AI adoption in India outpaces global peers, boosting demand for observability: New Relic CEO

New Relic, the intelligent observability company, is betting heavily on India as both a strategic market and a talent hub, with the country leading its AI strategy, according to the company’s CEO.

“India leads our AI strategy, which is broad. The software of the world is written here, which will continue. This is not just for Indian companies, but also GCCs. We want to be at the forefront in India because being successful here is a great way to capture the rest of the world,” Ashan Willy, CEO of New Relic, noted.

He explained that there are two parts to the market for New Relic in India. The first is India as a market in itself, with many of the company’s customers being digital natives who are often ahead of the technology curve.

“From a market standpoint, India is big, and we’re one of the leading observability players here,” Willy said.

The second driver is the growing influence of GCCs, which are increasingly making observability decisions for US and European multinational companies.

Observability has grown significantly over the past decade and is expected to become a $38 billion market by 2030, although Willy believes the market could become even larger as AI adoption accelerates.

Among the sectors driving demand for New Relic are fintech, manufacturing, and retail, particularly quick commerce. However, Willy noted that the company’s customer base spans industries, making observability mostly horizontal.

India’s quick commerce sector, in particular, presents a compelling use case for observability given the intense competition and reliance on seamless technology infrastructure.

Willy noted that, unlike most global markets, Indian consumers have multiple alternatives available within minutes if a transaction fails. As a result, technology systems must work flawlessly across the entire delivery chain, making observability critical for ensuring uptime and customer experience.

Moreover, growing concerns around hallucinations, prompt misuse, runaway token costs, and inaccurate responses are creating a significant opportunity for observability platforms.

“With AI, we have seen a significant increase in the software being written. There are more production issues. Observability can give you an X-ray into what’s going on and help you fix it beforehand. It helps an organisation understand all the governance and compliance pieces of AI as well,” he said.

Globally, North America remains a key market as enterprises continue to expand their digital operations. Europe, meanwhile, is beginning to move past regulatory hurdles that had slowed AI adoption, prompting more enterprises to invest in AI and observability.