According to Salesforce President and CEO for South Asia and former SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, India has the opportunity to leapfrog through the cloud and AI revolution rather than merely participating in it. Speaking at the 120th Foundation Day of the IMC Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Bhattacharya emphasized that cloud and AI are democratizing capabilities that once required enormous capital. She noted that smaller companies moving quickly can suddenly access intelligence, analytics, customer personalization and global markets at a scale unimaginable a decade ago. As per Salesforce, India is entering this revolution from a position of considerable strength, but warned that transformation will require addressing legacy systems. The former SBI chairperson stressed that India, fortunately, is entering this revolution from a position of considerable strength, but the Indian opportunity will not be realized simply because India has technology - it will be realized when Indian businesses transform themselves using technology.
According to NITI Aayog estimates, accelerated AI adoption could add $500-600 billion to India's GDP by 2035 over and above the existing growth trajectory. In manufacturing alone, the opportunity from AI-led productivity could be $85-100 billion, while in financial services, another $50-55 billion opportunity exists. According to Indian Government estimates, the country's digital economy is expected to grow almost twice as fast as the overall economy and account for nearly one-fifth of national income by 2029-30. Bhattacharya stated that AI will create many more jobs because it will fulfill many more demands that businesses are unable to meet today due to lack of bandwidth. She urged IMC members to start programmes with academia to ensure availability of talent and skills in AI for future requirements in the country.
Bhattacharya stressed that India is entering this revolution from a position of considerable strength but warned that transformation will require addressing legacy systems. She urged organizations not to merely digitize but to leapfrog, adding that adding an AI chatbot to fragmented data is not an AI transformation. The former SBI chairperson emphasized that AI should enable the same people to do work they never could do before, not simply help them do the same work with different technology. According to Salesforce, she stated that the bigger opportunity is to enable the same people to do work they never could do before, not simply help them do the same work with different technology. Bhattacharya also suggested three priorities for every organization: getting their data house in order, redesigning the work and not just technology, and moving from pilots to actual skill development. She also urged not to assume that AI is only for large corporations with large technology budgets.
Addressing concerns about AI's impact on employment, Bhattacharya stated that AI will create many more jobs because it will fulfill many more demands that businesses are unable to meet today due to lack of bandwidth. She urged IMC members to start programmes with academia to ensure availability of talent and skills in AI for future requirements in the country. According to her analysis, while Indian businesses have rights, relationships, distribution, and knowledge that startups would take decades to build, they also face the challenge of legacy systems that don't communicate with each other. As per Salesforce, she noted that there is always a legacy system. But the customer does not care about that. The customer simply asks, why can't we do this now? That is the challenge every legacy organisation faces today.
