VENDORiQ: Salesforce’s Embedded Industrial AI Agents – The Silent Revolution in Enterprise Workflow Automation

Why It’s Important

While the current AI hype focuses on customer-facing conversational agentic AI services, Salesforce is moving swiftly to using agentic AI in background processes that enhance workforce productivity. The impact is substantial – these agents operate as invisible digital workers, preparing materials and making recommendations before human staff begin their tasks.

The shift towards these background agents – IBRS terms them industrial agentic AI – represents a new battleground for enterprise software vendors. Unlike traditional automation tools, these agents are not human-facing but are part of complex workflows. The agents generally act on incoming information or signals as part of a formal work process, gathering, curating, analysing, summarising and preparing information for staff prior to their engagement in the process.

By integrating Agentforce through MuleSoft and Slack Workflow Builder, Salesforce is ahead, enabling a more agile approach to implementing industrial agentic AI. This approach differs markedly from competitors, who generally require organisations to adapt their workflows to accommodate AI tools.

However, the most profound impact lies in how these agents change work patterns. By handling preparatory work and providing recommendations, they enable staff to focus on higher-value activities rather than ‘negotiating’ with an AI prompt through text or voice. 

Who’s Impacted

• CTO: Evaluate current automation strategies against this new paradigm of proactive, embedded AI agents. Plan for integration with existing enterprise systems and workflows.
• Enterprise architects: Review current system architectures to identify opportunities for embedding AI agents within workflow processes prior to staff engagement in these processes.
• Development teams: Prepare for increased focus on API integration and workflow automation.
• Business process owners: Identify processes that could benefit from proactive AI agent support and preparation. Implement consumption-based costing models for new workflow capabilities. Adopt continual innovation and innovation dividend frameworks.
• Change management leaders: Develop strategies to help staff adapt to working alongside proactive industrial AI agents rather than traditional reactive tools.
• Risk and compliance officers: Review implications of autonomous AI agents operating within critical business processes.

What’s Next

• Conduct a workflow audit to identify processes where proactive AI agents could provide the most benefit.
• Develop a pilot program focusing on one specific workflow to test the implementation and measure the effectiveness of industrial AI agents.
• Create a comprehensive change management strategy that addresses both technical integration and staff adaptation to working with proactive AI support.
• Establish governance frameworks for autonomous AI agents, including monitoring mechanisms and performance metrics.
• Review current automation and AI strategies to incorporate the concept of proactive, workflow-embedded agents.

Related Advisory

• VENDORiQ: Industrial AI Agents – The Battle for Enterprise Workflow Automation Intensifies