As she is gathering her papers after a meeting, an attendee sometimes approaches Arundhati Bhattacharya — President and CEO at Salesforce, South Asia — wanting to share a comment. A conversation begins and the person says something significant that wouldn’t have been possible in a virtual conference where everyone quickly logs out.
The takeaway: while AI agents have captured the attention of technologists and leaders alike, an unprompted conversation between two human beings can lead to insights that become the most important part of the work meeting.
During an interview with The Hindu at the Dreamforce enterprise technology convention in San Francisco, Arundhati Bhattacharya, President & CEO at Salesforce, South Asia, discussed opportunities for young South Asian tech professionals, the evolving workplace culture in India, the nuances of deploying AI agents, cyber-crimes in the banking sector, and Salesforce’s ambitions in the country.
South Asians have a lot to offer the world as technologists, designers, scalers, builders, and leaders, such as yourself. But many are being held back by very human biases that affect visa applications and job relocation opportunities. What is your advice to these young tech professionals right now? And as a leader, how are you navigating this very troubled relationship between the U.S. government and a South Asian workforce that is being viewed with hostility?
What I would like to say is that within the organisation, we have had no such difficulties. Wherever there has been a requirement for talent, we have got it from whichever part of the globe it is available in. Otherwise, you know, a company such as ours would not have grown the way we have grown.
Overall, you have to remember that geopolitics will impact certain things at certain times. But still, you have also to remember that we have one of the youngest nations. And therefore, if there is a need for people — no matter what kind of politics gets in the way — it will be temporary in nature.
So, I don’t really believe this is something that will become a permanent impediment. But having said that, if we want to remain in technology, we have to ensure that we have the right skills in the people who are going to remain there. So, we need to upgrade our skills.
We know today that much of the basic coding can be done by the AI agents that we currently have. So, vibe coding is very much there; our own people are doing a lot of vibe coding. But when it comes to actually contextualising it, when it comes to actually putting it in the architecture of what you already have — because nobody is without anything — you always got to go and fit it into the existing way that things are operating. Whenever you look at how you will also ensure that the compliance is completely done, the requirements for regulatory issues are met — whenever you need or do all of that, you still need people to do it.
You’ve got to understand that things can happen from wherever you are. At least, technology has given us that freedom.
We are currently seeing a lot of tech companies bringing people back to the office and ending remote work, saying that culture is formed in the cubicle setting. What is your take on that, especially in the context of South Asia?
We expect our workers to come in three times a week. Because we think there should be a healthy mix. Remote working gives you certain kinds of advantages, especially for people who have children at home, or old people at home. But, on the other hand, you also need to have that environment where you are interacting with colleagues. Because not everything is learned merely from your training sessions and merely hands-on. Experience sharing is a very good way of upskilling yourself. And that happens when you are in an office environment, in the office setting. It’s not the cubicles so much. It’s more the times when you get together. You’ve been in meetings, and you know sometimes the most important things in meetings get said after the meeting is over.
So, to that extent, it’s important, every once in a while, for people to get into the office setting. But it’s also true that remote working allows us to tap talent, which otherwise we may not have been able to tap. Women in the workforce, for instance: a lot of them, if given the flexibility and the mobility, they would not drop away from the workforce. They would maybe use those facilities for 2 years, 3 years, till they attain the stability, till they put their children in school, till their elderly people at home became better. Having that kind of flexibility is what will ensure that women don’t fall off the workforce.
It will ensure that if a talent is sitting in another city, you’re still able to tap that talent because you’re willing to grow it.
We’re hearing a lot about agentic AI cyber attacks, building resilience, and cyber defence strategies. Could you set the stage for me, as to how these conversations are taking place in South Asia and India?
These conversations are taking place everywhere, across the board. In India, specifically, I’ll tell you: one of the things that I think we need to do very urgently is to do far more consumer education. Because, you know, your chain is only as strong as the weakest link. And today, the weakest link is the consumer. I have known people to share their OTP 11 times. . .11 times, before calling me to say, “I think my money is disappearing.” These are people who have held high positions in organisations.
Agent AI is not prevalent enough now in these sectors for it to start having these problems of cyber attacks and stuff like that. We are still at the very beginning of the adoption of these things. We haven’t even seen what they can actually deliver and do. So, talking about cyber-attacks already, done through agentic means, is probably putting the cart before the horse.
Let us first adopt this and see where it goes. Do it with the proper kind of guardrails, and do it on the basis in the context of what you are asking for. Don’t ask agents to do everything. Ask the agents specifically that they are supposed to do this thing and no more.
Make sure that the guardrails are all in place. Make sure that the model is working in the harness, and the harness is something that we constantly talk about, because it sets the context. It gives you the idea about what this particular organisation wants, what it does, what its vision is, where it needs to get to. So, once you put it in harness, you know, then you can actually utilise its strengths in the right way. Imagine, like, a horse is in harness. It can actually pull the carriage. Now you let it loose. . .it’s going to go and destroy everything around it.
What is the biggest misunderstanding about agentic AI that you find yourself clearing up a lot?
The biggest misunderstanding is the expectations from agentic AI. It’s not a magic wand. You can’t wave it and solve everything. It has specific functions. You need to really understand what you want to get done with it, and then put it to work. So, it’s a big force, but you need to temper the force and use it for what you really need, rather than just to put it anywhere and everywhere. A lot of people do pilots. The pilots don’t really prove its worth. You need to find what is really pinching you. Find the place where the shoe pinches, and then try and take away that particular problem. And then you’ll realise the value of what you are getting.
What is Salesforce’s relationship with the public sector in India and how is it taking shape?
So, it’s taking time, because if you want to get into public sector business, you need a lot of certifications, you need registrations, you need also to build your case as to why you should be the company that should also be allowed to participate in providing a solution.
But it’s beginning to happen. We are working with a few ministries, we are working with a few states, and my belief is that there is much that we can do to help.
