Latest news with #SalesforcePlatform
Techday NZ
4 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.
National Post
28-04-2025
- Business
- National Post
University of Melbourne's Mobile Learning Unit (MLU) Selects Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce to Manage and Enhance its eLearning Platform
Article content Rimini Street to provide managed and professional services for the highly customized and integrated Salesforce environment which serves as the core of MLU's curriculum and case management processes Article content Article content LAS VEGAS — Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced that the Mobile Learning Unit (MLU) at the University of Melbourne has selected Rimini Manage™ and Rimini Consult™ for Salesforce as its strategy to bring stability and enhancement to its eLearning platform. Article content 'With Rimini Street, we can balance both our internal and external resources in a cost-effective way, ensure the knowledge of our critical in-house skills is retained, and look towards the future of our business.' – Pat Violo, Program Office Manager, MLU Article content The MLU is on a mission to make learning accessible, engaging and simplified. Through the successful launch of its eLearning platform, the higher learning institute provides end-to-end learning solutions for education providers, ranging from course creation and instructional design to learning management system (LMS) hosting and learner support. The Salesforce Platform serves as the core system, facilitating seamless student access, case management, and reporting. Article content 'Salesforce is integral to our operations. If it were to go down, it would impact student access to courses and our ability to manage support issues,' said Pat Violo, program office manager at MLU. 'One of our key challenges was retaining a deep Salesforce knowledge base to implement best practices and keep the platform running as efficiently as possible. That's where Rimini Street came in to fill the knowledge and resource gap, and we're excited to take our eLearning capability to new heights through our partnership.' Article content Following a rigorous selection process, MLU identified Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce as the ideal solution due to Rimini Street's extensive and proven history of providing support for mission-critical systems such as Salesforce. A certified Salesforce MSP Partner and Salesforce Consulting Partner, Rimini Street offers organizations managed and professional services for both on-premises and virtual resources. Article content 'While many Salesforce partners specialize in managed services or professional services, our ability to provide both capabilities sets us apart in the industry,' said David Rowe, chief product and marketing officer at Rimini Street. 'Building on the operational efficiency, stability and flexibility we provide our Salesforce clients, we help unlock new potential for their systems, delivering innovation and business transformation needed to remain competitive – all from one trusted source.' Article content 'We spoke with several Salesforce clients and did our own internal assessment of risks and rewards for making the switch to Rimini Street. What we learned was that Rimini Street provides cost-effective, high-quality support which draws on global expertise and a vast resource network, making them a strong partner, well-positioned to support our complex Salesforce environment,' said Violo. Article content 'With our systems stabilized, we'll be engaging Rimini Street to help evolve our offerings, allowing us to sell more of our courses and the full LMS solution,' continued Violo. 'With Rimini Street, we can balance both our internal and external resources in a cost-effective way, ensure the knowledge of our critical in-house skills is retained, and look towards the future of our business.' Article content Learn more about how Rimini Street's services for Salesforce can help your organization achieve stability and growth. Article content About Rimini Street, Inc. Article content Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software. The Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize enterprise application, database, and technology software. The Company has signed thousands of contracts with Fortune Global 100, Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and government organizations who selected Rimini Street as their trusted, proven mission-critical enterprise software solutions provider and achieved better operational outcomes, realized billions of US dollars in savings and funded AI and other innovation investments. Article content Certain statements included in this communication are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as 'anticipate,' 'believe,' 'continue,' 'could,' 'currently,' 'estimate,' 'expect,' 'forecast,' 'future,' 'intend,' 'may,' 'might,' 'outlook,' 'plan,' 'possible,' 'goal,' 'potential,' 'predict,' 'project,' 'seem,' 'seek,' 'should,' 'will,' 'would' or other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations of future events, future opportunities, global expansion and other growth initiatives and our investments in such initiatives. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street's business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, adverse developments in and costs associated with defending pending litigation or any new litigation, including the disposition of pending motions to appeal and any new claims; any additional expenses to be incurred to comply with any injunction ordered by the courts relating to the Rimini II litigation matter and the impact on future period revenue and costs incurred related to these efforts; changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates, including the impact of any macro-economic trends and changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which we operate and the industries in which our clients operate; the evolution of the enterprise software management and support landscape and our ability to attract and retain clients and further penetrate our client base; significant competition in the software support services industry; customer adoption of our expanded portfolio of products and services and products and services we expect to introduce; our expectations regarding new product offerings, partnerships and alliance programs, including but not limited to our partnership with ServiceNow; our ability to grow our revenue and accurately forecast revenue, along with the results of any efforts to manage costs in light of current revenue expectations and expansion of our offerings; the expected impact of reductions in our workforce during the last and current fiscal year and associated reorganization costs; estimates of our total addressable market and expectations of client savings relative to use of other providers; variability of timing in our sales cycle; risks relating to retention rates, including our ability to accurately predict retention rates; the loss of one or more members of our management team; our ability to attract and retain additional qualified personnel, including sales personnel, and retain key personnel; our business plan, our ability to grow in the future and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability; our plans to wind-down the offering of services for Oracle PeopleSoft products, which may be impacted by pending decisions in the Rimini II litigation; the volatility of our stock price and related compliance with stock exchange requirements; our need and ability to raise equity or debt financing on favorable terms and our ability to generate cash flows from operations to help fund increased investment in our growth initiatives; risks associated with global operations; our ability to prevent unauthorized access to our information technology systems and other cybersecurity threats; any deficiencies associated with generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies potentially used by us or used by our third-party vendors and service providers; our ability to protect the confidential information of our employees and clients and to comply with privacy regulations; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand and intellectual property; changes in laws and regulations, including changes in tax laws or unfavorable outcomes of tax positions we take, tariff costs (including tariff relief or the ability to mitigate tariffs, particularly in light of proposed policies of the new Presidential administration), a failure by us to establish adequate tax reserves, or our ability to realize benefits from our net operating losses; any negative impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters on our reputation or business and the exposure of our business to additional costs or risks from our reporting on such matters; our ability to maintain our good standing with the United States government and international governments and capture new contracts with governmental entities/agencies; our credit facility's ongoing debt service obligations and financial and operational covenants on our business and related interest rate risk, including uncertainty from the transition to SOFR or other interest rate benchmarks; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the amount and timing of repurchases, if any, under our stock repurchase program and our ability to enhance stockholder value through such program; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini Street's equity securities; catastrophic events that disrupt our business or that of our clients; and those discussed under the heading 'Risk Factors' in Rimini Street's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 27, 2025, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street's future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street's assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.
Ottawa Citizen
28-04-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
University of Melbourne's Mobile Learning Unit (MLU) Selects Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce to Manage and Enhance its eLearning Platform
Article content Rimini Street to provide managed and professional services for the highly customized and integrated Salesforce environment which serves as the core of MLU's curriculum and case management processes Article content Article content LAS VEGAS — Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced that the Mobile Learning Unit (MLU) at the University of Melbourne has selected Rimini Manage™ and Rimini Consult™ for Salesforce as its strategy to bring stability and enhancement to its eLearning platform. Article content 'With Rimini Street, we can balance both our internal and external resources in a cost-effective way, ensure the knowledge of our critical in-house skills is retained, and look towards the future of our business.' – Pat Violo, Program Office Manager, MLU Article content The MLU is on a mission to make learning accessible, engaging and simplified. Through the successful launch of its eLearning platform, the higher learning institute provides end-to-end learning solutions for education providers, ranging from course creation and instructional design to learning management system (LMS) hosting and learner support. The Salesforce Platform serves as the core system, facilitating seamless student access, case management, and reporting. Article content 'Salesforce is integral to our operations. If it were to go down, it would impact student access to courses and our ability to manage support issues,' said Pat Violo, program office manager at MLU. 'One of our key challenges was retaining a deep Salesforce knowledge base to implement best practices and keep the platform running as efficiently as possible. That's where Rimini Street came in to fill the knowledge and resource gap, and we're excited to take our eLearning capability to new heights through our partnership.' Article content Following a rigorous selection process, MLU identified Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce as the ideal solution due to Rimini Street's extensive and proven history of providing support for mission-critical systems such as Salesforce. A certified Salesforce MSP Partner and Salesforce Consulting Partner, Rimini Street offers organizations managed and professional services for both on-premises and virtual resources. Article content 'While many Salesforce partners specialize in managed services or professional services, our ability to provide both capabilities sets us apart in the industry,' said David Rowe, chief product and marketing officer at Rimini Street. 'Building on the operational efficiency, stability and flexibility we provide our Salesforce clients, we help unlock new potential for their systems, delivering innovation and business transformation needed to remain competitive – all from one trusted source.' Article content 'We spoke with several Salesforce clients and did our own internal assessment of risks and rewards for making the switch to Rimini Street. What we learned was that Rimini Street provides cost-effective, high-quality support which draws on global expertise and a vast resource network, making them a strong partner, well-positioned to support our complex Salesforce environment,' said Violo. Article content Article content 'With our systems stabilized, we'll be engaging Rimini Street to help evolve our offerings, allowing us to sell more of our courses and the full LMS solution,' continued Violo. 'With Rimini Street, we can balance both our internal and external resources in a cost-effective way, ensure the knowledge of our critical in-house skills is retained, and look towards the future of our business.' Article content Learn more about how Rimini Street's services for Salesforce can help your organization achieve stability and growth. Article content About Rimini Street, Inc. Article content Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software. The Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize enterprise application, database, and technology software. The Company has signed thousands of contracts with Fortune Global 100, Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and government organizations who selected Rimini Street as their trusted, proven mission-critical enterprise software solutions provider and achieved better operational outcomes, realized billions of US dollars in savings and funded AI and other innovation investments. Article content To learn more, please visit and connect with Rimini Street on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Article content Forward-Looking Statements Article content Certain statements included in this communication are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as 'anticipate,' 'believe,' 'continue,' 'could,' 'currently,' 'estimate,' 'expect,' 'forecast,' 'future,' 'intend,' 'may,' 'might,' 'outlook,' 'plan,' 'possible,' 'goal,' 'potential,' 'predict,' 'project,' 'seem,' 'seek,' 'should,' 'will,' 'would' or other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations of future events, future opportunities, global expansion and other growth initiatives and our investments in such initiatives. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street's business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, adverse developments in and costs associated with defending pending litigation or any new litigation, including the disposition of pending motions to appeal and any new claims; any additional expenses to be incurred to comply with any injunction ordered by the courts relating to the Rimini II litigation matter and the impact on future period revenue and costs incurred related to these efforts; changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates, including the impact of any macro-economic trends and changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which we operate and the industries in which our clients operate; the evolution of the enterprise software management and support landscape and our ability to attract and retain clients and further penetrate our client base; significant competition in the software support services industry; customer adoption of our expanded portfolio of products and services and products and services we expect to introduce; our expectations regarding new product offerings, partnerships and alliance programs, including but not limited to our partnership with ServiceNow; our ability to grow our revenue and accurately forecast revenue, along with the results of any efforts to manage costs in light of current revenue expectations and expansion of our offerings; the expected impact of reductions in our workforce during the last and current fiscal year and associated reorganization costs; estimates of our total addressable market and expectations of client savings relative to use of other providers; variability of timing in our sales cycle; risks relating to retention rates, including our ability to accurately predict retention rates; the loss of one or more members of our management team; our ability to attract and retain additional qualified personnel, including sales personnel, and retain key personnel; our business plan, our ability to grow in the future and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability; our plans to wind-down the offering of services for Oracle PeopleSoft products, which may be impacted by pending decisions in the Rimini II litigation; the volatility of our stock price and related compliance with stock exchange requirements; our need and ability to raise equity or debt financing on favorable terms and our ability to generate cash flows from operations to help fund increased investment in our growth initiatives; risks associated with global operations; our ability to prevent unauthorized access to our information technology systems and other cybersecurity threats; any deficiencies associated with generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies potentially used by us or used by our third-party vendors and service providers; our ability to protect the confidential information of our employees and clients and to comply with privacy regulations; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand and intellectual property; changes in laws and regulations, including changes in tax laws or unfavorable outcomes of tax positions we take, tariff costs (including tariff relief or the ability to mitigate tariffs, particularly in light of proposed policies of the new Presidential administration), a failure by us to establish adequate tax reserves, or our ability to realize benefits from our net operating losses; any negative impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters on our reputation or business and the exposure of our business to additional costs or risks from our reporting on such matters; our ability to maintain our good standing with the United States government and international governments and capture new contracts with governmental entities/agencies; our credit facility's ongoing debt service obligations and financial and operational covenants on our business and related interest rate risk, including uncertainty from the transition to SOFR or other interest rate benchmarks; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the amount and timing of repurchases, if any, under our stock repurchase program and our ability to enhance stockholder value through such program; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini Street's equity securities; catastrophic events that disrupt our business or that of our clients; and those discussed under the heading 'Risk Factors' in Rimini Street's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 27, 2025, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street's future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street's assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.
Business Wire
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
University of Melbourne's Mobile Learning Unit (MLU) Selects Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce to Manage and Enhance its eLearning Platform
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced that the Mobile Learning Unit (MLU) at the University of Melbourne has selected Rimini Manage™ and Rimini Consult™ for Salesforce as its strategy to bring stability and enhancement to its eLearning platform. 'With Rimini Street, we can balance both our internal and external resources in a cost-effective way, ensure the knowledge of our critical in-house skills is retained, and look towards the future of our business.' - Pat Violo, Program Office Manager, MLU Share The MLU is on a mission to make learning accessible, engaging and simplified. Through the successful launch of its eLearning platform, the higher learning institute provides end-to-end learning solutions for education providers, ranging from course creation and instructional design to learning management system (LMS) hosting and learner support. The Salesforce Platform serves as the core system, facilitating seamless student access, case management, and reporting. 'Salesforce is integral to our operations. If it were to go down, it would impact student access to courses and our ability to manage support issues,' said Pat Violo, program office manager at MLU. 'One of our key challenges was retaining a deep Salesforce knowledge base to implement best practices and keep the platform running as efficiently as possible. That's where Rimini Street came in to fill the knowledge and resource gap, and we're excited to take our eLearning capability to new heights through our partnership.' Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce, a Proven Path Towards Innovation Following a rigorous selection process, MLU identified Rimini Solutions™ for Salesforce as the ideal solution due to Rimini Street's extensive and proven history of providing support for mission-critical systems such as Salesforce. A certified Salesforce MSP Partner and Salesforce Consulting Partner, Rimini Street offers organizations managed and professional services for both on-premises and virtual resources. 'While many Salesforce partners specialize in managed services or professional services, our ability to provide both capabilities sets us apart in the industry,' said David Rowe, chief product and marketing officer at Rimini Street. 'Building on the operational efficiency, stability and flexibility we provide our Salesforce clients, we help unlock new potential for their systems, delivering innovation and business transformation needed to remain competitive – all from one trusted source.' 'We spoke with several Salesforce clients and did our own internal assessment of risks and rewards for making the switch to Rimini Street. What we learned was that Rimini Street provides cost-effective, high-quality support which draws on global expertise and a vast resource network, making them a strong partner, well-positioned to support our complex Salesforce environment,' said Violo. 'With our systems stabilized, we'll be engaging Rimini Street to help evolve our offerings, allowing us to sell more of our courses and the full LMS solution,' continued Violo. 'With Rimini Street, we can balance both our internal and external resources in a cost-effective way, ensure the knowledge of our critical in-house skills is retained, and look towards the future of our business.' Learn more about how Rimini Street's services for Salesforce can help your organization achieve stability and growth. About Rimini Street, Inc. Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software. The Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize enterprise application, database, and technology software. The Company has signed thousands of contracts with Fortune Global 100, Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and government organizations who selected Rimini Street as their trusted, proven mission-critical enterprise software solutions provider and achieved better operational outcomes, realized billions of US dollars in savings and funded AI and other innovation investments. To learn more, please visit and connect with Rimini Street on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements included in this communication are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as 'anticipate,' 'believe,' 'continue,' 'could,' 'currently,' 'estimate,' 'expect,' 'forecast,' 'future,' 'intend,' 'may,' 'might,' 'outlook,' 'plan,' 'possible,' 'goal,' 'potential,' 'predict,' 'project,' 'seem,' 'seek,' 'should,' 'will,' 'would' or other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations of future events, future opportunities, global expansion and other growth initiatives and our investments in such initiatives. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street's business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, adverse developments in and costs associated with defending pending litigation or any new litigation, including the disposition of pending motions to appeal and any new claims; any additional expenses to be incurred to comply with any injunction ordered by the courts relating to the Rimini II litigation matter and the impact on future period revenue and costs incurred related to these efforts; changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates, including the impact of any macro-economic trends and changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which we operate and the industries in which our clients operate; the evolution of the enterprise software management and support landscape and our ability to attract and retain clients and further penetrate our client base; significant competition in the software support services industry; customer adoption of our expanded portfolio of products and services and products and services we expect to introduce; our expectations regarding new product offerings, partnerships and alliance programs, including but not limited to our partnership with ServiceNow; our ability to grow our revenue and accurately forecast revenue, along with the results of any efforts to manage costs in light of current revenue expectations and expansion of our offerings; the expected impact of reductions in our workforce during the last and current fiscal year and associated reorganization costs; estimates of our total addressable market and expectations of client savings relative to use of other providers; variability of timing in our sales cycle; risks relating to retention rates, including our ability to accurately predict retention rates; the loss of one or more members of our management team; our ability to attract and retain additional qualified personnel, including sales personnel, and retain key personnel; our business plan, our ability to grow in the future and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability; our plans to wind-down the offering of services for Oracle PeopleSoft products, which may be impacted by pending decisions in the Rimini II litigation; the volatility of our stock price and related compliance with stock exchange requirements; our need and ability to raise equity or debt financing on favorable terms and our ability to generate cash flows from operations to help fund increased investment in our growth initiatives; risks associated with global operations; our ability to prevent unauthorized access to our information technology systems and other cybersecurity threats; any deficiencies associated with generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies potentially used by us or used by our third-party vendors and service providers; our ability to protect the confidential information of our employees and clients and to comply with privacy regulations; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand and intellectual property; changes in laws and regulations, including changes in tax laws or unfavorable outcomes of tax positions we take, tariff costs (including tariff relief or the ability to mitigate tariffs, particularly in light of proposed policies of the new Presidential administration), a failure by us to establish adequate tax reserves, or our ability to realize benefits from our net operating losses; any negative impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters on our reputation or business and the exposure of our business to additional costs or risks from our reporting on such matters; our ability to maintain our good standing with the United States government and international governments and capture new contracts with governmental entities/agencies; our credit facility's ongoing debt service obligations and financial and operational covenants on our business and related interest rate risk, including uncertainty from the transition to SOFR or other interest rate benchmarks; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the amount and timing of repurchases, if any, under our stock repurchase program and our ability to enhance stockholder value through such program; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini Street's equity securities; catastrophic events that disrupt our business or that of our clients; and those discussed under the heading 'Risk Factors' in Rimini Street's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 27, 2025, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street's future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street's assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication. © 2025 Rimini Street, Inc. All rights reserved. 'Rimini Street' is a registered trademark of Rimini Street, Inc. in the United States and other countries, and Rimini Street, the Rimini Street logo, and combinations thereof, and other marks marked by TM are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, and unless otherwise specified, Rimini Street claims no affiliation, endorsement, or association with any such trademark holder or other companies referenced herein.
Tahawul Tech
15-04-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
75% of retailers say AI Agents will be essential to compete
Retailers are feeling pressure as costs mount, customer expectations rise, and technology gets increasingly complex, according to a new report from Salesforce, but AI agents offer a path forward. In fact, three out of four retailers globally believe AI agents, a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that can autonomously take action across business systems, will be vital for beating the competition within a year. Retailers face pressure from all sides Rising customer acquisition costs and mounting returns are squeezing retailers' margins as they also navigate inflation, competition, and consumers' evolving behaviours and preferences. To efficiently serve customers across vast and expanding touchpoints, retailers' top two strategies are AI and unified commerce, a concept Salesforce champions as a way to drive revenue without adding operational costs. 'When retailers connect their sales channels, customer data, and operations in one platform, they create seamless shopping experiences both online and in-store', said Michelle Grant, Director of Retail Strategy and Insights at Salesforce. 'This unified approach boosts productivity and drives growth throughout the business'. Meanwhile, the shopper journey gets increasingly complex Consumers' shifting behaviours lead to increasingly complex shopping journeys. While physical stores remain vital, their purchase share is declining — from 45% in 2024 to a projected 41% by 2026. Digital spending is fragmenting across a constellation of marketplaces, retailer websites, brand sites, and delivery apps, rather than consolidating into a single channel. Retailers see AI agents as a way forward Retailers are deepening their commitment to AI, with 76% saying they're increasing investment over the next year. As adoption continues, customer service emerges as retail's top agent use case. Here, agents automatically respond to inquiries, track orders, and manage returns any time, day or night, so human reps can focus on higher-value interactions. Velia Carboni, CIO of Salesforce customer SharkNinja, described Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform, as 'key to helping us build a community that keeps consumers coming back'. Beyond customer service, retailers anticipate agents to extend across many other tasks and departments — from optimising websites and marketing campaigns to training store associates and managing inventory. 'AI agents represent the next wave of retail AI innovation — digital labour that promises to reshape how retailers scale their workforces, serve and market to customers, and streamline operations', said Grant. AI has huge potential in the Middle East's booming retail sector, led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The UAE retail market is expected to reach a value of $61.89 billion by 2030, up from $44.38 billion in 2024[i], while retail sales in Saudi Arabia are predicted to reach $161.4 billion by 2028[ii]. 'AI, and particularly agentic AI, is set to play an increasingly important role in the region's dynamic and fast-growing retail sector', said Mohammed Alkhotani, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce Middle East. 'With customers becoming ever-more demanding across multiple touch points, it's vital that retailers can refine and utilise their data while also having a full view of their customers across all interactions, and the ability to communicate with them seamlessly. I'm optimistic that agentic AI will empower retailers in the Middle East to compete and thrive while also ensuring the retail sector grows to its full potential in line with national strategies'. Unified commerce boosts AI capabilities AI agents need access to data across retail systems to work effectively. With better, more unified data, agents can provide more personalized and real-time responses. But many retailers' systems together are disconnected, creating challenges for employees and shoppers alike. 81% of retailers say inefficient processes and technology drain store associate productivity. Meanwhile, 49% of shoppers have abandoned purchases due to friction in the ordering process. Fortunately, 86% of retailers have unified commerce initiatives underway. By connecting cross-channel and cross-departmental operations on a single platform, unified commerce improves efficiency and shopper experience — and helps power AI. Shoppers show readiness for the AI era The retail transformation isn't one-sided. Consumers are already exploring AI in their shopping journeys, with 39% of shoppers — and 54% of Gen Z — using AI for product discovery. Gen Z shoppers are 10x more likely than baby boomers to say they frequently use AI this way. For AI agents specifically, shoppers show strong interest in optimising loyalty points, managing returns, and more. Shoppers' #2 agent use case — customer service — aligns with retailers' own priorities. Younger generations are more open to agents taking initiative: 63% of Gen Z shoppers are interested in agents purchasing items on their behalf. For shoppers to embrace AI agents making decisions on their behalf, trust is essential. When asked what would increase their trust in agents, shoppers ranked these factors highest: Data privacy and security protections Ability to easily turn it off/on Require approval before any purchase Transparency over how data is used Available human customer service backup 'The data is clear: retailers and shoppers are both moving toward an AI agent future', said Grant. 'But success depends on addressing both sides of the equation — building the connected technology foundation retailers need while delivering the trust and transparency shoppers demand'. More information: Read the full Connected Shoppers Report Learn more about Salesforce Retail Cloud Image Credit: Salesforce
