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.

India, however, is emerging as one of the fastest adopters of AI. According to Willy, 72 per cent of Indian companies using New Relic’s products are also using AI, compared with a global median of around 40 per cent.

“That tells you that India is experimenting like crazy and putting AI into production in a big way. So while it’s not at scale yet, the use cases in India are significant,” he said.

The company is also continuing to expand its workforce and facilities in the country as it scales its AI and engineering operations.

New Relic’s India headcount has crossed 800 employees, up 17.3 per cent from 688 employees in 2025 and nearly four times higher than the 217 employees it had in 2024. Bengaluru accounts for more than 300 employees, representing a 21 per cent increase from 2025 and more than four times the growth since 2024. The company currently has around 50 open positions across engineering, product development, go-to-market, and corporate functions.

New Relic opened its first India office in Bengaluru in March 2022, followed by the launch of its Product Innovation Centre in Hyderabad later that year. Since then, it has expanded office capacity in both cities, including a 300-seat expansion in Bengaluru in November 2024 and a 500-plus-seat expansion at its Hyderabad Innovation Centre in December 2024, increasing capacity by 2.5 times within six months.

Published on June 16, 2026