How AI is reshaping our world and the future of work | Mint

As modern AI capabilities continue to evolve at a remarkable rate, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this technological phenomenon has changed every aspect of our lives. In fact, recent studies show that 77% of devices currently being used feature some form of AI, and by 2030, AI is expected to contribute a staggering $15.7 trillion to the global economy. These numbers paint a vivid picture; AI has taken over our modern world, and we must embrace it to succeed.

Whether you’re still an ambitious student, an aspiring young professional, or even a seasoned business leader, keeping up with this highly disruptive technology has become a critical imperative. The ‘All About AI’ series hosted by Mint, in association with Salesforce, delved deeper into the infinite potential of AI and uncovered the innovative solutions transforming our industries. Hosted by Abhishek Singh, Deputy Editor, Mint, the fifth episode of the series, focussed on the future of work, featured Nathalie Scardino, President and Chief People Officer, Salesforce, and Arun Parameswaran, MD Sales, Salesforce India. The episode brought forth eye-opening insights and interesting experiences about the latest and greatest of AI capabilities. Watch the full episode below,

Understanding Agentforce: The New Age of AI Agents

Believe it or not, across our business ecosystem, resource crunch is a usual challenge: more tasks at hand than people to perform them. Enter AI agents —bringing productivity, efficiency, and accuracy together. Nathalie Scardino, CPO, Salesforce talked about futuristic autonomous AI, Agentforce, and its capabilities. She said, few months ago we announced Agentforce in the world of autonomous agents in work and the flow of work.” Speaking on this new agent’s potential, she added, “We are in the agent autonomous time, and we have customers from OpenTable to Wiley to Saks 5th Avenue. Imagine you are a customer: maybe you are travelling for an event to India and you realize at the airport that your Saree is not quite right, Now in the age of agents, the agent is, with guardrails, able to help the customer by perhaps sourcing the Saree at the airport. Maybe there’s a place that you could go and collect it immediately, or if you need a refund, the agent is able to provide a refund to you.”

The conversation also brought forth a marked distinction between powerful autonomous agents and simple bots. In her own words, Nathalie described them to be “agents of action,” capable of performing functions well beyond those of normal bots. Adding to Nathalie’s explanation, Arun Parameswaran, – went into detail describing the challenges of current website bots. He explained how these bots often do not provide accurate answers or even fail to involve the customer at all. Giving an example of how modern autonomous agents can make all the difference, he added, ‘Let’s say you shop at an outlet for Thanksgiving or Black Friday. You buy a bunch of stuff, and then come Christmas, you see the prices drop by 20%. So, what do you do? Currently, you have to go back to the same outlet, return the product, then buy the same thing at a lower price. But with modern AI agents, the person can just say, “Hey, I bought this, and your website says the price has dropped. Can I get the new price?” And instantly a refund was issued.’

Unpacking “The Dawn of an Indian Era”

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff calls the current age of India’s progress “the dawn of an Indian era,” highlighting the country’s rising economic significance and potential for growth. Explaining the sentiment behind this statement, Nathalie said, “What is very unique about India is that there is every function here. You have sales organisations, operations, full scrum teams, engineering products, and agents.” She added, “I just met a dozen of our engineers who are building the agents and the platform and data cloud, which, as we know, AI is meaningless without the data. A lot of that innovation was delivered right here where we are. So I think that is an incredible part of our company’s strategy.”

The Bigger Picture: How AI Will Change the future of work Businesses, and Lives

How will autonomous AI agents transform our lives?? Answering this question, Arun talked about how any revolutionary technology brings a certain level of anxiety. However, with certain mundane tasks being taken over by AI, individuals can now graduate to higher-value tasks.

Giving an example of the previously discussed store outlet, Arun talked about the process of handling customer complaints. He said, “When we think about a scenario such as getting a refund from a store outlet as we previously discussed, this would typically have been handled by call centers. Somebody would have to do the research about what product was bought, the price that was paid, the current policies for refunds, and more. If there was an exception, the manager would have to be reached out to. You’re talking about multiple cycles of folks in that call center being involved in finding a resolution that satisfies a single customer. With the AI agent, this was done in seconds.”

Further driving home the positives of this change, he added, “What this means is now I have the ability to repurpose my team to actually do the work that’s going to delight my customers. With every customer that I’ve had a conversation with, they’ve said that they’re not looking to reduce their staff. We don’t see AI coming in that way. Our thinking is that if we can kill repetitive tasks through automation and AI, then we can repurpose our teams to look at how we can enhance customer experiences.”

Changing tracks from what’s bound to be removed to what’s expected to become the new norm, Nathalie gave her insights into what the future holds for jobs in the evolving business ecosystem. Using their recruiting process as an example, she added, “We have about 2,000,000 candidate applications that come through our system every single year. There’s no way to humanly look at every resume. So, leveraging AI, we’re able to now look across the 7 million applications that are in our system and connect with candidates that perhaps would have been overlooked before.”

Boosting Employee Productivity and Efficiency With AI-Driven Innovation

Increasing employee productivity and efficiency has stood out as an everlasting quest for organisations across the globe. Accordingly, employers have been on a mission of providing their employees with the best facilities and advantages to lower distractions and maximise engagement. And with recent surveys highlighting that a single distraction can waste 4.8% of the workday, organisations are doubling down on creating highly focused work environments. In this scenario, AI can act as the ideal game changer.

Speaking of her own experiences working in a role dedicated to empowering employees, Nathalie discussed the incredible impact that AI had already brought to organisations. By carefully considering employee feedback, her team found that retrieving the right information at the right time was exceedingly laborious. To tackle this challenge, the company leveraged AI and data cloud to bring in data from all of their different systems to one place. This proved to be highly beneficial and saved tens of thousands of hours for employees, enhancing their overall efficiency. Instead of spending 20% of their time looking for information, employees could leverage semantic search to converse with the technology and find where to go.

Learn, Unlearn, Relearn: The Power of Upskilling

Just a few years ago, chatbots were seen as extraordinary inventions capable of rejuvenating customer experiences. Now, with the rapid progress of agentic AI, chatbots have quickly become obsolete. If there’s anything to be learned from the death of simple chatbots, it’s that continuous upskilling and progress is essential to stay relevant.

Highlighting the vital necessity of constantly learning and making improvements, Arun said, “What we learned yesterday is going to get outdated very quickly in a few months.” Arun even recollected a recent conversation he had with the President of Engineering, during which the President and his team changed around an entire speech in the space of 48 hours just to accommodate the most recent advancements and achievements. Arun added, “The pace of innovation is going to be ridiculously high. Professionals need to have a mindset of continuous learning. For professionals who intend to work for the next 10 years, accept that you’re going to be learning at a rapid pace. And every year, you’ll feel like everything I learned last year has suddenly become kind of passive.”

The Key Takeaways From the Episode

• Sophisticated autonomous AI solutions can eradicate mundane and repetitive tasks to allow individuals to perform high-value duties that truly matter.
• Customised AI agents can perform personalised actions and deliver exceptional employee and customer experiences.
• With the adoption of AI, organisations are not looking to reduce their workforce. Instead, organisations intend to restructure their teams to perform more meaningful work.
• AI solutions are helping new hires connect with the correct people and find the necessary resources.
• The use of AI is already saving tens of thousands of hours for employees.
• According to the World Economic Forum, data and AI literacy is one of the top skills to learn for the future of jobs.

Disclaimer: This is a Mint editorial initiative, sponsored by Salesforce.