3360: How Certinia Is Bringing AI Agents Into Professional Services at Scale

Jul 26, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Raju Malhotra, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Certinia, dives into the transformative power of AI in professional services. He explains how predictive, generative, and agentic AI are revolutionizing business operations and enhancing workflows. Raju stresses the importance of focusing on customer outcomes rather than just features, highlighting Certinia's commitment to improving margins and project delivery. He also shares insights on balancing automation with human involvement for effective resource management.

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INSIGHT

Three AI Types at Different Maturity

Certinia distinguishes three AI tiers: predictive, generative, and agentic, each at different enterprise maturity levels.
Predictive AI is mature; generative AI is growing; agentic AI is emerging and promising.

ADVICE

Focus AI on Customer Outcomes

Start every AI application by understanding the customer's business problems and desired outcomes.
Let customer goals drive choices in automation, predictive, generative, or agentic AI usage.

INSIGHT

AI Agents Are Digital Workers

AI agents differ as they autonomously complete complex tasks within enterprise guardrails.
They move beyond information retrieval to becoming digital workers assisting human teams.

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When we talk about the future of enterprise software, AI is front and center. But behind the buzzwords, real transformation is happening in how businesses plan, execute, and deliver professional services. In this episode, I sat down with Raju Malhotra, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Certinia, to explore how AI is shifting from theory to practice in high-scale environments.

Certinia, a native ISV on Salesforce, is helping global tech and service firms like Cisco, Siemens, and PwC automate their services operations. With over two million users and six million active projects, the platform isn’t just adding AI for the sake of it. It’s embedding it directly into workflows to solve tangible business challenges. Raju shares a clear framework for understanding how different types of AI are being implemented. Predictive AI is already deeply integrated into enterprise processes. Generative AI is gaining traction for simplifying content and communication. Agentic AI, the most recent frontier, enables digital agents to complete complex tasks independently within enterprise guardrails.

What stood out in our conversation was the emphasis on outcomes over features. Raju makes a compelling case for starting every technology decision by understanding the customer's goals. Certinia’s approach avoids chasing trends for the sake of headlines. Instead, the focus is on delivering results like improved margins, higher resource utilization, and smarter project delivery.

We also discussed Certinia's early adoption of Salesforce’s Agent Force and how their team works closely with Salesforce engineering to align on AI strategy. Rebranding their ERP Cloud to Financial Management Cloud was another move that reflects their sharper focus on services-centric financials, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

There’s a clear message in this conversation. Innovation in AI must be matched with investment in performance, latency, scale, and user experience. For any tech leader navigating the AI landscape, Raju’s insights provide a grounded, real-world guide.

How are you aligning your AI investments with measurable business outcomes?