Is AI Going To Take Your Job? Salesforce's Arundhati Bhattacharya Weighs In

Is AI coming for your job? "I have lost count of just how many times I have answered that question," quips Arundhati Bhattacharya, South Asia President and CEO of cloud based software company, Salesforce.

India has a very large population and without technology, the country can't give the services that citizens deserve — be it education, health or financial inclusion, said Bhattacharya.

For instance, while banks and financial institutions spent years working towards financial inclusion even before the Jan Dhan Yojana, it would not have been possible without enablers of technology, explained Bhattacharya, who is also the former chairperson of the State Bank of India.

"Biometrics to establish who you are was what helped us open all those bank accounts," she said. That eventually made way for putting in systems to enable other financial services, she added.

Bhattacharya was speaking at an event announcing Salesforce's collaboration with Godrej Capital's lending business to advance its AI-led processes.

Eventually, even a vegetable-seller can obtain a loan from the organised system without having to pay tremendously high interest rates. His margins remain with him and standard of living can go up.

So is tech a benefit? She quizzes back.

Every revolution has posed the same question of whether jobs are at risk, said Bhattacharya, adding that technology helps unlock efficiency as well as jobs. "There was a time when we had to reconcile nostro vostro accounts," she recounted, adding that her first tech project was when she used an IT platform to reconcile these accounts.

Concerns about jobs are a 'very near term' and come from a limited point of view, she said, adding that people will need to think of other things they can do that will help fulfill the potential.