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Entrepreneur
26-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Indian HR Leaders Anticipate 383% Rise in Agentic AI Adoption by 2027
The shift will require every employee to gain new human, agent, and business skills, says Nathalie Scardino, President and Chief People Officer, Salesforce You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Agentic AI is set to transform the Indian workplace, with a projected 383 per cent growth in adoption by 2027, according to new research by Salesforce. The survey reveals that only 12 per cent of Indian organisations have implemented agentic AI so far, but this is expected to surge to 58 per cent within two years. The study highlights that HR leaders foresee major shifts in workforce dynamics. CHROs anticipate redeploying nearly a quarter (24.7 per cent) of their employees to new roles, aiming to enhance productivity by 41.7 per cent and reduce labour costs by 26.2 per cent. Digital labour is no longer viewed as a support function, it is emerging as a strategic imperative. Despite this momentum, 88 per cent of Indian businesses are yet to fully adopt agentic AI, and 63 per cent of HR leaders say employees are unaware of how digital labour will affect their roles. To bridge this gap, 88 per cent of CHROs are either already reskilling workers (15 per cent) or planning to do so (73 per cent), focusing on both technical and soft skills. AI literacy has been identified as the most essential skill in the coming years, alongside interpersonal capabilities. As AI agents take on routine tasks, human workers are expected to shift into relationship-focused roles, such as account management and partnerships. More than half (54 per cent) of CHROs plan to redeploy employees into such positions, while others will be reassigned to roles in compliance, ethics, and AI governance. With research and development (59 per cent) and IT (51 per cent) expected to expand, the HR function is becoming central to navigating the AI transition. Nathalie Scardino, President and Chief People Officer, Salesforce, said the shift will require every employee to gain new human, agent, and business skills. "We're in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation of work with digital labor that is unlocking new levels of productivity, autonomy, and agency at a speed never before thought possible," said Scardino. "Every industry must redesign jobs, reskill, and redeploy talent — and every employee will need to learn new human, agent, and business skills to thrive in the digital labor revolution."
Entrepreneur
11-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
National Technology Day 2025: Agentic AI – India's Next Tech Frontier?
For Agentic AI to truly thrive, experts say that businesses must embrace more than just technological upgrades Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. "Agentic AI represents a fundamental advancement in artificial intelligence. It means creating AI systems with true agency—ones that can perceive, reason, plan, and take action independently," said Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, during his keynote at GTC 2025. Echoing this vision, financial commentator Raoul Pal noted in a podcast, "Agentic AI will independently build entire businesses, revolutionising competition and innovation." But are Indian businesses ready to embrace this era of intelligent autonomy? Deloitte's fourth wave of the State of GenAIreport (India perspective) found that over 80 per cent of Indian organisations are exploring the development of autonomous agents, suggesting that the business landscape is leaning strongly toward Agentic AI. However, while optimism is widespread, the journey from exploration to execution remains complex. Apurv Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of SquadStack, believes there are foundational realities that businesses must accept. He explained that building Agentic AI is not simply about deploying APIs or refining large language models. "It's about re-architecting how your business thinks. You're designing systems that don't just respond, but act autonomously with context, judgement, and accountability." He noted that for enterprises starting from scratch, the cost could range from INR 50 crore to INR 200 crore over three to five years. And even then, deployment success is not guaranteed unless systems, data loops, and change management are bulletproof. According to Agrawal, while a large percentage of Indian leaders express intent to adopt Agentic AI, that intent doesn't automatically translate into capability. "We're still in the early innings. India will see pockets of meaningful adoption within 12 to 18 months, but broad-scale adoption will take three to five years," he said. Narendra Sen, Founder & CEO of RackBank and NeevCloud, agreed that a paradigm shift is essential. "Indian businesses must evolve from task automation to intelligent, context-aware decision-making. AI needs to be treated not just as a tool but as a collaborative partner." Early results industry leaders are seeing Suryanarayanan Ramamurthy, Head of Data Science, Contentstack, shared that infusing Agentic AI into their platform led to a noticeable uptick in customer take rates and enabled scalable personalisation. "We're piloting workflows that help automate complex tasks and support faster decision-making. The impact is clear even at this early stage." Nishant Rathi, Founder and Director, NeoSOFT, pointed to improved resolution times and internal efficiencies. "In customer service, autonomous agents reduced average resolution time by nearly 40 per cent. They're also generating test cases, recommending code refactors, and even streamlining onboarding through knowledge agents." Beerud Sheth, CEO of Gupshup, said companies using their AI agents saw productivity improvements of at least 40 per cent. "We've seen lead conversion rates double or triple, especially in sectors like real estate, e-commerce, and financial services." Ganesh Gopalan, Co-founder and CEO of echoed similar outcomes. "Our deployments reduced customer support costs by up to 80 per cent while significantly improving CSAT scores. These agents don't just replace humans, they augment them by automating routine tasks." Kanakalata Narayanan, Vice President of Engineering, Ascendion, noted the significance of evolving AI standards. "With frameworks like the Multi-Agent Collaboration Protocol, we now have digital specialists that reason, collaborate, and only escalate to humans when required." From hype to implementation For Agentic AI to truly thrive, experts say that businesses must embrace more than just technological upgrades. Moumita Sarker, Partner, Deloitte India, emphasised the need for democratising AI use across teams and building libraries of reusable agents. "It's not just about using agents but allowing them to own iterative, non-standard tasks." According to Narayanan, leadership must treat Agentic AI as a strategic investment. "This isn't just about upgrading software; it's about transforming the workforce. We need governance, experimentation budgets, and rapid prototyping." Gopalan added that businesses often stop at automation but fail to embrace AI as an evolving collaborator. "Success lies in building robust data infrastructure, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and enabling human-AI synergy." Vara Kumar Namburu, Co-founder of Whatfix, believes the focus must return to people. "AI must simplify workflows, not create friction. Our philosophy of 'Userisation' puts the user first. Technology must adapt to people, not the other way around." Barriers in scaling Despite the momentum, infrastructure and workforce readiness remain hurdles. "Agentic AI is compute-hungry," said Sen. "It requires high-frequency inferencing, orchestration, and integrations. At RackBank, we're building India's first full-stack AI infra platform to address this." Sheth added that legacy systems continue to be a bottleneck. "Many enterprises can't scale AI because their systems don't support modular integration. That's where our API-first approach helps bridge the gap." Mahesh Parab from PwC highlighted another challenge: hallucination control and agent lifecycle management. "We need frameworks that make agents behave responsibly, are auditable, and align with business KPIs—just like human employees." On the talent front, most firms are taking proactive measures. Sheth said that at Gupshup, 35 per cent of coding workflows are already AI-augmented. "We offer hands-on training, online modules, and ensure cross-functional fluency." Ramamurthy noted that Contentstack has embedded real-world pilot projects, internal labs, and AI adoption hackathons. "We're preparing teams not just to understand Agentic AI but to shape it." Rathi added, "We're focused on systems thinking and human-AI cooperation. Training alone isn't enough—we need a mindset of experimentation and agility." Economic impact across sectors The potential of Agentic AI to contribute to India's GDP is not just aspirational—it's already visible in pilots across healthcare, agriculture, and education. In healthcare, Gopalan highlighted how multilingual voice agents are reducing patient no-shows and improving rural care delivery. Sen added that AI triage agents could handle up to 60 per cent of OPD cases—critical in a country with a 1:800 doctor-patient ratio. In agriculture, adaptive agents are already helping farmers optimise sowing schedules and predict pest outbreaks. According to Parab, this has led to 15 per cent higher yields and 20 per cent water savings in early pilots. In education, voice-powered tutors and agent-based learning systems are helping students in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities study at their own pace. As Rathi said, "This isn't just about innovation—it's about equitable access." Parab also underscored the macroeconomic angle. He said, "If executed correctly, Agentic AI could add USD 300 billion to India's GDP by 2030." India's entry into the Agentic AI era is not merely speculative, it is already underway. However, true readiness will depend on holistic progress. As Namburu puts it, "The promise of AI lies in making it truly work for people. That's the essence of transformation."
Khaleej Times
17-02-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Nita Ambani calls youth, diaspora as strength of India, and adoption of technology as a greatest opportunity
Nita Ambani, founder and chairperson of the Reliance Foundation, has said the strength of India lies in its large youth population and the diaspora. Delivering the keynote address at the Harvard India Conference on Indian Business, Policy & Culture, she said the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, green energy, and genomics was a great opportunity for the country. The Reliance chairperson also shared stories from her life about the importance of resources. When asked to give a SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat) analysis of India, she said: "I think our strength is our youth with 50 per cent of our population under the age of 30, and our Indian diaspora. I think that's our strength." Speaking about the weakness, she said: "I think the 200 or 300 million people lying at the bottom whose life we need to change, and I think that should be our priority and we should be able to sort this out in the next decade." She noted that the greatest opportunity for the country is the adoption of technology at scale. "Whether it is artificial intelligence, green energy, genomics, I think that's what India will do." "I speak as a mother here. I think we need peace. We need peace in the world. Only when there is peace will countries grow and prosper, and so that holds true for even India. So I think I think wars do no good. And I would think that is a threat", Nita Ambani said while highlighting about the threat aspect. Sharing an incident from her life, she said that after getting married she got a gold chain for herself but eventually had to return it so that Reliance employees could be paid. "I bought this gold chain and brought it home, and showed it to Mukesh. Mush looked at me and said, 'Nita, I don't think we can afford it. Reliance is going through really tough times. We need to pay all our employees first. So It would be nice if you can return this gold chain'. I did that without questioning Mukesh. And I told him, 'I'm sure good times will come, and you will turn around the situation', and he did." Nita Ambani said that this incident taught her the lesson that "adversity should make you a better person and not a bitter person" and she called it a great learning for herself.
