In his 2011 essay “Why Software is Eating the World”, Marc Andreessen predicted that software would transform every part of the economy, one sector at a time. Fast forward 13 years, the same can now be said about generative AI.
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector is swamped with innumerable AI chatbots and co-pilots to streamline customer interactions and optimise workflow. The landscape is about to be disrupted once more—this time by AI agents..
AI agents go a step further, performing tasks, making decisions, and taking actions independently, without human intervention. Leveraging machine learning and natural language processing, these agents can engage with their environment, collect data, and apply it to execute tasks autonomously.
This marks a new era of AI tools that surpass the functionality of chatbots. AI agents are capable of managing more complex interactions, drawing insights from customer engagements, and responding to market dynamics. Their role is to automate processes and free up valuable resources for companies.
SaaS giants are already in on the game.
Salesforce, a leader in cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, recently rolled out Agentforce to help organisations build and manage autonomous AI agents for everyday business operations across sales, customer service, and marketing. Oracle too is shipping 50 AI agents as part of its Fusion cloud business applications spanning HR, sales, customer service, and quality control.
Indian startups are surfing the same wave, transitioning from pure-play SaaS products to incorporating Gen AI into their offerings
Take Ema, short for Enterprise Machine Assistant, which is deploying its AI agents across workplaces to automate mundane tasks. The San Francisco- and Bengaluru-based startup’s no-code AI agents, which it calls “universal AI employees”, can morph into taking any role–from customer support to legal and compliance.
“Building a Gen AI application is like cooking a Michelin star dish at home without prior training. The entire stack is complex and fragmented, with LLMs (large language models) being a piece of it," Surojit Chatterjee, CEO of Ema tells YourStory.
Bengaluru-based KOGO AI, which offers platform-as-a-service for enterprises and small businesses, has launched an ‘AI agent marketplace’ designed to automate business operations across sectors. It functions like an app store, housing over 100 AI agents.
“The AI store is a marketplace where businesses can easily deploy various agents for their needs. Businesses want to integrate AI but they don't know how to do so,” explains Raj K Gopalakrishnan, Founder of KOGO, adding that the platform has garnered customer attraction in the Middle East and North America.
Such AI agents have emerged as the missing link in deploying LLMs for enterprise use, says Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI research at Zohoand its division ManageEngine.
“Traditional SaaS applications often rely on static, predefined workflows, which limits their adaptability. AI agents, on the other hand, bring flexibility by interacting with multiple systems, adapting to real-time data and automating decision-making based on context, such as workload, skills, and priorities,” says Ramamoorthy.
Source: https://yourstory.com/ai-story/saas-startups-ai-agents-workflows-investors-generative-ai-salesforce
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