Today, every company wants to be an AI company, yet a stark gap separates ambition from reality. In India, this paradox is clear: while 95% of organizations feel pressure to adopt Generative AI, Deloitte reports that over half dedicate less than 20% of their AI budgets to it. As we move beyond chatbots to autonomous AI agents, or “agentic systems,” companies that fail to bridge this gap risk losing significant ground. For India, a nation on a trajectory to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030, the time to act is now.
The greatest barrier to progress isn’t a lack of vision but the persistence of “trapped value”—operational inefficiencies and missed opportunities buried deep within disconnected data, processes, and workflows. Nearly half of desk workers report spending time on mundane tasks unrelated to their core jobs. This is where agentic AI becomes a revolutionary force. Unlike previous iterations of AI, these agents can reason, make decisions, and execute tasks with minimal human supervision, creating a scalable digital workforce that operates around the clock.
Unlocking Trapped Value with a Digital WorkforceDeploying AI agents isn’t about replacing people; it’s about augmenting human capacity and empowering employees to focus on what they do best: strategic thinking, innovation, and building relationships. By automating repetitive work, agentic AI allows businesses to reprioritize their human talent toward high-value contributions, unlocking new revenue streams and driving competitive advantage.
We are already seeing this transformation in action across India.
- In Aviation: Air India is harnessing agentic AI to elevate customer service, enabling faster resolution of passenger queries and smoother travel experiences while allowing human staff to focus on more complex, high-value interactions.
- In Healthcare: With a doctor-to-patient ratio of approximately 1:1,800—far from the WHO’s recommended 1:1,000—AI agents can help bridge the gap. They can triage patient requests, provide preventive care information, and handle administrative burdens, allowing doctors to focus on critical cases and improve patient outcomes.
- In Fintech: Building on the success of UPI, which now processes over 18 billion transactions monthly, AI agents can deliver personalized financial offers, prevent fraud in real-time, and support financial inclusion by reaching underserved communities at scale.
The power of an AI agent is directly tied to the data it can access. Without a unified, 360-degree view of the business, even the most advanced AI will deliver fragmented and unreliable results. This is why having a central data platform is critical. It connects structured and unstructured data from across the enterprise into a single, trusted foundation, ensuring that AI agents are grounded in the full context of your business.However, technology alone is not enough. Trust is the currency of the digital age. In India, while 57% of consumers are open to AI-driven experiences, 51% believe companies are reckless with their data. A staggering 68% want to know when they are interacting with an AI. To build trust, businesses must prioritize data governance, privacy, and transparency. This means implementing robust oversight and ensuring AI systems are explainable, with clear accountability for their outputs.
Measuring What Matters: From Adoption to ROI
The advantages of a digital workforce are clear, but demonstrating return on investment is crucial. According to Gartner, over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027 due to unclear business value. To avoid this, organizations must focus on enterprise productivity, measuring success through metrics tied to quality, cost, speed, and scale.
For customer service teams, ROI can be measured by improvements in customer satisfaction scores and deflection rates. For sales, it can be seen in faster lead response times and higher conversion rates. These efficiency gains free up human teams to focus on driving growth in other areas, creating a virtuous cycle of innovation and improvement.
The Future is a Partnership
As India harnesses its 600,000-strong AI talent pool—16% of the global total—and government initiatives like the IndiaAI Mission gain momentum, the nation is poised to leapfrog into a new era of efficiency. The shift to agentic AI is not just a technological upgrade; it’s a fundamental change in how work gets done.
Successful enterprises of the future will be those that embrace a new partnership between people and technology. By investing in a unified AI strategy grounded in trusted data, Indian businesses can unlock trapped value, accelerate productivity, and secure their position at the forefront of the global AI revolution.
The author is Giri Gundala, Chief Operating Officer, Salesforce, South Asia.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.
