On AI Appreciation Day 2025, top industry leaders from Acer, Salesforce, Veeam, and more reflect on how AI is reshaping work, security, mobility, and creativity. From empowering professionals to securing critical data, AI is being hailed as a transformative, human-centric force.
Sooraj Balakrishnan, Associate Director & Head of Marketing, Acer India
“AI Appreciation Day serves as a reminder that artificial intelligence is no longer a frontier technology; it is now embedded across sectors, shaping how we learn, work, heal, and solve problems. From climate modelling and personalized learning to supply chain intelligence and healthcare diagnostics, AI is driving real impact.At Acer, we believe its value lies in amplifying human potential. In a diverse and fast-moving country like India, that potential must be inclusive, ethical, and responsive to real-world needs. This is why our AI PCs are designed to be accessible, adaptive, and relevant — empowering students, entrepreneurs, and professionals to solve, create, and lead effectively in their respective contexts. As India moves toward a digital-first future, we remain focused on delivering intelligent technology with purpose.”
Rahul Sharma, Vice President – Sales, Salesforce India
“We’re at a turning point in how work gets done. AI is moving from being a tool we use to a trusted partner that works alongside us – anticipating needs, reducing noise, and unlocking time for what really matters. The real opportunity lies in how AI can augment teams: helping them move faster, surface insights in the moment, and cut through the complexity that slows work down. That’s where agentic AI comes in – AI that’s proactive, contextual, and purpose-built to support humans, not replace them.
At Slack, we see this shift come to life with Agentforce, where autonomous agents act as teammates within the rhythm of daily work. But the future isn’t about more technology – it’s about technology that enables more meaningful work.
On AI Appreciation Day, we’re not just acknowledging the progress we’ve made – we’re charting a future where humans and AI collaborate in perfect sync, driving creativity, innovation, and lasting impact.” – Rahul Sharma, Vice President – Sales, Salesforce India.
Mr. Sarvagya Mishra, Founder & Director at Superbot
“Artificial Intelligence is no longer a distant promise but a present force transforming how businesses operate and engage. On AI Appreciation Day, we celebrate not just the technology but the intelligence behind making machines efficient and endlessly scalable. At Superbot, we have witnessed firsthand how AI can remove communication bottlenecks and empower organisations across education, healthcare, e-commerce and more. It is no longer just about faster responses but about meaningful, data-led conversations that elevate customer journeys. Whether it is reducing turnaround times or enabling 24×7 support across languages, AI has become a core enabler of business continuity and customer satisfaction. What excites us most is not just what AI can do today but the immense potential it holds to reshape workflows, personalise engagement and redefine productivity across industries. We remain committed to building a future powered by intelligent automation, making AI accessible, adaptable and truly experience-driven for every organisation we serve.”
Diwakar Dayal, Managing Director & Area Vice President – India & SAARC at SentinelOne
“On World AI Appreciation Day, we’re reminded of how AI is not just reshaping technology but transforming how we protect, innovate, and grow in the digital world. In India, where businesses are embracing rapid digitalization, AI has emerged as a force multiplier in cybersecurity enabling organizations to detect threats faster, respond smarter, and stay resilient against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
At SentinelOne, we see AI as the core of a modern defense strategy. It’s no longer about reacting to threats it’s about anticipating them, autonomously mitigating risk, and doing so at machine speed. From securing India’s critical infrastructure to supporting enterprises on their AI journeys, we believe in harnessing AI not just as a tool, but as a trusted ally.
As India drives forward in its digital ambitions, responsible AI adoption guided by transparency, trust, and innovation will be key to securing the future.”
Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Partner, BLS International
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming visa processing by automating tasks, enhancing and improving efficiency. AI-powered tools handle document verification, data entry, and eligibility checks, significantly reducing processing times. From automating documentation to verifying identity and enhancing user experience, these tools are reducing turnaround times and improving efficiency, thereby helping the visa processing firms to handle the surge in visa applications resulting from the exponential growth in global mobility over the last two decades.
Stakeholders across the ecosystem are embracing innovations such as mobile biometrics, digital appointments, and AI-powered platforms to create more responsive and applicant-centric services.
At BLS International, we see this as more than a technology shift—it’s a redefinition of how governments and citizens connect. AI helps us create seamless, transparent, and scalable solutions for a rapidly evolving global travel environment. We have introduced facial biometric verification and liveness detection at an early stage of the process. This innovation allows us to verify applicants swiftly and accurately, reducing dependency on manual review and mitigating fraud. What sets us apart is our consistent focus on ethical practices and responsible use of technology. Our efforts are centred on building secure, efficient, and applicant-friendly systems that can support the evolving needs of global travel.”
Murugan Anjunan, Chief Technology Officer, HerKey
“AI Appreciation Day is a moment to reflect; not just on how far the technology has come, but on what it makes possible. We don’t view AI as a disruptor in isolation, but as a dynamic partner in progress. It helps us reimagine how women return to, remain in, and rise within the workforce at scale and with personalisation. The real potential of AI lies not in replacing human intelligence, but in amplifying it. It’s not about man versus machine; it’s about designing systems where both thrive together. The future of work is not just AI-powered, but it is human-first, AI-enabled.”
Nishant Patel, Co-founder & CTO, Contentstack
“AI has become the engine room of modern digital innovation, quietly removing friction, automating the mundane, and letting creators and developers focus on what truly moves the needle. At Contentstack, we see AI as a force multiplier that enables hyper-personalised, real-time experiences, anticipates user needs, and accelerates delivery across every digital touchpoint. For developers, it means less time on boilerplate and more time on breakthroughs. For enterprises, it means content that adapts, performs, and resonates at scale. But with this power comes a duty to wield AI ethically, ensuring that every experience is inclusive, responsible, and grounded in human values. AI Appreciation Day is a call to lead with ambition and integrity.”
Sriram Kannan, Founder & CEO, Routematic
“ On AI Appreciation Day, we celebrate its role in advancing education, innovation, and everyday life while keeping human values at the core. At Routematic, we see AI as a catalyst for smarter decisions, seamless mobility, and sustainable systems. From decoding traffic patterns and EV charging data to optimizing employee commutes, we use AI to turn complexity into clarity. The next decade will be defined not by automation, but by the intelligence with which we apply it to empower people, solve hard problems, and move cities forward. As we continue to build data-driven, eco-conscious mobility solutions, we remain committed to harnessing technology that supports progress and empowers people.”
Fear mongering is becoming a big downer in social media and we need to embrace the good things of AI and move forward to the next level of humani-AI-robotic evolution.”
Mr. Nishant Rathi, Founder and Director of NeoSOFT.
“Artificial Intelligence represents one of the most transformative forces of our time. It challenges us to think differently, act faster, and design solutions that are not just intelligent but also deeply human-centered. As we celebrate AI, we must focus on utilizing its vast potential with empathy and purpose. The true promise of AI lies not in replacing human intelligence, but rather in amplifying it to solve real-world problems and build a better, more equitable future.”
“We’re at a turning point in how work gets done. AI is moving from being a tool we use to a trusted partner that works alongside us – anticipating needs, reducing noise, and unlocking time for what really matters. The real opportunity lies in how AI can augment teams: helping them move faster, surface insights in the moment, and cut through the complexity that slows work down. That’s where agentic AI comes in – AI that’s proactive, contextual, and purpose-built to support humans, not replace them.
At Slack, we see this shift come to life with Agentforce, where autonomous agents act as teammates within the rhythm of daily work. But the future isn’t about more technology – it’s about technology that enables more meaningful work.
On AI Appreciation Day, we’re not just acknowledging the progress we’ve made – we’re charting a future where humans and AI collaborate in perfect sync, driving creativity, innovation, and lasting impact.”
Attributed to David Allott, Field CISO APJ, Veeam
On AI Appreciation Day, most discussions focus on the risks AI introduces. But in cybersecurity, we are overlooking a bigger opportunity: AI is also helping us rethink how we defend and recover.
AI is enabling security leaders across APJ, including India, to shift from reactive defence to proactive resilience. At Veeam, we are integrating AI to help businesses better understand and protect their data. It is not just about knowing where it is stored, but understanding what it contains, who has access, and whether it is subject to compliance issues or exfiltration risk.
In 2023, India saw more than 2.2 million cybersecurity incidents – a sharp rise in threats targeting critical infrastructure, enterprises, and digital services. This may be attributed to a surge in digital adoption and hybrid working environments.
As Indian companies adopt hybrid-cloud models and operate across legacy and modern infrastructure, this visibility becomes harder to achieve. AI cuts through the complexity by identifying anomalies faster, knowing misconfigurations before they become vulnerabilities, and introducing backup strategies with actual data value.
While AI is not a silver bullet for security, it is a tool that delivers clarity and context on how to become more resilient. For example, Veeam enables AI directly into platforms to assist with threat diagnostics and intelligent support for backup admins. Tools like VeeamONE deliver AI-powered threat detection, while Recon Scanner (a feature of Veeam Data Platform) helps identify risks before they escalate. This ensures organisations can protect the right data in the right way before threats emerge.
Attributed to Ben Young, Field CTO APJ, Veeam
On AI Appreciation Day, it is worth reflecting on not only what AI can do, but also the challenges it demands from us. AI is fundamentally reshaping enterprise data architecture, introducing new and often distributed compute environments, training datasets and workflows that did not exist just two years ago. But in the rush to innovate, many businesses are skipping over critical questions:
- Are the storage environments secure?
- Is any of this backed up?
- Are the backups protected and secure?
At Veeam, we regularly see organisations deploying AI training workloads in the public cloud, sometimes for the first time and without mature data resilience strategies in place. There is a common assumption that as-a-service infrastructure is inherently secure. Protecting AI means safeguarding model inputs and outputs, defending against data poisoning and ensuring rapid restore capabilities in the face of compromise.
In India, nasscom reported that the country’s AI market is set to reach $17 billion by 2027, driven by aggressive enterprise adoption. This growth adds pressure on IT leaders across BFSI, e-commerce, and other domains, to secure, govern, and recover data assets effectively and rapidly.
As we deploy more AI systems, slow recovery is not an option, because when they fail or are compromised, the cost and time to rebuild the entire AI infrastructure—models, data pipelines, training datasets, and supporting systems—can be prohibitive.
The Veeam 2025 Ransomware Trends and Proactive Strategies Report reveals that organisations in APJ are often overconfident in their cyber readiness, with a 17% drop in perceived cyber readiness after experiencing an incident. This means that many businesses are only realising their lack of preparation when it’s too late.
AI may be intelligent, but resilience still requires human foresight and organisational-wide discipline. Innovation without protection is a risk no enterprise can afford to take.
Abhimanyu Jha, Co-Founder, SabPaisa
“I don’t think most people in the business world, even those who use AI tools on a regular basis, have yet realized how powerful these tools are despite their limitations like hallucinations, and are therefore not using the tools to their fullest extent. I keep seeing social media posts from India to Silicon Valley, including research papers from academics, debating whether vibe coding is possible which is where people who haven’t written a line of software in their life before can create useful software applications with help of current AI tools. In SabPaisa, almost 20% of our non-technical people have already vibe coded. How is it that in SabPaisa we are doing things regularly that rest of the world is still debating if it’s possible? We have invented our term for it called ‘Moneyball AI’. In Moneyball AI, you have to do two things: one, you have to let yourself believe in the power of these tools and pick up impossible projects; and two, you have to be able to hold long, very long conversations with these tools till you reach your goals.”
