Nearly 93% of Indian SMBs using AI have seen increase in revenue: Salesforce report

About 41 percent SMBs were worried about being left behind if they didn’t implement AI into their operations, according to the Salesforce report (Representative image)

Nearly 93 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India have reported an uptick in their revenue by deploying artificial intelligence (AI) use cases, according to a survey by global CRM company Salesforce.

This comes at a time when adopting AI and generative AI use cases have become critical to the survival of enterprises across all sizes. For Indian SMBs, the top use cases include automated service chatbots, marketing campaign optimization, and generating new content. Around 41 percent SMBs were worried about being left behind if they didn’t implement AI into their operations in some capacity.

Meanwhile, the biggest bottleneck in AI adoption for SMBs have been consumer trust being at its lowest point in years amidst concerns around security risks and rapid technological change. The top three SMB concerns around AI in India included security risks, compliance concerns/ customer distrust in AI and Poor data quality.

“AI and agents are reshaping what’s possible across business functions like marketing, sales, service, and commerce,” said Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Managing Director - Sales, Salesforce India.

He added, “Small businesses are demonstrating that innovation and growth are not limited by size. By leveraging AI-driven technologies such as autonomous agents, SMBs are unlocking efficient ways to scale—delivering personalized customer experiences and optimizing back-office operations.”

Salesforce has been seeing steady growth in India, having reported 40 percent jump in the net profit for FY24 of its India business unit coming at Rs 888.3 crore.

The San Francisco-headquartered company’s revenue too grew 36 percent YoY to Rs 9,116 crore, making it the first fiscal where the topline crossed $1 billion.

Salesforce is also expanding its offices in India and leasing out a 12-storey building in Bengaluru as a part of its investments in India.