Indian employees are embracing artificial intelligence at work, but most organisations have yet to integrate it into the systems where work actually happens, limiting its business impact, according to a new Workday report.
The report, The copy/paste economy: Why task-oriented AI is failing the enterprise in India, found that 89% of employees note AI has improved their day-to-day work experience. Yet only 32% say AI is embedded into core business systems and workflows. The findings are based on a survey of 200 professionals across HR, finance, IT and operations.
Employees continue to lose time because of fragmented systems.
More than one-third spend over seven hours a week moving information between platforms. Another 56% spend at least half their working time coordinating across teams and systems instead of creating business value.
Employees remain positive despite operational friction
Despite these challenges, employee sentiment remains strong.
Nearly all respondents (99.5%) rated their day-to-day work experience positively. Meanwhile, 95% said they make meaningful progress at work, 94% are proud of their outcomes, and 91% said they understand how their work contributes to organisational goals. Another 91% reported a strong sense of ownership over their work.
The report also found widespread operational friction.
Around 89% spend significant time coordinating work across teams or systems. 86% regularly move information between platforms, 82% reconcile conflicting data, 78% deal with administrative tasks that create friction, and 64% repeatedly enter the same information into multiple systems.
Sunil Jose, President, Workday India said, "This research shows that Indian employees are ready to embrace AI and are already experiencing its benefits in their day-to-day work. The next phase of enterprise AI will depend on how effectively organizations integrate AI into the way work gets done.
“As long as employees continue to navigate disconnected systems and workflows, organizations will only realize a fraction of AI's potential,” he also mentioned.
“Those that embed AI into the core of their business operations will be better positioned to simplify work, improve decision-making and create meaningful value across the enterprise," he pointed out.
AI use is growing, but integration lags
The study found that 69% of employees believe AI reduces task completion time, while 64% said it has accelerated work productively.
Indian employees are also more proactive AI users. Around 43% use AI tools beyond those required by their employer, compared with 26% globally.
Employees are already using AI for business-critical work.
Common use cases include monitoring metrics and recommending actions (55%), onboarding (49%), cross-functional approvals (44%), budgeting and forecasting (42%), HR and policy queries (41%), and financial reporting (38%).
Governance and data quality remain barriers
The report identified governance and skills gaps as key barriers to enterprise AI adoption.
Around 35% cited excessive approvals or governance checks, while another 35% pointed to uneven AI skills and training. Poor data quality (25%), AI outputs that do not align with business processes (22%) and lack of trust in AI (20%) were also among the biggest challenges.
The report found that 95% of employees are more confident making decisions when they trust the underlying systems and data.
It concludes that organisations will unlock greater value by embedding AI into core workflows rather than deploying it as a standalone productivity tool.