Industry Leaders Debate AI Agents And The Future Of SaaS
ECONOMY & POLICY

Industry Leaders Debate AI Agents And The Future Of SaaS

At the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, a high-level panel of industry chiefs explored whether AI agents are fundamentally disrupting the traditional Software as a Service model. Panel included Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer of Infosys; K. Krithivasan, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Consultancy Services; C Vijayakumar, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of HCL Technologies; and Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce India. The discussion was moderated by Amitabh Kant and focused on enterprise readiness, operational change and customer-centred adoption.

Bhattacharya cautioned against market oversimplification and said that sustainable SaaS outcomes depend on understanding workflows, identifying customer pain points and driving adoption through observability, governance and auditability. She argued that changes in ways of working would not substitute for delivering real customer value and that long term sustainability requires demonstrable outcomes. The panel stressed that application development must be aligned with enterprise processes rather than mere interface or coding trends.

Krithivasan described a shift in the software engineer role towards high level architecture and rigorous validation while noting that enterprise adoption requires significant groundwork from data rationalisation to application modernisation. He predicted expansion in the volume and complexity of what can be produced rather than contraction of the sector. Vijayakumar underlined that large language and foundational models are not yet optimally applicable to many enterprise use cases and explained that his firm is building intellectual property and specialised services, including physical AI and agentic AI, to bridge the gap.

Parekh highlighted the scale of opportunity, saying that AI was creating a 300 billion (bn) dollar services opportunity and pointing to legacy modernisation as an example where orchestration of foundation models with specialised agents can unlock measurable value. The panel concluded that AI agents would reshape business and operating models but would not render them obsolete overnight. Success in the AI era would depend on agility, enterprise readiness, orchestration and the continuous ability to solve real customer problems in complex digital ecosystems.

At the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, a high-level panel of industry chiefs explored whether AI agents are fundamentally disrupting the traditional Software as a Service model. Panel included Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer of Infosys; K. Krithivasan, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Consultancy Services; C Vijayakumar, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of HCL Technologies; and Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce India. The discussion was moderated by Amitabh Kant and focused on enterprise readiness, operational change and customer-centred adoption. Bhattacharya cautioned against market oversimplification and said that sustainable SaaS outcomes depend on understanding workflows, identifying customer pain points and driving adoption through observability, governance and auditability. She argued that changes in ways of working would not substitute for delivering real customer value and that long term sustainability requires demonstrable outcomes. The panel stressed that application development must be aligned with enterprise processes rather than mere interface or coding trends. Krithivasan described a shift in the software engineer role towards high level architecture and rigorous validation while noting that enterprise adoption requires significant groundwork from data rationalisation to application modernisation. He predicted expansion in the volume and complexity of what can be produced rather than contraction of the sector. Vijayakumar underlined that large language and foundational models are not yet optimally applicable to many enterprise use cases and explained that his firm is building intellectual property and specialised services, including physical AI and agentic AI, to bridge the gap. Parekh highlighted the scale of opportunity, saying that AI was creating a 300 billion (bn) dollar services opportunity and pointing to legacy modernisation as an example where orchestration of foundation models with specialised agents can unlock measurable value. The panel concluded that AI agents would reshape business and operating models but would not render them obsolete overnight. Success in the AI era would depend on agility, enterprise readiness, orchestration and the continuous ability to solve real customer problems in complex digital ecosystems.

Related Stories

Gold Stories

Next Story
Infrastructure Urban

KONE Opens India's First Digital Experience Centre in Pune

KONE, a global elevator and escalator manufacturer, has inaugurated its first Digital Experience Centre (DEC) in India, located in Pune. The facility aims to showcase how artificial intelligence (AI), connectivity and data-driven technologies can enhance customer experiences and improve building operations.The centre was inaugurated by Jussi Herlin, Executive Vice Chair, KONE Corporation; Philippe Delorme, President and CEO, KONE; and Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board, Infosys.Designed as an interactive customer environment, the facility demonstrates digital solutions cover..

Next Story
Infrastructure Urban

CII GreenCo Launches Circularity Guidelines for Indian Industry

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) GreenCo Council has launched the CII GreenCo Circularity Guidelines – Pilot Version at the 17th CII GreenCo Waste & Resource Management Summit 2026 in Chennai. The initiative aims to strengthen resource efficiency, waste reduction and circular economy practices across Indian manufacturing and process industries.The guidelines introduce a structured framework with circularity indices covering raw materials, consumables, packaging and other resource inputs. These indicators will help industries assess existing practices, identify opportunities to ..

Next Story
Infrastructure Energy

Global Electronics Association Launches IPC-1783-CO2E Standard

The Global Electronics Association has introduced IPC-1783-CO2E, a new international standard aimed at improving consistency, transparency and comparability in product carbon footprint reporting across the electronics manufacturing industry.The standard, titled International Standard for Data Collection and Reporting of CO2 Equivalent (CO2e) Emissions for the Electronics Manufacturing Supply Chain, provides industry-specific guidance for collecting, estimating and reporting carbon emissions data.With increasing regulatory requirements and customer expectations, electronics manufacturers face c..

Advertisement

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get daily newsletters around different themes from Construction world.

STAY CONNECTED

Advertisement

SPECIAL OFFER
QR Code