A Salesforce ‘world tour’ will give businesses in Sydney and Melbourne hands-on access to new artificial intelligence technology, which the tech giant claims will change how enterprises interact with their customers and company data.
Salesforce also intends to open a more permanent artificial intelligence training centre in Sydney, establishing AI as a cornerstone of its Australian business model.
Salesforce this week devoted its Dreamforce conference to Agentforce, a new platform that allows customers to deploy artificially intelligent ‘agents’ across their businesses.
In his keynote speech, CEO Marc Benioff said automated agents will significantly change how businesses respond to customer queries, resolve complaints, and develop business strategies.
Unlike off-the-shelf large language models (LLMs), the company says its AI agents are trained on existing business data and workflows, increasing specificity and reducing hallucinations.
Salesforce users road-tested the technology at the conference, where staff showed them how to build an agent capable of resolving real-world scenarios, like gym membership cancellation requests or car servicing enquiries.
Kevin Doyle, regional vice president of data cloud and AI for Salesforce in the ANZ region, told SmartCompany the roadshow will bring insights from the Dreamforce conference to Sydney and Melbourne.
It will also give Salesforce customers access to engineers trained on the Agentforce system ahead of the conference, allowing Australian businesses to prototype their very first AI-powered business agents on home soil.
“We’ve trained up all of our team, we’re bringing it down under,” Doyle said.
The Sydney event will take place on October 15, with Melbourne following on November 19.
Small business breakout sessions and demonstration booths will occur on those tour dates, Doyle added.
Salesforce is also planning a more permanent in-person AI training centre in Sydney, after an earlier iteration in London.
The space will host in-person training sessions and access to industry experts, Salesforce said.
That centre is expected to open in 2025, after Salesforce initiates its own US AI pop-up in San Francisco.
The author travelled to Dreamforce in San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.
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Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
