Inside Progress Software’s playbook for responsible, scalable AI

AI is changing how businesses operate, but most still struggle to use it effectively. Progress Software, a US-based infrastructure software company, has taken a measured approach—focusing on reliability, responsible use, and practical results.

In a conversation with TechCircle, CEO Yogesh Gupta discusses why so many enterprise AI projects fail, how Progress applies AI across its products, and why India has become central to the company’s global R&D and innovation strategy.

Edited Excerpts:

How do you see the enterprise AI landscape evolving today, and what major misconceptions do companies still have about adopting AI at scale?

AI is a broad term that covers many technologies. When people talk about AI, they often mean different things. There’s generative AI, which creates text, images, and videos. There’s also vision AI, which enables systems to see, and voice AI, which powers speech recognition and response. Data analytics is another area where AI helps organizations make better use of information.

All these areas have advanced quickly over the past decade. Voice and vision technologies, for example, have made major progress in recognizing speech and enabling machines to interpret visual data, from robots to self-driving cars. Generative AI is the newest wave, gaining attention because it can create realistic and convincing outputs, even though they may not always be accurate.

For businesses, reliability is essential. It’s not enough for an AI system to sound correct; its answers must be based on verified, trusted information. Many companies struggle with this. Projects fail when outputs are inaccurate or misleading. An MIT study recently reported that 95% of enterprise AI projects fail, often because organizations don’t fully understand how to apply AI effectively or where its limits lie.

Success requires knowing what problems AI is suited for and using it appropriately. In our company, for example, we use AI in customer tech support. Over a third of customer queries are handled automatically by AI, which provides quick answers to routine questions. This allows human agents to focus on the more complex issues. The result has been faster response times and higher customer satisfaction, which has risen from around 84% to over 93% in less than a year.

This improvement isn’t about cutting costs; it’s about improving quality. The key is to apply AI where it works best and avoid using it where human judgment and expertise are still necessary. Getting that balance right has been crucial to our success.

You’ve spoken about how global enterprises are approaching AI. How is the situation different in India? What challenges and opportunities do you see for Indian enterprises?

India has a strong opportunity to advance rapidly in technology, particularly in artificial intelligence. While China continues to lead in manufacturing, India has the potential to take a leading role in how AI is applied across businesses and software development. Indian enterprises are beginning to integrate AI to improve key functions such as customer service, operations, and fraud detection in financial institutions.

Beyond business use, there is growing progress in building the hardware and infrastructure needed to support the AI ecosystem. Research institutions, including IIT Madras and several others, are contributing through foundational work in AI technologies. This combination of industry adoption and academic innovation reflects a broader national effort. India is making deliberate investments and recognising that this is a moment to establish itself as a major player in the global AI landscape.

Your company has grown through major acquisitions like ShareFile and Nuclea and has more than doubled in size since 2016. How has Progress Software evolved, and what kind of company is it today?

When I joined, the company focused on providing data platforms for businesses to build and run applications. Over time, we expanded through several acquisitions, integrating them into our core operations.

Our portfolio now includes data platforms, digital experience tools, and ShareFile, which supports secure document sharing and workflow automation for industries like law, accounting, and healthcare.

We’ve also developed products for IT operations and cybersecurity, helping organizations maintain reliability and security. These additions have grown our revenue from about $400 million six years ago to nearly $1 billion today.

Recently, we strengthened our AI capabilities through acquisitions like Nuclea, which enables secure and accurate use of business data for generative AI. We’ve integrated these AI features across products to improve efficiency and compliance. Our global teams, including those in India, continue to support this expansion and product development.

How does your company ensure responsible AI deployment while still encouraging rapid experimentation?

It’s something we constantly have to balance. When we began our AI work, we set up an internal policy that defined clear rules—what we would and wouldn’t do. We’ve stayed consistent with that and made sure everyone in the company follows those rules.

We serve businesses, not consumers. So unlike consumer software, where users are told to verify answers themselves, our enterprise customers rely on us to get things right. That means we encourage our teams to experiment and build new ideas, but we always validate and certify what we create before releasing it. Everyone takes that responsibility seriously.

It’s a mix of policy and culture. Our company has always aimed to be a trusted software provider, and that reputation matters to us. At the same time, we value innovation. We try new things, learn from them, and make sure what we deliver is reliable, secure, and ready for our customers.

With AI driving rapid consolidation, do you think infrastructure software will be dominated by a few major platforms, or will specialized solutions continue to succeed?

It depends on the type of infrastructure software. The field is broad. There will be large players and smaller ones. We are among the smaller ones—a billion-dollar software company, which no longer counts as large.

When I started in software, no company made a billion dollars in revenue. Today, many do, but only a few reach ten billion. We see an opportunity to become a leading consolidator in infrastructure software—trusted, reliable, and serving customers globally.

Five or six years ago, we were much smaller. We are larger now and expect to grow much more over the next five years. We believe we will remain one of the companies that performs well in the industry.

Over time, many small infrastructure software firms—those under $100 million in revenue—will disappear or be absorbed by larger companies like ours.

How do you see India’s role growing in your global R&D plans, especially in AI and data-driven technologies?

India plays an important role for us. Today, it represents over 25% of our global workforce, up from about 10–11% when I joined. During this time, our overall organization has doubled in size, while our presence in India has more than tripled.

India is a major center for our AI research and development, spanning our entire product portfolio. Teams in India are working on generative AI for IT management and security, as well as R&D for data platforms and digital experience products. Every product category has dedicated R&D teams based in India.

Our main R&D locations are in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Delhi, along with many employees working remotely. We have a strong and growing presence in India, and we expect it to continue expanding in the coming years.