‘Freshworks, Zoho Offer Less Than 10% of What Oracle Provides’

Oracle India is deepening its commitment to the Indian SaaS market by incorporating AI-driven automation across its business applications. The cloud service provider offers AI agents throughout its full SaaS portfolio with no added charges.

In an exclusive interview with AIM, Shailesh Singla, vice president of cloud applications at Oracle India, said that India is a big market for them and explained how the agentic services that Oracle provides are different from what local SaaS players like Zoho and Freshworks offer.

These companies, he stressed, focus on specific areas. “Freshworks offers a CRM (customer relationship management) solution. It’s a CRM company,” Singla said, referring to them as smaller players.

Singla explained that Oracle, on the other hand, is building a connected application that spans enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer experience (CX), human capital management (HCM) and customer relationship management (CRM). He described Oracle’s approach as a “holistic application stack”, comparing it with Zoho and Freshworks who, according to him, offer only a fraction—“maybe 5%, 7%, or 10%”—of what Oracle provides as a complete solution.

Moreover, he added that Indian SaaS players do not have their own cloud and many of these smaller players rely on AWS or Microsoft Azure for hosting. He further mentioned that customers looking for a SaaS provider analyse various factors, including system architecture, a comprehensive approach, and long-term roadmaps spanning five to 10 years.

Oracle as SaaS 

Singla said Oracle’s mission with AI agents is to automate tasks, handle complex workflows, and provide insights. “These agents are embedded in applications to assist users in real time.” They operate within Oracle’s SaaS products, reducing manual effort.

According to him, Oracle offers AI agents free of cost, bundled with its SaaS services at no extra charge. The company does not charge for AI agents because it sees them as a fundamental part of building smart applications. “We don’t charge for building a smart application.”

Notably, Oracle recently launched 50 AI agents to automate routine tasks across key areas such as finance, HR, supply chain, sales, marketing, and customer service, allowing employees to focus on more strategic initiatives.

In HCM, Singla said that AI agents automate time card submissions. They are also used to address employee queries regarding benefits and policies. “AI agents are directly able to understand the query, search the right data, and are able to address those queries,” he added. 

For managers, he said these agents assist in compensation decisions by analysing market trends and company policies. Performance goal setting is also supported by AI, which generates draft documents for review. “AI agents help them document and draft those goals in a much smarter way.”

Citing an example of an AI agent in supply chain management, he explained that it automates requisition processes based on organisational guidelines, product specifications, and historical data. 

Similarly, a manufacturer onboarding advisor agent simplifies the process for new suppliers, making it smoother and more compliant. “For manufacturing suppliers, onboarding can be complex. Our AI agent facilitates this process, ensuring compliance with risk policies and regulatory formalities.”

However, Indian SaaS players have also introduced AI agents in their services lately. Freshworks recently introduced Freddy AI which automates repetitive tasks by offloading monotonous work, scaling customer support, and improving customer experiences.

Meanwhile, Zoho is building task-specific autonomous agents known as ‘Zia Agents, ’ which are being deployed across its extensive product portfolio, including sales, marketing, and ad services, for automation, security, real-time decision-making, and better explainability.

Currently, the SaaS company is also building foundational models, which it plans to release by the end of this year. 

India Market

Singla highlighted that Oracle is seeing a strong demand for Oracle’s SaaS solutions in the Indian market. “We are seeing 100% year-on-year growth in certain verticals, which speaks volumes about the demand for Oracle’s SaaS solutions in India.”

He also mentioned that non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are a high-growth sector for Oracle, with the company adding one to two NBFC clients every month. “Our BFSI and IT verticals are growing at 60%, showing strong market traction,” he concluded.