India’s technology talent is world-class, and OpenText is investing in this vibrant ecosystem to drive global innovation. In this OpenStudio interview from Nashville, we discuss OpenText India’s role in the company’s AI strategy, the creation of the Global NOC in Waterloo using agent-to-agent communication, and how bringing together diverse talent accelerates the journey toward agentic AI for enterprises worldwide.
Watch the full interview:
Introduction
Ajit: Hello everyone, thank you for joining Open Studio. My name is Ajit Yohannan. This is our podcast platform and here at OpenText World 2025. And the biggest thing is that I keep meeting leaders and get to know about what’s the new things coming up. I couldn’t be more glad to have my next guest here, Sanket Atal, and Sanket has just very recently joined OpenText, but he comes with a very rich experience of managing large innovation centers and teams in India. So welcome to the show, Sanket.
Sanket: Thank you so much, Ajit. This has been my two weeks at OpenText, dramatic, absolutely fantastic, and here I am at OpenText World. Amazing.
India’s Tech Talent Landscape
Ajit: I’m glad you agreed to have this conversation and we want to know about the overall talentscape in India and I was in Bangalore till last year, so I know what’s the, but I want to hear from you what you’re seeing, what’s the kind of talent and in this whole global things because OpenText Bangalore is shaping up as a Global Capability Center (GCC) centerv, right? So how do you—you want to talk about that would be good to hear.
Sanket: Oh, absolutely. Well, Bangalore is known for having a larger talent pool than Silicon Valley. It’s dramatic and earlier, the reputation was that for certain kinds of technology you went to one particular country in the world and for another you went to another country, and Bangalore was developing. It’s a young country. If you look at demographics of India, the average engineer in India is probably around 10 years younger than the average engineer in the US. And so along with age comes experience and how do you bridge that, but the industry has been around now for some time. And what’s awesome is that now you find top talent, world class talent in almost any area of software or even hardware, so the technology industry is booming like anything in India, the talent is available and it’s top talent, world class competing with anyone around the world.
Leading OpenText India
Ajit: That’s awesome. And as head of OpenText India now, what’s your priorities? How you’re seeing to nurture these talent and to be out of that?
Sanket: What’s awesome is that the organization already is seeded with absolutely amazing talent. I’ve met amazing leaders, people who have been around for quite some time in the OpenText world. They know the technology inside out. They’ve helped shape the technology and so now it’s a question of bringing everybody together and forming one OpenText India, being able to provide the right technology foundation so that we can take the overall AI data message that Muhi was talking about and get it out to the world. It’s an awesome talent pool within OpenText, and there’s a lot of talent in India that would love to come to work for OpenText, and I’m here to welcome them.
Innovation and Customer Impact
Ajit: Awesome. And you also touched upon what Muhi also shared. You want to see as you joined and you’re getting closer to know OpenText, what are you excited about? You want to talk about what the innovation that you saw? Is it something that you think is resonates with our customers, your partners?
Sanket: I was blown away. I was absolutely blown away with what I saw. First, let’s start with the internal stuff. So Shannon Bell’s presentation today, absolutely fantastic. The overall goal being let’s have 1 billion or 1.5 billion in savings, but that’s the target on a financial part, but the efficiency she’s bringing in is just formidable. There was a part of our presentation which was talking about setting up the NOC for global operations and leveraging multiple agents so that each can talk to the other depending on the expertise. This is truly A2A in action and us utilizing that to be able to monitor the entire world’s operations from one center in Waterloo. Absolutely amazing and this is what companies want. And likewise, we met with IBM, we met with BMW this morning and the way they’ve been using the technology and how it’s really improved the efficiency. IBM was talking about the number of employees that they have and how they’re able to efficiently send out the messages to the employees and keep track of all the documentation. Brilliant. So these kind of efficiencies are needed throughout the world and OpenText is here to actually provide them, partner with them and be a trusted partner in their journey towards not just declaring that they are AI enabled, but truly leveraging agentic AI to power their industry.
AI Evolution and Enterprise Data
Ajit: That’s awesome. I also want to know you’ve seen it all, the evolution of India, and I know from your experience, but now we are at this AI and now agentic AI. What’s your take on all of this, Sanket, if I may ask you?
Sanket: Well, two things. One thing is that technology is amazing and it’s going to be ubiquitous. People are already experimenting with various aspects of AI. I think anybody you talk to has played around with some LLM or the other, but it’s getting better and better and better. But like Muhi put it, the amount of data that’s been harnessed so far in the world is about 10% or less of the overall data that we need to harness, and majority of the data is behind firewalls in various enterprises. Being able to leverage that data to enable those enterprises to be more efficient and use AI to run themselves better is an amazing, amazing opportunity. And the path towards actually agent enabling these enterprises so various tasks that need to be done can be done much more efficiently, that’s a journey that most companies are experimenting with. Looks like we are leaps and bounds ahead of them so super interesting and I think on the technology front very excited about the overall industry and especially OpenText, and on the customer front, the examples that were given today, I was blown away. I did not expect that, so very proud to be here.
Vision for FY26
Ajit: That’s awesome. I’m glad you could make it to this event. And what would be your message now you heard what’s OpenText has been, the lay of the land in where you are set up and you’re leading that large organization. So how do you see all of this translating in the next, this FY26?
Sanket: Well, if people want to make a difference, if they want to actually enable technology to make the world a much better place, to be able to leverage data that people have been saying that data is the new oil for quite some time, and this is the age of AI, but AI is nothing without data and which is the company that truly holds the world’s data. It’s OpenText, so I think the opportunity is immense and people joining the company, I think they can impact the top companies around the world. Such an opportunity doesn’t come about every day, so that’s why I joined. I’m super excited and I think any technologist would love to come in and be a part of the journey.
Closing
Ajit: That’s awesome. That’s a great invitation, Sanket. Thank you for sharing that and thank you for speaking. And wish you all the best and have a safe travel back home. And I know there’s a Bangalorean in me, so I hope you take those wishes back home as well.
Sanket: Thank you, thank you so much, Ajit. Thank you for having me. Appreciate that.
Ajit: Thank you.
About OpenStudio
OpenStudio is OpenText’s media hub for thought leadership and innovation. This series explores stories of progress and success from industry experts, visionaries, and trailblazers. Our goal is to inspire, inform, and connect audiences with the people and ideas shaping the future of the digital world.
