AI’s Transformative Impact on SaaS and Enterprise Services: Insights from Industry Experts
New Delhi, February 20 (PTI) — At the India AI Impact Summit, industry leaders convened to explore the profound implications of artificial intelligence on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and enterprise services, assessing how this technology is poised to redefine the IT sector.
The consensus among panellists was clear: AI agents are destined to alter business and operational paradigms; however, this transformation will not occur instantaneously.
Success in the age of AI, they emphasised, will largely depend on agility, organisational preparedness, precise orchestration, and, paramountly, the capacity to continually address genuine customer challenges within increasingly sophisticated digital landscapes, as stated in an official communiqué.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO of Salesforce India, addressed market trepidations surrounding AI tools and the uncertain future of SaaS. She urged caution against oversimplified assessments.
Defined as a cloud-centric model, Software-as-a-Service facilitates the delivery of applications via the internet on a subscription basis, eschewing the need for installation and maintenance on outdated computing systems. Bhattacharya opined, “Market sentiments are often fleeting, and not all predictions materialise.”
Discussing the SaaS model, she elucidated, “It’s not solely about agile coding or mere application creation; it encompasses a comprehensive understanding of workflows, an acute awareness of customer pain points, and an unwavering commitment to addressing them. It involves observability, governance, auditability, and user adoption.”
K. Krithivasan, CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, the largest IT services firm in India, underscored a pivotal transformation in engineers’ roles.
“We are transitioning to an epoch where the focus of software engineers is pivoting towards high-level architectural design and stringent validation,” he remarked.
While AI harbours the potential for significant productivity enhancements, its widespread enterprise integration necessitates extensive groundwork, including data rationalisation and application modernisation.
Krithivasan posited that the market will not contract; rather, he anticipates a burgeoning of opportunities. “We envision not a shrinkage but a tremendous expansion in the volume of solutions we can generate and the intricate challenges we can address.”
C. Vijayakumar, CEO and Managing Director of HCL Technologies, asserted that effective enterprise AI implementation transcends generic models.
“Current large language and foundational models lack efficiency when applied to enterprise scenarios,” he noted, highlighting the enduring gap between foundational capabilities and enterprise performance standards.
To bridge this gulf and facilitate broader adoption, HCL Technologies is developing proprietary intellectual property and specialised services, including physical AI and agentic AI, even if this requires a proactive evolution of existing business lines.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh emphasised the magnitude of opportunity on the horizon. “AI is generating a $300 billion services opportunity by rendering the previously deemed ‘impossible’ economically feasible.”
The panel discussion unfolded amid escalating market anxiety regarding the SaaS model, as AI agents threaten to automate fundamental workflows, diminish reliance on traditional software subscriptions, and exert pressure on profit margins.
The transition towards outcome-based AI solutions has instigated concerns regarding pricing pressures and the potential disruption posed by AI-native competitors and tools.
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