‘India at the heart of IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy’, says Asia Pacific head

IBM

​IBM’s long history in India is now evolving into something larger — a strategic and operational backbone for the company’s global push in advanced technologies. “What’s so interesting about India is that everything that IBM has you can find in India. So, India serves India from an IBM perspective, but India also serves the rest of IBM, the rest of our clients outside of India,” said Hans Dekkers in an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol.

Dekkers, who oversees IBM’s operations across the Asia Pacific region, described India as both a development hub and an innovation partner. The company’s labs and software development centres in Bengaluru and other Indian cities play a crucial role in building and refining IBM’s core products. “When we develop our codes, when we develop our software, obviously we have direct access to our labs in India. We have direct access to product development. We can feedback what enterprises think directly. So, the communication lines are very very short,” he said.

He pointed out that India’s rapid digital growth and economic expansion — projected to make it the world’s third-largest economy in the coming years — make it one of IBM’s most promising markets. “I believe we have a duty to become and are part of that growth,” he said, adding that the company sees “huge potential in India” as part of its Asia Pacific outlook.

Dekkers also spoke about how IBM’s open approach to technology is helping drive collaboration across enterprises, academia, and startups. “We believe that enterprises — small, medium, large — should have a choice in which technology they choose, and they should have a choice on how to govern it and where to deploy. That in itself fuels innovation if things are transparent,” he said.

As AI becomes integral to business operations, IBM’s watsonx platform — with its focus on data, AI models, and governance — is being positioned as a foundation for responsible AI. “That governance piece is very important because it helps us govern our models,” Dekkers said, noting that watsonx.governance ensures models behave ethically, adapt culturally, and align with business values.

For IBM, India represents both a testbed and a growth driver for its most advanced technologies — a market where innovation, openness, and scale converge.

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