If India does not adopt Agentic AI decisively, it risks being trapped in the middle-income bracket, Arundhati Bhattacharya, president and CEO, Salesforce South Asia, has said, while asserting that it’s no more an option but fundamental to improving productivity, efficiency, and overall economic competitiveness of the country.
“Agentic AI allows us to bridge that gap by augmenting human capacity and enabling personalised, high-quality services at massive scale. This is why I believe agentic AI is critical for India’s growth trajectory. If we do not adopt it decisively, we risk being trapped in the middle-income bracket because our workforce will not be equipped to handle the velocity of change or the complexity of the challenges ahead. Deploying agentic AI is therefore not optional, it is fundamental to improving productivity, efficiency, and overall economic competitiveness,” Bhattacharya told Business Standard in a virtual interaction.
Bhattacharya, a former chairperson of the State Bank of India, said that agentic AI will be extremely significant for India, perhaps more so than for many other markets.
She highlighted that India was a populous country, and to unlock the full potential of its demographic advantage, leveraging technologies that allow the country to scale impact efficiently was crucial. Agentic AI is one such technology.
To elaborate her point, she talked about the way the country pushed for financial inclusion.
“We have 1.4 billion people and around 600,000 villages. When India pushed for financial inclusion, it would not have been possible without the foundational technologies like Aadhaar and mobile connectivity. The same principle applies today. Whether it is access to healthcare, education, skilling, or other essential services, there is no brick-and-mortar model that can deliver these at scale or with the speed our population requires,” she emphasized.
For Salesforce, India’s adoption of agentic AI is equally important.
“We see India not only as a large consumption market but also as a hub of innovation and talent. As Indian enterprises and government institutions embrace agentic capabilities, we see substantial opportunities to partner with them, build relevant solutions, and support the country’s digital transformation at scale,” said Bhattacharya.
The California-based CRM firm counts India as an important market and which is growing fast for the global firm. According to the regulatory filings, the Indian arm of Salesforce reported revenue of ₹13,384 crore for the financial year 2025 (FY25), up almost 47 per cent. The company’s headcount in the country also touched 14,000.
For Salesforce, India is not just a sales and distribution market, but also supports the broader Salesforce ecosystem worldwide.
When asked if there are concerns on agentic AI and how it can impact the employability, Bhattacharya said that concerns about job loss have arisen with every major technological shift, but history consistently shows that new technologies create more opportunities than they eliminate.
“Agentic AI will follow a similar trajectory. It will certainly change the nature of work, but it will also create an entirely new
set of opportunities. Transitions are rarely smooth, and some degree of discomfort is inevitable. The only way to make this transition less painful is to lean into it, to understand what agentic AI can do, build the right skills, and prepare for the new roles that will emerge,” she said.
Bhattacharya believes that in a country like India, with 1.4 billion people, the real opportunity lies in unlocking human potential.
“As standards of living rise, consumption rises, and so does the demand for goods, services, and new forms of work. Economic growth does not reduce the number of jobs, it expands them. It would be illogical -- and counterproductive -- to believe that we should hold back progress or keep people under-resourced just to preserve outdated job roles,” she said.
The focus should instead be on enabling people to adapt, upskill, and participate in the new economy that agentic AI will create, said Bhattacharya. The net outcome will be more jobs, higher productivity, and better livelihoods.
For the year 2026, Bhattacharya has three main focuses.
“First, we want to take the agentic enterprise vision to all our customers and help them adopt these capabilities meaningfully. Second, we will double down on skilling, ensuring that more individuals and organisations are equipped to use AI effectively. Third, with the developer ecosystem in India, we aim to harness the innovation coming from this community and bring those solutions and ideas to our customers at scale,” she added.
Growth for Salesforce will continue to be driven by the strength of its core portfolios, which are sales, service, marketing, commerce, integration, and analytics, said Bhattacharya.
 "Agentic AI critical for growth trajectory, says Salesforce South Asia CEO")
