Interview with ETtech: AI is driving a reset in data stacks and internet search: Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake

AI to Radically Reshape Online Search; Legacy Players Face Pressure: Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy

New Delhi: Online search is on the brink of a major transformation as artificial intelligence accelerates, and legacy players such as Google may struggle to match the speed of innovation seen in AI-native startups like OpenAI, Snowflake chief executive Sridhar Ramaswamy said. In an interview with The Economic Times, Ramaswamy—who spent 15 years at Google and led its search advertising business—said AI-driven agents capable of browsing, reasoning and completing tasks will dramatically increase the utility of search. However, entrenched business models could limit how far incumbents can go. “Hundreds of billions of dollars in search ad revenue is a real constraint. You can’t make massive changes purely in the name of user value,” he said, adding that companies like OpenAI, which do not have legacy revenue streams to protect, enjoy greater freedom to innovate. Snowflake’s AI Push and Enterprise StrategySridhar Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy acknowledged that Snowflake was initially slow to embrace AI but said the company has now closed the gap. Its AI services currently generate about $100 million in annualised revenue, roughly 2% of its projected $4.4 billion revenue for the year.

While modest in size today, AI products such as Snowflake Intelligence are increasingly influencing customer decisions, he said. “Where customers place their AI bets signals whether they believe in our ability to innovate and help them extract value from data.”

Addressing competition from hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, Ramaswamy said Snowflake views them as both partners and competitors. “Building a high-quality data platform is a specialised skill, and we are among the best in the world at analytics,” he said.

Observability and Data Stack Consolidation

Snowflake’s recently announced acquisition of Observe, an observability platform, reflects the growing importance of monitoring AI-driven systems, Ramaswamy said. As enterprises deploy AI agents, the volume of logs, metrics and traces has exploded, straining traditional observability tools.

“Reliability is no longer just an IT issue—it directly affects business outcomes,” he said, noting that observability is becoming a natural extension of Snowflake’s data platform.

Ramaswamy also expects consolidation in the data stack as AI adoption deepens, pointing to recent mergers such as dbt and Fivetran as early signs of this trend.

India as a Strategic Growth Hub

India has emerged as a key growth and talent hub for Snowflake. The company employs over 500 people in India, primarily in Pune, with offices in Delhi and Bengaluru, and plans further expansion.

“India is no longer just a back-office market,” Ramaswamy said. “These are core infrastructure teams, as skilled and empowered as those in New York or Silicon Valley.”

Snowflake works with Indian enterprises such as Bajaj Allianz, Godrej Capital and Deepak Fertilisers, while digital-native companies remain among its fastest-growing customers due to their cloud-first approach.

The Next Phase of Enterprise AI

Looking ahead, Ramaswamy said 2026 will mark a shift from AI experimentation to control and reliability. While 2025 has been dominated by excitement around agentic AI, enterprises will increasingly focus on governed workflows, human oversight and fail-safes—especially in high-stakes use cases such as healthcare.

“Success will be measured not by novelty, but by reliability,” he said.