Upon completing her PhD, Agarwal joined the faculty at the University of Dayton as an associate professor of management intelligence systems. In this role, she received a grant from Dayton's Intelligence Systems Applications Center to assist in the development of an artificial intelligence system to help small business owners craft strategic marketing plans.[3] Agarwal eventually joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park's Robert H. Smith School of Business in 1999.[2]
In 2010, Agarwal started the annual Conference on Health IT and Analytics (CHITA).[2] She was also named the editor-in-chief of the journal Information Systems Research beginning January 1, 2011.[4] In her first year as editor-in-chief, Agarwal became a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems,[2] and also received the University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award.[5] By 2013, she was recognized as "one of the most widely-cited scholars in the field" and was elected a 2013 Distinguished Fellow for her outstanding intellectual contributions to the information systems field.[6]
Following the departure of Alexander Triantis in 2019, Agarwal was appointed interim dean of the University of Maryland.[7] While serving in this role, she was a 2019 recipient of the Association for Information Systems Lyons Electronic Office Lifetime Achievements Award for her work in the field of information systems.[8] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Agarwal and colleague Margrét Bjarnadóttir conducted a study titled Precision Therapy for Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome in order to "solve big health care challenges through joint research that draws on the institutions’ world-leading expertise in medicine and artificial intelligence." Their study looked to improve clinical decision making in the treatment of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.[9] She was subsequently appointed to serve on the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (DAIDS) Subcommittee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases[10] and recognised as being in the top 2% of the most-cited scholars and scientists worldwide.[11]