R&D is the only thing that can make you sustainable: Arundhati Bhattacharya
I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO of Salesforce South Asia, discusses the impact of the West Asia conflict on Indian technology, particularly rising oil prices and inflation. She highlights Salesforce's $8 billion acquisition of Informatica, aimed at creating a unified data foundation for AI. Bhattacharya emphasizes the importance of data integration and governance for effective AI deployment, urging companies to move beyond pilot projects to operationalize AI. She also addresses the significance of ethics and accountability in AI, stressing that companies must prioritize reputation and risk assessment over mere compliance.
The escalating conflict in West Asia is casting a long shadow over Indian technology — pushing up oil prices, threatening inflation, and clouding the outlook for a sector that counts the MENA region among its fastest-growing revenue corridors. Against that backdrop, Arundhati Bhattacharya, president and chief executive officer of Salesforce South Asia, is also navigating a pivotal shift in enterprise AI: Salesforce's $8 billion acquisition of Informatica, completed in November 2025, reshapes how companies build the data foundations that agentic AI depends on. In a video interview with Peerzada Abrar, she addresses what it takes to move beyond AI pilots, India's R&D deficit, and whether disruption eventually creates opportunity. Edited excerpts: