85% of Indian Finance Leaders Face Pressure to Prove AI ROI While Accountability Lags Global Peers, Avalara Survey Finds

27% of Indian respondents say accountability for significant AI agent errors is unclear or sits with no one, higher than all other markets surveyed

PUNE, India, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Avalara, Inc., the agentic AI leader in global tax and compliance, today released new research showing that Indian finance teams face mounting pressure to deploy AI agents quickly. This rush to demonstrate measurable ROI is causing governance and internal controls to struggle to keep pace. As a result, more than one in four Indian finance leaders said accountability for significant AI errors was unclear or sits with no one, higher than other markets surveyed. 

The report, "Agents of Change: How the Race to Deploy AI Agents is Outrunning Financial Governance," surveyed CFOs and senior finance leaders across the US, UK, India, and Australia.

85%¹ of Indian respondents feel moderate or significant career pressure to demonstrate that AI agent investments are delivering ROI. 71%² say the pressure to deploy agents is focused primarily on deployment speed, and consequently, while only 8%³ say their organization prioritizes governance over speed.

This speed-first approach is creating a widening governance and compliance gap. 10%⁴ of Indian finance leaders say they are not confident they could give a regulator or auditor a clear and complete explanation of an AI agent's actions, much higher than the share reported in the US, UK, and Australia. Furthermore, 24%⁵ of Indian finance leaders have not updated their internal controls within the last year to reflect AI agents taking or recommending actions. Only 28% say AI agent controls have been reviewed or tested by IT or cybersecurity teams, while just 34% report review by risk or compliance teams.

"While Indian enterprises are moving fast to automate, their internal rulebooks are being left behind," said Dulles Krishnan, VP & General Manager, India Operations at Avalara. "Running new AI tools on outdated compliance policies is a massive blind spot. CFOs in this market need to ensure their risk frameworks are actually updated to monitor automated decisions before an auditor comes knocking."

This is compounded by a lack of available knowledge, as 76% lack dedicated in-house expertise to understand how their AI agents work.

When asked what would most increase their confidence in expanding AI agents, Indian finance leaders consistently prioritized capabilities that reinforce trust and accountability, including outputs grounded in verified tax and financial data (27%), human review controls for higher risk actions (26%), audit trails documenting every AI action (22%), and stronger vendor commitments around accuracy and accountability (20%).

As Indian finance teams embed AI agents more extensively into tax, compliance, and regulatory processes, the survey suggests that confidence in explaining those actions to a regulator will need to catch up with the pace of deployment. Closing that gap will depend less on how quickly AI agents are deployed and more on embedding trusted data, audit trails, governance controls, and documentation from the outset so automated decisions remain transparent, explainable, and audit-ready.

The full report is available at: newsroom.avalara.com/image/Agents_of_Change.pdf.

Methodology:

The research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 250 CFO or Senior Finance leaders (aged 30+) in Indian companies with a revenue of approximately US$10 million+. Respondents must have deployed, piloted, or actively evaluated AI agents in their organisation in the last 12 months and work in the following industries: Financial Services and Insurance / Healthcare /Manufacturing & Distribution / Professional Services (i.e., accounting firms legal, consulting) / Retail & E-commerce / Tech and SaaS. The data was collected between 15.06.2026 and 22.06.2026. Censuswide is a member of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the British Polling Council (BPC), and a signatory of the Global Data Quality Pledge. Censuswide adheres to the MRS Code of Conduct and ESOMAR principles.

About Avalara

Avalara is the agentic AI platform for global tax and compliance. For more than two decades, Avalara has built one of the most expansive libraries of tax content and integrations in the industry, processing more than 54 billion transactions annually and supporting millions of businesses worldwide. The company's purpose-built AI agents automate end-to-end compliance with greater precision, from tax calculations and return filings to exemption certificate management and beyond. For more information, visit Avalara.com.

1. Combining answers "significant pressure" (48%) and "moderate pressure" (37%) 
2. Combining answers "entirely on speed" (32%) and "mostly on speed" (39%) 
3. Combining answers "mostly on governance" (12%) and "entirely on governance" (0%)
4. Combining answers "not very confident (8%) and "not at all confident (2%)
5. Combining answers "within the last 13-23 months" (14%, "within the last two years" (10%, and "over two years ago" (1%)