AI Agents in India: Promise and Perils for IT Security
Indian IT security leaders are enthusiastic about the potential of AI agents, but they also recognize the significant challenges in implementing these technologies responsibly. A recent survey by Salesforce, titled ‘State of IT: Security’, reveals that 100% of Indian IT security leaders view AI agents as promising, while 85% believe current security practices need to evolve.
Data Readiness and Guardrails are Key Concerns
Despite their optimism, nearly half (49%) of Indian respondents said their data foundations aren’t yet ready to fully leverage the power of AI agents. Additionally, 52% expressed a lack of confidence in the existing safeguards to ensure the secure deployment of these agents.
“While IT security leaders in India recognize the benefits that AI agents can bring, many also acknowledged significant readiness gaps in implementing effective safeguards. To truly augment security capabilities with AI agents, organisations must prioritize trusted data, robust governance frameworks, and stringent compliance measures – ensuring data protection and regulatory adherence every step of the way.”
— Deepak Pargaonkar, Vice President of Solution Engineering, Salesforce India
Evolving Threats and Increased Security Budgets
The survey also highlighted the growing concerns of Indian security leaders. As threats evolve beyond traditional malware and cloud breaches, data poisoning—where attackers manipulate AI training datasets—is emerging as a significant worry. This has led to 83% of organizations in India planning to increase their security budgets in the coming year to address these evolving risks and bolster their resilience.
AI Adoption on the Rise
The use of AI agents in daily operations is projected to surge significantly. Currently, 43% of IT security teams in India are already utilizing these agents, with this figure expected to jump to 76% within two years. These AI systems are increasingly seen as valuable tools for tasks like threat detection, auditing AI model performance, and reducing manual workloads, allowing security teams to focus on more complex challenges.
Compliance Challenges and Trust Issues
While 81% of Indian security leaders see AI agents as beneficial for improving compliance with global privacy regulations, 87% also believe these tools present new compliance challenges. The complexity of regulatory environments across industries and regions makes compliance increasingly difficult, especially as many organizations still rely on manual, error-prone processes.
Trust remains a major hurdle in AI adoption. Nearly half (48%) of Indian security leaders expressed uncertainty about the quality of their data for AI applications or the existence of sufficient permissions, policies, and safeguards within their organizations to use AI agents responsibly.
