GenAI a top business priority, Aussie C-suite execs say 

Four in five Australian C-Suite executives say generative AI integration is critical to their business success – and more than a third say it’s their top business priority, according to new data from Salesforce and YouGov. Salesforce’s executive vice president, ANZ, Frank Fillmann, shares insights on why that is and how businesses can ensure they’re ahead of the curve. 

There’s little doubt generative AI (genAI) is still firmly at the top of Australian business executives’ minds, according to new data from global software company Salesforce and YouGov. 

According to the research, based on a survey of almost 300 Australian C-suite executives from large businesses across the country, 81% say genAI integration is critical, and 38% say it’s their top priority. 

“AI and data are the future of where technology is going. The impact is growing, and we can see the trend only moving faster,” says Frank Fillmann, Salesforce’s executive vice president. “And with the launch of Agentforce – the future is now.” 

Interestingly, the research also found that CEOs – ahead of CTOs or CIOs – emerged as being most responsible when it came to ensuring the integration and enablement of genAI. Fillmann, who joined Salesforce ANZ from the US a year-and-a-half ago and has met with 61 CEOs in the last fiscal year, says the C-suite is feeling the pinch. 

“There’s definitely pressure from boards to hurry up and unlock trapped value with AI,” he says. “But often, there isn’t clarity on what that actually means and where CEOs should start. Then there’s pressure from the outside, too – from customers and investors, for example. Alongside some common barriers businesses are coming up against when they introduce generative AI, it’s this combination of pressures that’s creating trapped value – there’s value to be extracted from genAI integration, but it’s trapped.” 

One of the barriers to accessing this value is having the right data. That’s backed up by the research: over 90% of C-suite executives say they believe there are barriers, and about a third of those cite data factors. GenAI producing inaccurate outputs is a top concern, followed closely by the use of incomplete customer or company data to train AI models. 

“There may be concerns, frustrations and data challenges, but as a supplier in the market, we are focusing on meeting our customers with empathy, saying, ‘We’re all learning, and this is new for all of us’,” Fillmann says. 

“Business AI has to be grounded in trusted customer data. It needs to be fed from the right sources and embedded in the flow of work. If I’m a contact centre agent, and I’m trying to solve a customer complaint, if I don’t have access to complete data – for example, a rich history on a customer’s propensity to buy or their troubled ticket history – then my reply is going to miss the context.” 

Salesforce, which is celebrating its 20^th year in Australia this year, has expanded its capabilities over the years to include 78 products in the market and a full suite of tools to help customers visualise and organise their data sets. 

“In a 100-year-old organisation, there’s no shortage of data, but the challenge is it doesn’t talk – it isn’t connected. That’s where we come in – we bring it together, powered by our Data Cloud. So, when you feather in AI, data lakes can become a lot more valuable, and customer experiences and apps can become more valuable.”  

“It’s hard to suggest that we’re not going to see a complete influx of [genAI]. Technology is moving so fast, and we believe it will move faster.”

– Frank Fillmann

Fillmann adds that Salesforce’s growing capabilities reflect the company’s desire to meet customers where they are. 

“McKinsey is showing that, globally, 75% of the impact in AI will happen on the front line, which is convenient for us, but it’s also where you drive competitiveness and shareholder value. I can tell you, we’ve re-written all of our products to be AI-first, and we’ve taken a lot to market.” 

At the company’s annual event, Dreamforce, Salesforce announced Agentforce, a suite of autonomous AI agents embedded in the flow of work, with the ability to handle complex tasks across the customer journey.  

“Agents are the next frontier, moving beyond chatbots and copilots. Almost all of the C-suite executives we surveyed said they were confident in using AI without human oversight for certain tasks. Agents learn from data, adapt for any experience, and take action with you and on your behalf. They move past analysis to getting jobs done – cancelling an order, scheduling an appointment, processing a refund. Now, with the introduction of Agentforce, we’re allowing our customers to deploy agents quickly and easily at scale,” Fillmann says. 

New Zealand-based appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel is leading the way in the use of Salesforce Agents, ​​resolving 30% of queries and freeing up customer service operators to focus on more complex cases, resulting in an estimated saving of 3,300 hours per month.  

Meanwhile, hipages Group – a local platform to connect homeowners and tradespeople – plans to use the Agentforce platform and Data Cloud to automate the onboarding process for tradies, reducing it from one hour to 10 minutes.  

The research indicates that these companies are not alone, with an overall increase in awareness of genAI throughout businesses. Salesforce’s research found over half (53%) of C-suite executives say their teams are now highly proficient in using genAI to complete work tasks. That’s compared to a February 2024 study, which showed just 23% of employees’ skills were highly proficient. 

Moreover, the research found that half of C-suites now say their organisations have a clear and defined genAI strategy, and a further two in five say they’ve already started working on one. That’s compared to 19% of organisations with a clear strategy when Salesforce first commissioned the study in July 2023. 

“Where it’s going – we’re all excited to see. There’s energy behind it, the impact is there, and we’re excited to be on the journey towards the use of trusted AI to drive meaningful impact.”