Even at a time when Generative AI (Gen AI) is becoming a buzzword across industries, India still has a lot of catching up to do before Gen AI becomes a mainstay, according to Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO & Chairperson, Salesforce India.
“India needs to do a lot of catching up (when it comes to Gen AI). We definitely are a country that is maturing faster than the rest of the world, (but that is) maybe because we are slightly behind the curve,” Bhattacharya said at the Salesforce World Tour Essentials in Mumbai.
“Not individual talent wise, (in that aspect) we are ahead of the curve. But (when it comes to) industry adoption, we are slightly behind the curve (when it comes to Gen AI). But now the urgency is building up,” she added.
While Bhattacharya said that India has massive potential for Gen AI to take off, its adoption has been low. So far, digital transformation was definitely on the agenda of most companies but there was no urgency. That is, however, changing as Gen AI brings about a sense of urgency.
“Gen AI has made people feel that they need to leapfrog very quickly because the capabilities that are now being seen by digitising businesses and by using AI, is something that was not seen earlier. And because people are now experiencing Gen AI in the B2C space, they are beginning to understand its power,” Bhattacharya said.
She added that India is an outlier when it comes to software demand. Globally, Salesforce reported its lowest-ever quarterly revenue growth forecast in Q1 of the current financial year. The company also reported quarterly revenue that was below expectations for the first time since 2006, which showed that the adoption of AI is slower than what was predicted earlier, amid increasing competition.
Bhattacharya was speaking in Mumbai where Salesforce launched Digital Lending for loan origination and Public Sector division, two of its new offerings that will help the software provider deepen its reach in India.
Salesforce has also been expanding its base here in India. When Bhattacharya joined Salesforce in 2020, the company had around 2,200 employees here. That number grew to around 9,000 in 2023 and has increased to 11,000 staffers now across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Pune, and Jaipur.
The reporter was in Mumbai at the invitation of the company.
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