AI to create new breed of Indian tech services companies: industry execs

India will play a very key role globally in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and will potentially lead to the emergence of a new breed of technology services companies, according to Atlassian's senior executives.

During a fireside chat discussing the company’s playbook for the future at TechSparks 2025, Shamik Sharma, Head of Product for ITSM, Atlassian, said, “Every disruptive moment that happens in technology requires services to re-architect the ecosystem. So I think it will give rise to a new breed of AI services company as well.”

In a session moderated by YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, the Atlassian executive was quite clear that there were other advantages that AI can deliver for a country like India, with its large youth population and diverse cultures.

Sharma said AI will allow developers to build products faster, and given the high levels of digital savviness among the youth, it will only increase the number of builders in India. “AI just enables a lot more people to build more easily, and the cost of building is going down,” he remarked.

AI is now giving companies the opportunity to widen their market reach. Additionally, it can play a very important role in issues which are of critical national importance, such as city planning for the creation of a world-class infrastructure.

Paranth Thiruvengadam, Head of Engineering and India site Leader, Atlassian, said if there is an AI model for building infrastructure in a city, it can be quite different, as this technology can ingest a lot of data and come up with new kinds of solutions.

The advent of AI calls for a change in the entire ecosystem, which is not easy since it requires a new way of thinking. Atlassian’s own journey has echoed a similar need for a pivot, as the collaboration software company had to make that leap from serving small and medium businesses to large enterprises.

Thiruvengadam remarked that it was actually a structural DNA change for the company, right from the way the product is built, go-to-market strategy, and product market, among other things. 

“Two years ago, we realised AI is making a big impact and so again we transformed the entire company to an AI company,” Thiruvengadam said.

Today, 84% of Fortune 500 companies use Altassian’s software products, and the company is constantly reinventing and re-innovating to account for emerging technologies.

This journey has also been possible because it has devoted a huge chunk of R&D into building AI-first products, which also included hiring a lot of experts. Atlassian has also done a series of acquisitions in order to fill in the technology gaps. Lastly, it has a training programme where it re-trains its product managers, designers, and engineers in the use of AI. 

As Sharma put it, “So everyone starts using AI and thinking of AI, not only in the products but also in their ways of working.”