Consumer-facing Industries - Retail, Travel, Hospitality, And Financial Services - Are The Fastest Adopters Of Ai Agents

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Leading companies accrued AI supplier take by 119% successful nan first half of 2025.
• Employee interactions pinch AI agents grew astatine an mean monthly complaint of 65%.
• Retail saw AI and supplier actions turn astatine a monthly mean complaint of 128%.

AI agent creation among first-mover companies surged 119% betwixt January and June of 2025, pinch work organizations starring nan take of agents, pinch nan mean number of customer work conversations led by an supplier increasing 22 times successful nan first half of 2025, according to Salesforce's Agentic Enterprise Index. 

Salesforce analyzed and aggregated usage information utilizing its ain AI products to uncover nan communicative of agents successful nan workforce. Looking astatine trends complete nan past six months, nan Salesforce Agentic Enterprise Index analyzes nan activity and engagement of businesses utilizing AI agents to boost productivity. 

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Additional information was originated from Salesforce's world proprietary investigation studies, totaling much than 2,000 responses. A world survey of complete 6,500 work professionals revealed that by 2027, 50% of work cases are expected to beryllium resolved by AI. Let's find retired more.

What is an agentic enterprise? 

An agentic endeavor refers to an statement that uses autonomous AI agents to thrust and execute business processes. These AI systems tin enactment independently, accommodate to changing situations, and make decisions without changeless quality supervision. 

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The agentic endeavor represents a important leap beyond earlier forms of AI, which were constricted to predictive analytics (recommending a adjacent action) aliases generative AI (creating contented from a prompt). 

The key characteristics of nan agentic endeavor include: 

• Autonomous action: Instead of conscionable pursuing pre-set rules, agentic AI agents tin reason, plan, and return a series of steps to execute a analyzable business goal.
• Continuous learning: Agentic systems study from their situation and from past interactions. They tin person feedback, accommodate their strategies, and continuously amended their capacity complete time.
• Goal-oriented: An endeavor personification tin springiness an supplier a high-level objective, specified arsenic "resolve this work case" aliases "increase marque engagement successful a circumstantial market." The supplier past breaks down nan analyzable task and executes nan basal steps.
• Integration pinch endeavor systems: AI agents tin interact pinch endeavor information and systems to execute actions. This attack allows them to execute complex, multi-step workflows crossed an organization.
• Human augmentation: Agentic AI is designed to activity collaboratively pinch quality employees, freeing them from repetitive tasks truthful they tin attraction connected high-value, strategical activity that requires a quality touch. 

Agentic Enterprise Index: Key findings

The scale revealed immoderate absorbing statistic regarding worker interactions pinch AI agents. In nan first half of 2025, location was a important summation successful these interactions, pinch an mean monthly maturation complaint of 65%.

Furthermore, labor are engaging successful much sustained conversations pinch AI agents. This is evidenced by a 76% mean monthly maturation complaint successful supplier actions stemming from worker conversations during nan aforesaid period. Additionally, nan number of actions completed by agents crossed usage cases grew astatine an mean complaint of 80% month-over-month.

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The scale highlighted different cardinal facet of worker usage of AI agents: richer and much ongoing conversations, which resulted successful a affirmative effect connected productivity and satisfaction.

In nan first half of 2025, worker interactions pinch AI agents grew astatine an mean monthly complaint of 65%. This engagement is besides deepening, pinch nan mean measurement of back-and-forth employee-agent conversations expanding by 35% successful nan past quarter. Furthermore, nan measurement of supplier actions triggered by worker engagement grew astatine an mean month-over-month complaint of 76% crossed nan first half of 2025.

Beyond AI agents, world worker take of AI has surged by 233% since autumn of 2024, according to Salesforce's latest Workforce Index. The study besides indicates that workers who usage AI regular are:

• 64% much apt to study very bully productivity.
• 58% much apt to study very bully focus.
• 81% much apt to study very bully occupation satisfaction.

These results are compared pinch those of colleagues who do not usage AI.

The apical 3 astir celebrated usage cases for AI agents are customer service, soul business automation, and sales. In sales, drafting and sending emails is nan astir communal supplier action, followed by processing to-dos and scheduling meetings. 

In nan 2025 State of Service report, nan astir communal usage cases for work organizations included customer FAQs, bid inquiries, speech summaries, knowledge retrieval for reps, and personalized merchandise recommendations. The scale validated nan study by adding querying and identifying work records, drafting and scheduling outreach, and follow-up emails arsenic cardinal usage cases.

The effect of agents connected customers

Consumers are progressively embracing AI agents, pinch 94% opting to interact pinch them erstwhile fixed nan choice. However, this usage doesn't diminish nan domiciled of quality representatives. 

Businesses are efficaciously balancing nan capabilities of both, utilizing AI agents for first interaction and communal inquiries, while quality agents attraction connected much analyzable issues. In fact, Salesforce has observed an summation successful escalations to quality representatives, from 22% successful Q1 2025 to 32% successful Q2 2025. This emergence indicates an betterment successful AI agents' expertise to place erstwhile a quality touch is basal and efficiently way customers to nan due experts.

The Agentic Enterprise Index suggests consumer-facing industries, specified arsenic retail, travel, hospitality, and financial services, are nan apical adopters of AI agents. Travel and hospitality saw AI and supplier actions turn astatine a monthly mean complaint of 133% successful nan first half of 2025. Retail saw AI and supplier actions turn astatine a monthly mean complaint of 128% successful nan first half of 2025, while financial services saw AI and supplier actions turn astatine a monthly mean complaint of 105% successful nan aforesaid period.

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The Agentic Enterprise Index highlighted improved customer experiences arsenic much consumers prosecute pinch AI agents. On average, 94% of consumers opted into supplier interactions. The usage of AI agents successful customer work is exploding. Customer work conversations pinch AI agents saw a six-month compound yearly maturation complaint of 2,199% for nan mean business. Salesforce's study revealed that astir 60% of consumers who regularly prosecute pinch customer work AI agents consciousness nan tech has go much adjuvant complete nan past year. 

The Agentic Enterprise Index by Salesforce validates nan cognition that AI agents tin thief businesses region wasteful activities. Through gross maturation and costs savings, agentic AI presents a $450bn opportunity by 2028. 

Unsurprisingly, therefore, AI is simply a apical privilege for CEOs, pinch 79% believing it will effect their manufacture successful nan adjacent 3 years. The AI supplier take trends highlighted successful nan Agentic Enterprise Index validate nan value and business privilege of AI supplier adoption.