As per CII research, the Indian SaaS market is expected to grow to 20-25bn by 2025, and it is very apparent that the pandemic moved most companies to set up or upgrade their digital infrastructure. 2023 will be when these investments start bearing long-term consumer benefits.
Some areas where I see significant changes in 2023:
Telecom players will leverage SaaS
In India, there is a tremendous scope with Telcos leveraging SaaS. As more companies recognize the benefits of SaaS, telecom service providers will start offering additional services to their customers. With telcos launching a new set of communication integration services, communication APIs, and IoT-based solutions, SaaS usage will accelerate over the next couple of years.
By the latter half of 2023, 5G adoption will start kicking in and will be largely driven by different applications and IoT.
APIs will evolve
APIs are one of the critical components of SaaS and will continue to evolve and play a crucial role in enabling integration and interoperability between different systems and platforms. As more API providers look at offering low-code or even no-code solutions, we’ll see a rise in DIY capabilities and adoption.
APIs will become an increasingly important tool for tech leaders to facilitate communication and data exchange. Creators will start adopting CPaaS and selling communication solutions in a slightly broader way. Retailers can utilize the DIY- API offerings to understand their customers and eventually offer products and services curated to their expectations.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
According to the Global Artificial Intelligence report, the AI market is expected to reach USD 422.37 billion by 2028, helping many industries grow and undoubtedly emerging as a popular feature in SaaS.
These technologies have the potential to improve automation, enhance decision-making, and provide personalized experiences for users. With time, Machine learning has become an integral part of the SaaS ecosystem – I foresee AI and ML becoming critical assets in the SaaS ecosystem as it cuts down manual tasks and improves customer engagement. AI can power chatbots that will solve real-time customer issues.
Use of Blockchain
As blockchain provides a secure, transparent, and decentralized platform for storing and exchanging data, it has emerged as an attractive option for various SaaS applications and has disrupted significant industries in the last few years. The personalized flexibility of blockchain technology allows businesses to combat pain points by tailoring integrations.
SaaS is growing daily as more industries see real-life benefits concerning stakeholder engagement. With the wide adoption by several businesses and enterprises, SaaS is emerging as the future for providing seamless integration features to help companies grow efficiently.
(The author is Mr. Pankaj Gupta, Founder & CEO, EnableX and the views expressed in this article are his own)
