Salesforce CEO Arundhati Bhattacharya highlights how cloud and AI are democratising capabilities, positioning India for an unprecedented economic leapfrog and significant job creation.
Key Points
- Cloud and AI are democratising advanced capabilities, allowing smaller companies to access intelligence and global markets previously unimaginable.
- India has a significant opportunity to not just participate but to leapfrog in the ongoing technology revolution driven by AI.
- AI is expected to create more jobs by fulfilling demands that businesses currently cannot meet due to bandwidth limitations.
- Indian businesses must transform using technology, moving beyond mere digitisation, and focus on enabling people to do new types of work.
- Accelerated AI adoption could add USD 500-600 billion to India’s GDP by 2035, with substantial opportunities in manufacturing and financial services.
Cloud and AI are democratizing capabilities that once required enormous capital and India has the opportunity not merely to participate in this technology revolution but to leapfrog through it, Salesforce President and CEO for South Asia and former SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said here.
Addressing the 120th Foundation Day of the IMC Chamber of Commerce here on Monday, she also said that AI will not take away people’s jobs but will create many more jobs, as it will cater to demand that businesses are unable to meet today due to a lack of bandwidth.
AI’s Role in Democratising Business Capabilities
“Cloud and AI are democratising capabilities that once required enormous capital. A smaller company that moves quickly can suddenly access intelligence, analytics, customer personalisation and global markets at a scale that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
“That is why I believe India has the opportunity not merely to participate in this technology revolution but to leapfrog through it,” Bhattacharya, a former SBI chairperson, said.
Stating that at present Indian businesses are facing another moment of reinvention, she said, this time, the revolution is digital and increasingly it has been driven by artificial intelligence and at a pace never seen before.
India, fortunately, is entering this revolution from a position of considerable strength, she said.
India’s Digital Leapfrog Opportunity
The Indian opportunity will not be realised simply because India has technology. It will be realised when Indian businesses transform themselves using technology, according to her.
“And that distinction matters enormously for many of the organisations represented in this country. You have rights, relationships, distribution, and knowledge and trust that a startup would take decades to build.
“That is your enormous advantage. But you also probably have systems that do not talk to each other,” she said.
“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,” she stated.
Transforming Businesses with AI: Beyond Digitisation
Urging organisations not to merely digitise the whole organisation, she said, “leapfrog it. Adding an AI chatbot to fragmented data is not an an AI transformation.”
“Because AI should not simply help us do the same work with your people. The bigger opportunity is to enable the same people to do work they never could do before,” she said.
She also suggested three priorities – getting their data house in order, redesigning the work and not just technology and moving from pilots to actual skill – for every organisation, and asked not to assume that AI is only for large corporations with large technology budgets.
Economic Impact and Future Job Creation Through AI
According to NITI Aayog estimates, accelerated AI adoption could add USD 500 -600 billion to India’s GDP by 2035, over and above the existing growth trajectory, she said.
In manufacturing alone, the opportunity from AI-led productivity could be 85 -100 billion dollars while in financial services, another 50 -55 billion dollars, according to her.
And according to the 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, she said.
“AI actually will create many more jobs because it will be fulfilling many more of your demands, which today, on account of the lack of bandwidth, we are just not able to take up, she said.
She also urged the IMC members to start programmes with academia to ensure availability of talent and skills (in AI) for the future requirement in the country.
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