India stands out with the highest cross-team collaboration and AI-driven productivity gains in the 2025 State of Observability Report.
Cisco-owned Splunk has unveiled its State of Observability 2025: The Rise of a Business Catalyst report, highlighting how observability has evolved from a technical necessity to a boardroom priority—driving AI adoption, product innovation, and enhanced customer experience. Based on insights from 1,855 ITOps and engineering professionals worldwide, the report underscores observability’s growing influence on business decisions, employee productivity, and organizational resilience.
India Leads in Security Collaboration and AI Efficiency
Among the standout findings, India emerged as a leader in cross-functional collaboration. 81% of Indian respondents said they share and reuse data with security teams—outpacing the global average of 74%. Moreover, 74% of Indian teams can accurately trace application and infrastructure performance issues back to their security root causes, compared to 65% globally. This reflects not just cooperation, but genuine technical alignment across operations and security.
“Observability practitioners are now influencing customer engagement and innovation strategies at the board level.”
— Patrick Lin, SVP & GM, Observability, Splunk
However, the report also identifies regulatory restrictions as a key challenge, with 53% of Indian respondents citing compliance as the biggest barrier to deeper collaboration.
“True observability is not about fixing errors — it’s about enabling smarter, faster business decisions.”
— Shannon Kalvar, Research Director, IDCBlurb
Despite these challenges, AI is reshaping productivity and innovation across Indian enterprises. 82% of Indian respondents said AI allows them to focus more on innovation rather than maintenance, slightly above the global average. Only 36% said they spend excessive time responding to alerts, versus 43% globally—indicating AI’s growing role in automating operational burdens and improving efficiency.
“AI is freeing Indian teams from maintenance to focus on innovation — a powerful shift in enterprise mindset.”
Observability Powers Business Outcomes
Globally, 74% of respondents said observability improves employee productivity, while 65% credited it with driving revenue growth. The report also reveals that 64% believe observability enhances product roadmaps, positioning it as a crucial tool for shaping customer experiences and service reliability.
“Observability practitioners are becoming critical stakeholders in customer engagement, product design, and innovation strategies,” said Patrick Lin, SVP and GM of Observability at Splunk, a Cisco company. “This year’s findings show that observability provides not just visibility, but strategic context that drives better business results—from safeguarding AI systems to enabling faster decisions.”
AI’s Dual Role: Enabler and Complexity Driver
While AI-driven observability is proving invaluable, it also introduces new challenges. Nearly half of those surveyed said monitoring AI workloads has made their roles more complex, requiring new expertise in performance tracking and cost management. Yet 76% of global respondents reported regular use of AI-powered observability tools, signaling rapid adoption across industries.
Key benefits include:
- 78% of respondents now dedicate more time to product innovation than infrastructure upkeep.
- 60% predict AI will improve troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
- 58% expect better security vulnerability detection through AI integration.
The report suggests that upskilling observability practitioners in AI workload management is essential to sustain this momentum.
OpenTelemetry: A Competitive Differentiator
The report spotlights OpenTelemetry, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project, as a strategic enabler. Organisations using it reported 72% higher revenue growth, improved margins, and better brand perception. Moreover, “power users” of OpenTelemetry achieved 3x greater productivity gains and 2x stronger customer experience outcomes than laggards.
A growing number—57% of frequent OpenTelemetry users—are also adopting observability-as-code, a DevOps approach that standardizes observability configurations for greater scalability.
Leaders Drive ROI and Innovation
The report defines “observability leaders” as organizations achieving superior results in productivity, resilience, and revenue. These leaders generate a 125% annual ROI from observability practices—53% higher than their peers—thanks to better root cause analysis, stronger cross-team collaboration, and faster mean time to detect and resolve (MTTD/MTTR).
“For digital-first businesses, observability is not just an IT function—it’s a core discipline shaping business decisions at speed and scale,” said Shannon Kalvar, Research Director at IDC.
As Indian organizations double down on AI-driven transformation, Splunk’s report underscores a critical message: observability is no longer about avoiding downtime—it’s about enabling innovation, improving resilience, and creating business value in an AI-powered future.