The enterprise AI race is no longer just about who builds the best models. Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are now moving closer to customers by offering hands-on deployment and implementation support.
OpenAI recently launched a dedicated unit, the OpenAI Deployment Company, to place engineers directly within enterprises and help businesses rebuild workflows around AI. Its rival, Anthropic, has also announced an enterprise AI service initiative and is hiring engineers who work directly with customers on AI deployments.
Analysts increasingly see this as a direct challenge to traditional SaaS and enterprise IT players like Salesforce, whose business has historically revolved around owning enterprise workflows and customer relationships.
However, Arundhati Bhattacharya, President and CEO of Salesforce South Asia, tells AIM that Salesforce does not see the rise of AI deployment firms as a threat, but believes the future will ultimately be driven by collaboration, innovation, and customer trust.
She acknowledges that competition in enterprise AI is intensifying, but argues that established software providers still have an edge because of their existing customer workflows and integrations.
“They may be trying to replicate a go-to-market model because they realise that these agents cannot work in a vacuum,” she says. “However, we also use their element, and we already have customers that have workflows which are on us.”
Bhattacharya adds that deploying AI agents within an existing Salesforce ecosystem is often easier for enterprises than rebuilding workflows entirely on a new platform.
She says that while they [OpenAI and Anthropic] might attempt to enter the market in a way that allows them to control the entire stack, Salesforce believe they are just as capable of integrating their products into the existing stack that many people already have.
Bhattacharya emphasises that increasing competition ultimately benefits customers by expanding choice and accelerating innovation.
“It’s going to be a competitive market. There is no denying that competition is increasing. But overall, I would say it’s good for the customer because they will have a choice,” she said.
The company’s latest earnings also reflect growing enterprise demand for its AI offerings.
Salesforce reported a strong start to FY27, posting record Q1 revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13% year-over-year. The company said combined annual recurring revenue (ARR) from Agentforce and Data 360 reached nearly $3.4 billion, up more than 200% YoY, including $1.2 billion in Agentforce ARR and $1.1 billion in Informatica Cloud ARR.
Salesforce also said it has delivered 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units across Agentforce and Slack so far, while processing more than 28.6 trillion tokens to date, up 152% quarter-over-quarter.
Collaboration Will Matter More Than Going Alone
Even as AI companies enter enterprise software, Bhattacharya does not believe the future will be defined by isolated ecosystems competing independently. She’s firm in her belief that a collaborative business model will be the way forward.
For her, partnerships between AI model providers and enterprise software companies are likely to remain important because each player brings different strengths to the table.
She also notes that the AI industry is still evolving rapidly, with business models, pricing structures, and go-to-market approaches continuously changing.
“Products are changing. The pricing mechanism is changing. And our go-to-market strategy is changing,” Bhattacharya says.
AI Revenue
Salesforce India reported a 47% year-on-year rise in FY25 revenue to nearly $1.6 billion. When asked how much growth can be attributed to AI, Bhattacharya explains that AI is increasingly embedded into Salesforce’s core offerings, making it difficult to separate traditional software revenue from AI-driven revenue.
“You can’t abstract the usage of AI from our products because what we are doing is we are infusing each of our products with AI,” she says.
Enterprise AI adoption was largely experimental until now. But the company is now integrating AI capabilities deeply into existing product suites.
When asked about competition from Indian SaaS firms such as Zoho and Freshworks, Bhattacharya says Salesforce plans to compete on innovation and value creation rather than positioning itself against local players.
“Today is the age of innovation. Any company that can innovate at scale and at the pace that this particular phase in our history requires, they will be the ones that people will gravitate towards,” she says.
Bhattacharya further states that many customers continue to rely on Salesforce because they believe the company can help them stay ahead of technological shifts rather than react after the market changes.
Voice and Agentic AI
Bhattacharya says one of the developments she is most excited about is the expansion of voice AI capabilities in India, especially multilingual support.
Salesforce announced the launch of Agentforce Voice in Hindi ahead of the Agentforce World Tour Mumbai 2026 event.
She adds that demand for voice-based AI experiences in local languages is growing rapidly across India, and that Salesforce plans to add more regional-language support over time.
“A lot of people are very interested in AI products that are voice-based,” Bhattacharya says.
She also points to new products becoming available in Salesforce’s India data centre infrastructure, saying such developments expand business opportunities in the country.
AI Fluency Is Now Essential for Graduates
Bhattacharya’s advice for young graduates entering a rapidly changing job market is to become fluent in AI.
She describes AI fluency as more than simply understanding AI conceptually. Instead, she says graduates must actively experiment with tools, understand their strengths, and learn where each model performs best.
“It means that you have tested out the various tools that are available in the market and you know what they can do,” she says. Bhattacharya notes that companies increasingly expect new hires to contribute to AI-driven workflows and products from day one.
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