[2] Upon completing her PhD, Agarwal joined the faculty at the University of Dayton as an associate professor of management intelligence systems.

[3] Agarwal eventually joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park's Robert H. Smith School of Business in 1999.

[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.

[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."

[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.