Agentic AI a big priority for businesses in 2025

In a new study conducted by Salesforce and YouGov last month, Australian and New Zealand business leaders have indicated that agentic AI will be a big focus this year as they seek to embed artificial intelligence in their businesses.

The research, which surveyed 487 C-suite executives, from large businesses across both countries (150 from New Zealand), reveals a significant shift in AI prioritisation and implementation strategies.

The study found that an overwhelming 79% of business leaders consider AI either critical or highly important for their company's success over the next three years. Nearly one-third (29%) of respondents ranked AI as their top priority, while half (50%) placed it among their top three priorities1

Agentic AI, a more advanced form of artificial intelligence capable of autonomous decision-making, has emerged as a key focus area. Virtually all respondents (96%) agreed that integrating agentic AI is a priority for their business success in the coming year, with 48% strongly agreeing and another 48% somewhat agreeing.

The primary motivations for AI adoption include:

- Bringing innovative customer and employee experiences to market (57%)

- Meeting customer expectations for faster, personalized experiences (55%)

- Becoming market leaders in technology adoption (51%)

However, businesses also face significant challenges, with cybersecurity risks (47%), adapting to technological change (44%), and improving customer experiences (40%) topping the list of concerns for the next 12 months.

Hoping for an agentic boost

Salesforce will be hoping interest in agentic AI translates into uptake of its Agentforce AI technology, which works on its customer relationship management platform and in the messaging app Slack. The company this week reported weaker than expected quarterly revenue and a lower forecast than analysts were expecting. The company has undertaken a huge advertising campaign over the summer, with adverts featuring actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

Salesforce said it had completed 3,000 paid deals for Agentforce since October. Fisher & Paykel is an early Agentforce customer in New Zealand.

“A lot of other vendors are talking about their agent capabilities, but few are able to show that they’ve got this really running at scale,” co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff told analysts on an earnings call.

Agentforce is expected to make a modest contribution to revenue in fiscal 2026, with a larger effect in the following year.

Big deal with Google

Salesforce this week also announced a major expansion of its partnership with Google with the aim of using AI agents in the Google Cloud and Google Workspace environments.

Salesforce is adding Gemini to its Agentforce platform, allowing all Salesforce customers to use Gemini to power their AI agents.

Customers will be able to unify their data analytics across Looker, BigQuery and Salesforce’s Tableau. Salesforce is exploring better ways to connect Slack and Google Workspace products, like Google Chat, to easily communicate across platforms.

Salesforce is also making all of its core platforms, including Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Hyperforce, available on Google Cloud. Customers can begin deploying Salesforce through Google Cloud Marketplace.

AI strategy implementation and adoption

The ANZ research indicates that many organisations are actively working on their AI strategies:

- 27% have a fully integrated AI strategy

- 45% are currently implementing an AI strategy

- 22% are in the process of developing an AI strategy

In terms of AI adoption, generative AI leads the pack with 47% of organizations having fully implemented it, followed by predictive AI (40%) and agentic AI (38%).

Agentic AI use cases and enablement

The study highlights specific use cases for agentic AI across different departments:

- Sales: enhancing customer engagement (50%) and identifying upselling opportunities (48%)

- Customer service: providing 24/7 support (58%) and handling complaints (53%)

- Marketing: managing platforms (57%) and generating rich media content (50%)

Notably, 98% of organisations are actively enabling their teams to use agentic AI at work, primarily through providing guidelines and training (59%) and integrating AI into existing workflows (52%).

Photo credit: Gerard Siderius, Unsplash