems is being weaponized against them and readiness is still lagging.
We celebrate AI’s speed while ignoring the velocity at which threats are evolving. As we move from AI to agentic systems, the attack surface does not just expand but becomes dynamic and increasingly difficult to govern.
Complexity compounds risk exponentially. A single compromised agent can orchestrate attacks across your entire infrastructure at machine speed, while defenders still operate in human time.
This is where the conversation shifts from resilience to anti-fragility, which means building systems that learn, adapt, and grow stronger through continuous threat detection and management. It demands governance frameworks embedded from the start, not bolted on afterward.
It requires guardrails that constrain agent behaviour at runtime, continuous monitoring of autonomous systems, and critically, human oversight, accountability, and traceability woven through every layer.
The enterprises that will lead the next era are those prepared for this reality. They are building AI-native security architecture, implementing continuous threat exposure management, and treating human judgment as a foundational control.
That is the inflection point we must reach, where speed and safeguard move in tandem, where governance enables innovation rather than constrains it.”
