92% of Software Development Leaders in India Believe AI Agents will be as Essential as Traditional Software Tools

New State of IT research reveals software development leaders are bullish on agentic AI and its impact

Mumbai – India, 15 April, 2025: Salesforce, the world’s #1 AI CRM*, today released its latest State of IT survey, revealing that 92% of software development leaders in India believe AI agents will become as essential to app development as traditional software tools. The large global study of more than 2,000 software development leaders, including 100 in India, highlights nearly unanimous excitement about agentic AI.

The new survey reveals that software development leaders in India are rapidly embracing AI agents, viewing them as essential tools that will drive the next era of development. Agentic AI lets developers shift from routine tasks like writing code and debugging to more strategic, high-impact work. And with developers increasingly using agents powered by low-code/no-code tools, development is becoming faster, easier, and more efficient than ever — regardless of developers’ coding abilities.

Key insights from the research include:

• AI Agents Are Set to Revolutionize Development Processes: The findings point to a clear shift toward AI-driven development, with strong consensus around the growing importance of AI tools and agents in shaping the future of software development. According to software development leaders in India:
  • 100% of teams use or expect to use AI for code generation
  • 91% of teams will use AI agents within two years
  • 92% believe AI agents will be essential as traditional development tools

• Developers are eager for more resources to build AI agents: Developers say updated infrastructure and more testing capabilities and skilling opportunities are critical as they transition to building and deploying AI agents.
  • Infrastructure Needs: 85% of software development leaders say their infrastructure needs updates in order to build and deploy AI Agents.
  • Testing Capabilities: 40% of software development leaders say their testing processes aren’t fully prepared to build and deploy AI agents.
  • Skills and Knowledge: 89% developers believe AI knowledge will soon be a baseline skill for their profession, but over half (51%) don’t feel their skillsets are fully prepared for the agentic era.
  • 84% of software development leaders say they’ve introduced employee training on AI

• Agentic AI Will Transform the Developer Experience: The arrival of agentic AI provides developers with the opportunity to focus less on tasks like writing code and debugging and grow into more strategic, high-impact work. Software development leaders expect their teams will increasingly focus on:

1. AI oversight and optimization
2. Editing code written by AI
3. Architecting complex systems

• Low-code/no-code tools help developers unlock greater productivity, regardless of coding skills: With agents powered by low-code/no-code tools, developers of all levels can now build and deploy agents. Respondents believe these tools will help democratize and scale AI development for the better.
  • 79% of development teams use no-code/low-code tools
  • 84% of software development leaders believe no-code/low-code tools help democratize AI development
  • 81% of developers say that the use of low-code/no-code app development tools can help scale AI development.

Comments on the news:

Arun Parameswaran, EVP & MD, Salesforce – South Asia, said, “AI agents are not just another tool in the developer’s toolkit — they represent a fundamental shift in how software is imagined, built, and optimised. The fact that 92% of software development leaders in India see agentic AI as essential speaks volumes about where the industry is headed. We’re moving toward a future where developers are not just coders, but orchestrators of intelligent systems — where agent-driven architectures empower teams to innovate at speed and scale. India has a unique opportunity to lead this transformation, and at Salesforce, we’re focused on helping businesses unlock that potential.”

Methodology

Data is sourced from a software development leader segment of a double-anonymous survey of IT decision-makers conducted from December 24, 2024 through February 3, 2025. Respondents represent Australia, Belgium, Brazil. Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Additional data was collected among nearly 250 frontline developers, in partnership with YouGov, in the United States from February 14 through February 21, 2025.