Salesforce India launches AI product for digital lending, unveils dedicated platform for public sector

Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO & Chairperson, Salesforce India

Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, has launched two new services to sharpen focus on India -- a key market for the company. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed company said its new offering – Digital Lending for Loan Origination – will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help lenders disburse loans digitally in India.

The idea is to consolidate all the relevant information on a single dashboard and help lenders decide if they want to loan out money to a borrower.

Salesforce also unveiled its second new offering, a Public Sector Division. Under this, the company aims to help the Indian government manage services offered to its citizens.

The two new launches come at a time when demand for software has slowed globally. In fact, 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.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO & Chairperson, Salesforce India, however, remains upbeat and said the Indian market has massive potential to grow from here.

“India is an outlier. It is growing fast. We definitely are a country that is maturing faster than the rest of the world. In India, the entire motive is to now get the right kind of technological tools to empower themselves and scale faster. Nothing in India can be small-scale,” Bhattacharya said at the Salesforce World Tour Essentials event held in Mumbai.

Bhattacharya  joined the company in 2020 when Salesforce had around 2,200 employees in India. That number grew to around 9,000 in 2023 and has grown further now to 11,000 employees across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Pune, and Jaipur. A growing focus also explained the new launches, a Digital Lending platform for loan origination and a Public Sector Division.

Digital Lending for loan origination

Through Digital Lending, Salesforce India will provide banks and lenders with a platform to digitally approach consumer lending. The platform may be integrated with banking and financial data with customer data with Salesforce.

It is built on Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud platform, and aims to reduce the turnaround time for financial companies. It will let users to intake, review underwriting processes, perform pre-disbursement operations for applications across home, auto, and personal loans.

Public Sector division

Salesforce's Public Sector division is built on its Einstein 1 platform, it will allow government organisations to future proof their IT investment with citizen developer, AI, and automation tools, while helping to enhance their services’, agility, efficiency, and digital transformation.

Salesforce’s Public Sector Solutions are available on a public cloud infrastructure, called Hyperforce, built for the public cloud.

"Artificial intelligence – both predictive and generative, machine learning, and application development based on trust will boost citizen experiences,"  Bhattacharya  said.

The reporter was in Mumbai at the invitation of the company.