Policymakers should ensure ethical AI solutions without hurting data privacy: Salesforce CEO

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) will not be a challenge in India, and policymakers should ensure that solutions are offered to people ethically without compromising their data privacy, according to Arundhati Bhattacharya, President and CEO of Salesforce, South Asia. Addressing a session at India AI Summit 2026, she also stressed the need to democratise technology to have an impact.

"AI is going to solve a lot of problems which otherwise in a populous nation like ours cannot be solved...We therefore need to understand that people are eager to take it.

They will take the technology because it improves their lives," said Bhattacharya, the former SBI Chairman. However, she emphasised that the policymakers have a huge responsibility to create the right kind of ecosystem.

To enable people adopt technology, Bhattacharya said, "It is up to the policy makers to make those interventions to ensure that they (people) are not being taken for a ride, that whatever is being offered to them is being offered in an ethical manner, that we are creating the right kind of infrastructure to enable them to actually be able to access it, that the right to privacy of their data is properly maintained".

Policymakers, as well as infrastructure providers, have a far bigger responsibility, because adoption is not a problem in India, she asserted. "Adoption will happen as soon as people realise that it's helping them in their regular lives.

Adoption is not going to be a problem," Bhattacharya said, adding that people who make the policies and also those who make the infrastructure available need to take the responsibilities. She said companies like Salesforce need to take the responsibility of skilling people, and enable them to understand what is good for them and what is not good for them.

"Make them understand that there is both good and bad, and they need to choose the better. They should not be taken for a ride. So all of us have a role to play, and I think we need to be aware of those roles, and we need to play them well," Bhattacharya said.

She also spoke about the success of the financial inclusion programme PM Jan Dhan Yojana through the use of technology like Aadhaar and UPI. Salesforce ensures that the non-profit sector not only has access to its products, but also knows how to use them and use them to the best of their abilities, Bhattacharya said.