Latest news with #AliceSteinglass
Techday NZ
an hour ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
AI agents to play key role in ANZ IT security, report finds
The latest Salesforce State of IT report indicates that IT security leaders in Australia and New Zealand anticipate AI agents will address at least one of their organisation's digital security issues. The survey reveals that all respondents see a role for AI agents in assisting with IT security, with 36 per cent of IT security teams in the region currently using such agents in their daily operations. The proportion of security teams using AI agents is expected to grow rapidly, with predictions it will reach 68 per cent within the next two years. According to the findings, 71 per cent of organisations in Australia and New Zealand are planning to increase their security budgets during the year ahead, just below the global average of 75 per cent. AI agents were highlighted as being capable of supporting various tasks, including faster threat detection, more efficient investigations, and comprehensive auditing of AI model performance. The global survey, which included more than 2,000 enterprise IT security leaders—with 100 respondents from Australia and New Zealand—also pointed to several challenges associated with adopting AI in security practices. Despite widespread recognition that practices need to evolve, with 75 per cent of respondents acknowledging the need for transformation, 58 per cent expressed concern that their organisations' data infrastructure was not yet ready to maximise the potential of AI agents. "Trusted AI agents are built on trusted data," said Alice Steinglass, EVP & GM, Salesforce Platform, Integration, and Automation. "IT security teams that prioritise data governance will be able to augment their security capabilities with agents while protecting data and staying compliant." The report noted that while both IT professionals and malicious actors are integrating AI into their operations, autonomous AI agents offer an opportunity for security teams to reduce manual workloads and focus on more complex challenges. However, deploying agentic AI successfully requires a strong foundation in data infrastructure and governance. In addition to familiar threats such as cloud security vulnerabilities, malware, and phishing, the report found that IT leaders now also rank data poisoning within their top three concerns. Data poisoning involves the manipulation of AI training data sets by malicious actors. This concern is cited alongside cloud security threats and insider or internal threats. Follow us on: Share on:
Techday NZ
5 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
AI agent adoption rises among IT security leaders in ANZ
IT security leaders in Australia and New Zealand see considerable promise in adopting AI agents to address key security concerns, according to results from the Salesforce State of IT report. The survey of over 2,000 enterprise IT security leaders globally, including 100 from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), found that every respondent identified at least one security issue they believe could be improved with the use of AI agents. According to the report, 36 per cent of IT security teams in ANZ have already integrated AI agents into their daily operations. This figure is expected to nearly double to 68 per cent within the next two years, signalling a significant upward trend in AI agent deployment across the region. While optimism around the benefits of AI agents is evident, the report also highlights several challenges facing the region's IT security leaders. Notably, 58 per cent of ANZ respondents expressed concerns that their data foundations are not robust enough to fully realise the benefits of agentic AI. An equal proportion are not fully confident that appropriate safeguards and guardrails are in place for the safe deployment of these agents. Despite these concerns, there is momentum towards greater adoption. Security leaders anticipate a range of benefits from AI agents, from enhancing threat detection capabilities to providing more robust auditing of AI model performance. Alice Steinglass, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce Platform, Integration, and Automation, said: "Trusted AI agents are built on trusted data. IT security teams that prioritise data governance will be able to augment their security capabilities with agents while protecting data and staying compliant." The survey also indicates that up to 75 per cent of IT security leaders in Australia and New Zealand acknowledge that their current security practices require transformation. While 74 per cent see AI agents as offering opportunities to improve compliance, such as with privacy laws, nearly 83 per cent also identified ongoing compliance challenges as a key concern. Cloud security threats, insider risks, and data poisoning—where malicious actors compromise AI training datasets—were listed among the most pressing risks for IT security leaders. In light of these evolving threats, 71 per cent of ANZ organisations expect to increase their security budgets in the coming year. This is only slightly below the global average of 75 per cent, reflecting a broad trend towards higher investment in IT security resources. Complex and changing regulatory environments continue to pose challenges for IT teams aiming to deploy AI agents. Only 48 per cent of ANZ IT security leaders said they are fully confident that they can deploy AI agents in ways that are compliant with relevant regulations and industry standards. Furthermore, 85 per cent of organisations have not yet fully automated their compliance processes, leaving room for error and inefficiency. There are signs of readiness and confidence among ANZ security leaders when it comes to their security and compliance practices. Sixty-one per cent believe their organisations are prepared for the development and implementation of AI agents. This figure is higher than both the Asia-Pacific average of 57 per cent and the global average of 47 per cent, indicating the region's relatively strong position in preparing for the AI era. Maintaining effective data governance is seen as crucial to enabling the successful adoption of AI agents. Nevertheless, more than half of IT security leaders in ANZ are not confident that their organisations have adequate data quality or the right infrastructure required for AI deployment. Globally, CIOs report that budgets for data infrastructure and management are four times greater than those for AI itself, suggesting a focus on laying solid foundations before wider adoption of AI tools. Building trust remains central to the deployment of AI within enterprises. Recent research indicates a decline in general consumer trust, with three-quarters of Australian consumers stating they trust companies less than a year ago. Additionally, 69 per cent believe advances in AI make trust increasingly important. Among ANZ security leaders, 59 per cent have not fully established ethical guidelines for AI use, 68 per cent lack complete confidence in the accuracy and explainability of AI outputs, and 58 per cent do not provide full transparency in the use of customer data for AI purposes. Arizona State University is among the first higher education institutions to implement Salesforce's Agentforce digital labour platform, using trusted autonomous AI agents in operational workflows. The university has placed particular attention on data relevancy as it broadens its AI initiatives, and has adopted Salesforce-acquired backup, recovery, and archiving solutions to address its data management, compliance, and innovation needs. The findings of the Salesforce State of IT report are based on a double-anonymous survey conducted between December 2024 and February 2025 across a broad range of countries including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and others. One hundred respondents represented Australia and New Zealand.
Business Wire
05-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
RingCentral Announces RingCX for Salesforce Service Cloud Voice on Salesforce AppExchange
BELMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG), a global leader in AI-powered business communications, today announced it has launched RingCX™ for Salesforce Service Cloud Voice on Salesforce AppExchange, a leading enterprise marketplace for partner apps and experts, empowering customers to deliver a unified and streamlined experience for agents by integrating RingCentral's digital channel and voice capabilities into Salesforce. This powerful combination enables organizations to not only deliver faster, more intelligent, and highly personalized service across all touchpoints, but also to enrich their CRM ecosystem with deep insights into customer interactions that grow more intelligent over time. RingCX for Salesforce Service Cloud Voice is currently available on AppExchange. RingCentral's integration with Salesforce is particularly valuable for organizations seeking to unify their communication channels and improve cross-functional collaboration. Having established a robust Unified Communications integration with Salesforce trusted by thousands of customers worldwide, RingCentral is building on this successful foundation to extend its capabilities to include Contact Center integration within the Salesforce environment. By bringing together unified communications and contact center capabilities within the Salesforce ecosystem, businesses can break down silos between departments, enabling seamless information sharing and more efficient customer service. Comments on the News "This native integration brings best-in-class cloud voice and digital communications to the Salesforce CRM environment," said Carson Hostetter, EVP & GM, AI & Customer Experience at RingCentral. "We're helping businesses maintain their existing telephony and contact center investments with RingCentral while leveraging Salesforce's powerful CRM capabilities for a more comprehensive customer service solution. By combining voice and digital channels in one unified experience, we're enabling seamless interactions across all touchpoints. Together we're dedicated to delivering effortless customer experiences and driving powerful outcomes for our mutual customers." 'RingCX for Salesforce Service Cloud Voice is a welcome addition to AppExchange, as it accelerates business transformation for customers by seamlessly integrating RingCentral's advanced voice capabilities into the Salesforce environment, enabling agents to effortlessly manage calls, messages, and customer data from one intuitive interface,' said Alice Steinglass, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Platform, Integration, and Automation, Salesforce. 'AppExchange is constantly evolving to connect customers with the right apps and experts for their business needs.' 'In today's competitive business environment, having a unified approach to communication and customer engagement is crucial," said Sheila McGee-Smith, Founder and Principal Analyst at McGee-Smith Analytics. "RingCentral's integration of unified communications and contact center capabilities within Salesforce addresses a critical need in the market, enabling businesses to create more cohesive and efficient workflows across their entire organization." RingCX for Salesforce Service Cloud Voice offers many benefits, including: Unified agent workspace: Agents can manage calls, digital channels, and CRM data from a single interface, providing a true single pane of glass experience that improves productivity and reduces context switching. Native Salesforce experience: The integration delivers a native Salesforce user interface, allowing employees to assist customers without leaving their familiar Salesforce environment. Service Cloud Voice integration: RingCX now fully integrates with Salesforce Service Cloud Voice, allowing businesses to leverage RingCentral's robust voice capabilities within Salesforce's omnichannel routing environment. Embedded dialer: Users can make calls directly from Salesforce records, with automatic call logging and easy access to customer information during conversations. Omnichannel routing: The integration supports voice, chat, email, and social media channels, enabling businesses to provide consistent customer experiences across all touchpoints. Advanced analytics: Comprehensive reporting and analytics tools provide insights into communication patterns, agent performance, and customer interactions, helping businesses make data-driven decisions. AI-powered insights: Leveraging Salesforce's AI capabilities, the integration provides real-time transcription, next-best action, and conversational insights to achieve the best customer outcomes. Seamless workflow integration: The solution enables automatic call logging, screen pops with customer information, and leveraging Salesforce data during calls, improving agent productivity and customer service efficiency. Additional information can be found on the RingCentral blog. Salesforce AppExchange, a leading enterprise marketplace for partner apps and experts, empowers companies, developers and entrepreneurs to build, market and grow in entirely new ways. Since its launch in 2006, the platform has grown to include more than 8,000 apps and experts, with over 13 million customer installs. AppExchange connects customers of all sizes and across industries to ready-to-install or customizable apps and Salesforce-certified consultants to solve any business challenge. Additional Resources Salesforce, AppExchange and others are among the trademarks of Salesforce, Inc. About RingCentral RingCentral is a global leader in AI-powered trusted business communications, contact center, conversational intelligence, video and hybrid event solutions. RingCentral empowers businesses with conversation intelligence and unlocks rich customer and employee interactions to provide insights and improved business outcomes. With decades of expertise in reliable and secure cloud communications, RingCentral has earned the trust of hundreds of thousands of customers and millions of users worldwide. Visit to learn more. © 2025 RingCentral, Inc. All rights reserved. RingCentral, RingCX, and the RingCentral logo are trademarks of RingCentral, Inc.
Zawya
26-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Salesforce launches AgentExchange: The trusted marketplace for Agentforce
AgentExchange empowers partners, developers, and the Agentblazer community to build and monetize agentic AI components, fueling the next generation of businesses in the $6 trillion digital labor market AgentExchange includes more than 200 partners, including Google Cloud, Docusign, and Box, building trusted Agentforce solutions that businesses can use to rapidly build AI agents Developers can discover, try, and buy hundreds of prebuilt partner actions, topics, and templates on the marketplace or surfaced directly within Salesforce's agent building tools Dubai, UAE - Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the #1 AI CRM, has launched AgentExchange, the trusted marketplace and community for Agentforce that is built into Salesforce, opening up new opportunities for partners, developers, and Agentblazers to participate in the rapidly expanding $6 trillion digital labor market. Building on the success of Salesforce AppExchange — the first and world's largest enterprise cloud marketplace, which has grown to more than 13 million app installs — AgentExchange expands the capabilities and ecosystem of Agentforce, Salesforce's digital labor platform. AgentExchange launches with more than 200 initial partners and hundreds of ready-made actions, topics, and templates that have passed rigorous security and customer reviews. Combined, these solutions will help organizations quickly create and deploy AI agents to improve productivity, efficiency, and innovation in any profession or industry. Partners are already building Agentforce components for AgentExchange. For example: Google Cloud: Build Agentforce agents, grounded in Google Search via Vertex AI and with the ability to reference up-to-the-minute data, news, and current events. Box: Enable Agentforce agents to extract insights from unstructured data and power actions with that information, using natural language to interact with content in Box. Docusign: Generate agreements, route for signatures, track status, and gain key insights — automating workflows and boosting efficiency. Workday: Streamline critical employee self-service workflows such as onboarding, benefits management, and career development, freeing up HR teams and significantly enhancing the employee experience. 'When we launched AppExchange in 2005, it helped our customers get even more value from our platform with prebuilt apps, workflows, and integrations. It also gave our partners an opportunity to participate in the emerging cloud economy and build thriving businesses,' said Brian Landsman, EVP & GM, Global Business Development & Partnerships at Salesforce. 'With AgentExchange, we're doing much the same — opening up Agentforce for partners, startups, and Agentblazers to participate in the digital labor market and build agentic AI on Salesforce.' 'AgentExchange empowers customers to seamlessly integrate trusted AI solutions within their workflow,' said Alice Steinglass, EVP & GM of Platform, Integration and Automation at Salesforce. 'Now our developer community can directly tap the expertise of our partner ecosystem to get the right industry-specific solutions so they can build and implement AI agents, and be the pioneers turning their businesses into Agentforce companies.' Mukesh Kumar, Regional Vice President, Middle East Alliance & Channels, Salesforce, said: 'The launch of AgentExchange is an important development for the Middle East, where organizations across all sectors are demonstrating a strong commitment and desire to deploy AI-based solutions as part of their digital transformation plans. Salesforce is the platform of choice for AI because of the company's world class solutions across sales and marketing, all running on one unified platform. AgentExchange will be a valuable resource, helping partners to accelerate the deployment of tailored agentic AI solutions in the region.' New AgentExchange and Agentforce features include: New partner-built components: Partners and Agentblazers can now offer four types of agentic components: Actions: Expand the jobs agents built with Agentforce can do by adding new integrations — ranging from Apex, flows, APIs, and prompts — to tailor industry-specific components. Prompt templates: Use pre-written, reusable prompts that ensure consistent interactions and help agents gather information, assist users, and achieve specific goals. Topics: Focus and refine agent behavior by grouping actions and instructions around a single task or job. This helps to ensure agents deliver consistent results and stay within guardrails. Agent templates: Deliver comprehensive AI solutions by combining multiple topics and using the powerful actions partners have created, complete with metadata and global instructions that span across topics. Easily discover, try, and buy AI solutions: AgentExchange simplifies the process of finding and deploying the right trusted AI solutions. Customers can explore AgentExchange solutions directly on the marketplace or within Salesforce's Agent Builder tool to identify the right solutions for their use case, product, or industry. Use standard and Slack actions: Partners and Agentblazers can now offer out-of-the-box Agentforce actions, including Slack, in packaged Agentforce topics and templates on the AgentExchange. These actions empower partner-delivered agents with built-in CRM and Slack capabilities, such as creating a case, canceling an order, updating a Slack canvas, searching Slack, or sending direct messages. Access trusted, industry-specific agent solutions: AgentExchange connects businesses with Salesforce partners who have deep expertise in specific industries. Businesses can implement pre-built, customizable solutions that address unique challenges, accelerating AI adoption and maximizing its impact. Rigorous security reviews and customer feedback ensure trust in every solution listed on AgentExchange. Collaborate and innovate with Agentblazers: AgentExchange fosters a collaborative ecosystem where businesses, partners, and individual Agentblazers can connect, share best practices, and innovate together, accelerating the adoption of agentic AI. 'AgentExchange unlocks new technology and markets for Docusign, expanding our reach and impact. We've worked closely with Salesforce to develop agent actions to seamlessly integrate them into our customers' workflows. Our sales and service customers will now be able to leverage Agentforce and Docusign to automate common agreement-related tasks without the complexity of developing their own proprietary agentic technology,' said Larry Jin, VP Product Management, Docusign. AgentExchange solutions Partners who have AgentExchange listings or are actively developing Agentforce components include: Sales & service Appiphony: Offers document generation fully integrated with Agentforce. Bucher + Suter: Enables seamless escalation from agent to human within Agentforce, preserving context for smooth transitions. Docusign: Generates documents, routes for signature, and tracks doc and signature status. Highspot: Provides Agentforce users with curated sales content and AI-powered analytics to increase buyer engagement and close more deals. Neuron 7: Directs enterprise service teams through optimal resolution paths for swift, accurate problem-solving. SalesWings: Integrates customer intent data to enhance prospect engagement and sales performance. Seismic: Delivers AI-powered personalized content at scale from Salesforce, ensuring the right content for every opportunity stage and accelerating sales. Finance, operations, and talent Asymbl: Offers AI-powered recruiting solutions to streamline talent workflows. Bullhorn: Recruitment Cloud Agents leverage over 90 actions to accelerate the entire recruiting lifecycle, improving key processes such as candidate matching, talent engagement, and hiring recommendations. Certinia: Enables managers to monitor a client's health score, diagnose potential issues, and recommend remedies to customer issues. FinDoc: Integrates payment and CRM data, empowering payment agents. InvestorFlow: Simplifies prospect targeting and opportunity aggregation for financial deals. OpenText: Automates document management, reducing storage costs and errors, for better efficiency and management. Productivity and collaboration Box: Enables Agentforce agents to extract insights from unstructured data and power actions with that information, using natural language to interact with content in Box. CloudCrossing: Generates documents and launches digital signatures via agent actions. Copado: Streamlines entire Salesforce DevOps process with intelligent automation for user story creation, release management, and deployment troubleshooting. Formstack: Empowers agents to deliver 'formless' data collection, elevating customer interactions. GoMeddo: Provides AI-driven scheduling and booking within Salesforce, optimizing appointment management. Hubbl: Empowers agents with Hubbl Process Analytics and suggests best practices. MemberVerse: Streamlines operations with advanced workflow actions. Moody's: Creates research reports based on accounts and opportunities. Practivo: Enables natural language scheduling for appointments and resources, simplifying scheduling processes. SharinPix: Enables agents to search, view, and manage photos using content and metadata. TaskRay: Streamlines project management and task workflows with an AI assistant, improving team productivity and organization. Zenkraft: Empowers agents to provide seamless shipping, tracking, and returns support, leading to fewer customer inquiries and a more positive experience. Industry-specific solutions Healthcare & Life Sciences ComplianceQuest: Automates audit observations for regulatory compliance, ensuring adherence to industry standards. DemandFarm: Automates account plan creation, provides sales recommendations, and streamlines account research. Manufacturing Arpedio: Offers account insights, opportunity tracking, and sales suggestions for improved sales performance in manufacturing. Propel: Streamlines workflows by summarizing records, automating training, and enabling bulk item creation. Retail & Hospitality Thynk: Automates proposal generation by centralizing key data points, like guest room availability and meeting space. Vicasso: Enables surveys within Salesforce Messaging for real-time customer feedback and engagement. Education iSchoolConnect: Leverage AI actions to automate student enrollment. Visit AgentExchange and explore the Agentforce partner solutions available today on Availability AgentExchange is available today at Packaging and Listing of Prompt Templates and Topics is available today. Packaging and Listing of Agent Templates will be available in April 2025. Learn more: Visit AgentExchange Become an Agentblazer Learn more about the Agentforce Partner Network Watch the TDX keynote
