“Improving customer experience featured among the top challenges cited by business leaders over the next 12 months, along with attracting and retaining talent and scaling their businesses to meet demand,” Fillmann says.

“They’re turning to AI to help, but have a low tolerance for solutions that don’t get it right or can only give generic responses.”

This shift has helped drive demand for new AI-native platforms. Among them is Agentforce - Salesforce’s end-to-end system for deploying autonomous AI agents directly into enterprise workflows and systems.

“With Agentforce, you can build and deploy autonomous AI agents where you already work day-to-day,” Fillmann says. “That’s why we say ‘Don’t DIY your AI’. Instead start at the finish line, where your front line is already logging in today - in Salesforce.”

“So much of the pressure from rising customer expectations falls on front line employees, leading to burnout,” Fillmann says.

“Overwhelmed teams can now be supported by autonomous AI agents that can tap into data, reason, and operate in the flow of work.

“Some organisations have already begun to see early gains.”

One company seeing the results is premium appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel, which has used the technology to reduce call handling times by 50 per cent. The company now expects up to 65 per cent of routine cases to be handled through self-service and troubleshooting powered by autonomous AI agents.

In the trades sector, hipages has been able to dramatically speed up the onboarding of new contractors. A process that once took three hours now happens almost instantly.

“Tradies don’t even have time for a coffee while getting set-up and customers can find and book them in sooner,” Fillmann says.

Corporate accommodation provider with operations across Australia, Urban Rest is using autonomous agents to provide round-the-clock support to guests, with up to 30 per cent of queries now resolved without human intervention. The productivity of its guest experience team has increased by 50 per cent.

At dentist service organisation Pacific Smiles, AI isn’t just a back-office tool - it’s reshaping how patients access care. Executive general manager of marketing Alice Telford says the rollout of agentic AI through Agentforce has delivered meaningful improvements for patients and practitioners alike.

“By implementing agentic AI with Agentforce, we’ve helped Pacific Smiles improve patient care by enabling faster and more efficient booking processes, providing personalised patient experiences, and enhancing marketing operations,” says Telford, whose firm operates over 120 dental centres across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

“Since it launched, we’ve seen an estimated 80 per cent reduction in booking times, and the equivalent of 100 workdays saved annually across our marketing operations.”

She says one of the most immediate benefits has been removing friction in the booking experience, particularly for patients who aren’t sure what kind of appointment they need.

“Calling up and booking a dentist can be daunting,” she says. “The autonomous agent on our site is helping patients find the information they need and book appointments in as little as one and a half minutes, even for complex treatments.”

That speed has translated to higher patient satisfaction, not just because of faster access but because it reduces the need for follow-up calls and delays.

“Real-time answers to patient enquiries mean we can reduce wait times and provide a more efficient booking process,” Telford says. “That really enhances the patient experience.”

For clinic staff, it’s also been a welcome change. Automating routine queries has freed up time for teams to focus on more important patient-facing work, such as stepping in to provide assistance on more complex patient queries, supporting patient care at practises on-site and helping dentists grow these practices.

Fillmann says Salesforce now has thousands of Agentforce customers globally, with businesses reporting faster time to value and stronger returns than if they had built custom AI tools on their own.

“This is a technology that is evolving and catching on fast,” he says.

Futurum Group reported that Agentforce customers were achieving ROI five times faster than DIY AI efforts, and were able to cut costs by 20 per cent. Research from Valoir found Agentforce was delivering AI agents an average of 16 times faster than other approaches, while increasing accuracy by 75 per cent.

For businesses trying to grow in a high-pressure environment, this kind of efficiency can be a game-changer. With demand often outstripping capacity, autonomous agents provide a buffer that can help teams manage the load and maintain service standards.

“For most businesses, demand far exceeds their capacity to service, leading to backlogs, delays, inefficiencies, and poor customer interactions,” Fillmann says.

While agentic AI may still be a new concept to many, Fillmann believes its role will only continue to grow as businesses adjust to hybrid workforces and new models of service delivery.

“The integration of autonomous AI agents into workforces will significantly transform the way we shape our operations and organisations, resulting in hybrid workforces composed of both humans and agents, and entirely new ways of working,” he says.

He says that while past technology waves often forced businesses to choose between automation and personalisation, agentic AI offers something different.

“It’s the first time our customers don’t have to trade off the benefits,” Fillmann says. “Productivity, growth and customer experience excellence are all now made possible, at the same time, with Agentforce.”

Urban Rest is among the growing number of businesses experimenting with agentic AI to streamline service delivery while preserving the human touch. Global chief operating officer Amanda Carne says the early results are promising.

“We are in the early stages of our implementation of agentic AI,” Carne says.

“We’ve started with general guest enquiries and simple troubleshooting via webchat where we can test what volumes and case types are coming through, monitor the experience and continuously build on Agentforce to handle more and more case types.”

She says Urban Rest’s AI agent, Urban Assist, is already helping guests with in-house queries like WiFi passwords or gym access by instantly drawing on booking details and apartment data. If it can’t resolve the issue, the handover to a human agent is seamless.

By routing routine enquiries through Urban Assist, Urban Rest has been able to cut the load on guest-facing staff significantly, allowing them to shift their focus toward complex or high-value interactions.

“These types of simple enquiries represent about 30 per cent of our total case volumes,” she says. “Deferring that volume gives our team more time to handle the harder stuff.”

While it’s still early days, Carne says the cost efficiencies are already evident. “Routing these enquiries through an AI agent represents up to a 60 per cent saving per interaction.”

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