As agentic AI rapidly reshapes the enterprise landscape, technology leaders are emphasizing that success depends not only on automation – but on intentional, human-centered deployment.
Helen Yu, CEO of Tigon Advisory Corp. and host of CXO Spice, draws a compelling comparison: “Just like climbing Everest, deploying agentic AI takes discipline, the right gear, and a prepared team.” Her deep dive—published in partnership with Salesforce—unpacks the critical role of agentic AI in transforming customer experience (CX) while preserving the human touch.
Context: What Is Agentic AI?
Agentic AI marks the third wave of artificial intelligence, moving beyond copilots and chatbots to autonomous digital agents capable of independent action, contextual decision-making, and process execution across enterprise systems.
Salesforce’s Agentforce, introduced in late 2024, exemplifies this evolution. CEO Marc Benioff defines it as a “digital labor solution” designed for real-time, accurate, and low-latency AI engagement in sales, support, and operations.
“If you are my agent, you wouldn’t wait for me to tell you what to do,” Yu writes. “Agentforce isn’t waiting either.”
How Agentforce Works
With over 100+ industry-specific actions, Agentforce empowers AI agents to collaborate with human teams in healthcare, advertising, automotive servicing, and more. The platform also boasts:
- 750,000+ help requests handled, reducing case volume by 7%
- $50 million in savings for Salesforce itself
- A projected redeployment of 500 support employees to AI-enhanced roles
Salesforce has also expanded its AgentExchange marketplace, integrating with 30+ pre-validated MCP servers (Model Context Protocol) from partners such as AWS, Google Cloud, Box, and PayPal. These prebuilt integrations simplify automation, reduce the need for developer involvement, and offer fast onboarding.
As Salesforce AI COO Madhav Thattai explains, the agentic architecture enables AI to tie directly into business workflows: “When we live in an interoperability world, we have to make sure the agents are interacting with each other in a trusted way, that they are interacting with each other in a contextual way so that they can actually drive the right outcomes.”
Strategic Significance: Trust, Transparency, and Transformation
Agentforce is underpinned by Salesforce’s Atlas Reasoning and Trust Engine, offering:
- 50% lower latency
- Streaming responses
- Automatic failover
- Inline citations and web search integration
- Global language and region support
The system ensures responsible AI usage, with governance and simulation tools that offer transparency and control—vital in industries like energy and finance.
Examples include:
- Adani Energy: 83% of urgent customer interactions now handled by AI agents
- OpenTable: 73% of restaurant partner queries managed by Agentforce
- Goodyear: In just 10 months, transitioned from regional, reactive operations to a global, customer-obsessed strategy with “exceptional results”
Agentic AI as the Great Equalizer
Yu asserts that agentic AI will democratize enterprise capabilities, especially for small businesses. Her predictions:
- By 2027, major breakthroughs in agentic AI usability and scale
- By 2030, full maturity of agent ecosystems with standard KPIs
- Marketing transformation into a full-lifecycle customer experience engine
Agentic AI will bridge:
- Knowledge gaps: Connecting institutional insights with real-time action
- Process gaps: Automating legacy workflows
- Talent gaps: Enabling smaller teams to scale like large enterprises
People First, Then Process
Yu emphasizes that agentic AI begins not with automation, but with empathy and preparation. In her book Ascend Your Startup, she reminds us that customer success comes after the contract is signed—through continuous understanding and support.
Agentforce doesn’t just automate responses—it augments human connection, making customers feel valued, seen, and heard.
Source: CXO Spice by Helen Yu in partnership with Salesforce
