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đ€ Inside Agentic AI
Salesforceâs Big Bet on AI; Why Agentic AI Is the Future of Work, Not a Threat; and How Digital Co-Workers Are Already Driving ROI in Financial Services

Hey, fintech fam! đ
After a whirlwind week of fintech events, Iâm running on fumes and adrenaline. I always say showing up in person mattersâand this past week proved it again.
The access, the insights, the conversations you canât get anywhere else? That fuels everything I bring back to you here and on LinkedIn.
As a journalist, my edge has always been about getting into the rooms where decisions are being madeâand bringing you with me.
Now, companies like Salesforce are partnering with me to make that access even deeper, the insights sharper, and the content more actionable for you.
Today, Iâm breaking down one big news story and two exclusive interviews from Salesforceâs Agentforce World Tour in NYC, where I spent the day building with agentic AI and interviewing the execs shaping its future.
Because weâre not here to sit on the sidelines of this tech shift. Weâre here to lead it.
Letâs get into it.
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Whatâs Up In Fintech
Every Thursday, I bring you the latest fintech news and trends, delivering the key insights that matter most to the industryâand you.
#1 Inside Agentforce: Salesforce Bets Big on Agentic AI in Financial Services

Agentic AI today feels like the internet in 1995âthatâs the sentiment Iâve been hearing repeatedly from top fintech and tech execs.
Itâs about reimagining the very structure of our work, and Salesforce just staked a bold claim in its future with the launch of Agentforce for Financial Services, the company announced on Wednesday.
Zooming out, the stakes are massive. McKinsey estimates Agentic AI could unlock $4.4 trillion in economic value every year. Salesforce hasn't disclosed exact investment figures for Agentforce, but its high-profile debut and heavy executive alignment make clear: theyâre betting big on this paradigm shift.
On Wednesday, I had a front-row seat at Salesforceâs Agentforce World Tour in New York Cityâan event that surfaced a much bigger question for fintech: What happens when AI stops operating behind the scenes and starts working alongside us?
Why Nowâand Why It Matters
The timing couldnât be more urgent. The financial services industry is grappling with a talent crisis. Nearly 50% of the current insurance workforce is expected to retire in the next 15 years. If productivity levels remain unchanged, the U.S. will face a shortfall of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034.
Meanwhile, customer expectations are risingâand unmet. According to Salesforceâs Connected Financial Services 2025 report, only 21% of consumers are fully satisfied with the personalization they receive from their financial providers. Another 35% say they feel treated like a number.
Agentforce is designed to close that gap. With role-specific agents like the Digital Loan Officer and Financial Advisor Assistant, firms can deliver more personalized, timely, and consistent service. In theory, this shift could make firms more competitive and customer-centricâwithout ballooning costs.
Digital Coworkers, Not Replacements
Agentforce introduces pre-built, role-based AI agents that operate within Salesforceâs Financial Services Cloudâdesigned not to replace financial professionals, but to support them by offloading admin-heavy tasks.
The platform focuses on three core functions: helping advisors prep and follow up on client meetings, automating routine service tasks in banking and insurance, and guiding borrowers through loan discovery. All actions are backed by built-in compliance tools, maintaining audit trails and regulatory guardrails.
But the launch also raises key questions: Can AI earn trust in a relationship-driven industry? And what will it take to deploy digital labor at scaleâwithout compromising personalization or compliance?
Real-World Impact
Early adopters are already seeing value. Nexo reported freeing up 400 hours in Q1, increasing chat deflection by 20%. CaixaBank expects faster, more accurate responses across its 20.3 million customers. And firms like Cumberland Mutual and Absa say Agentforce is driving measurable improvements in claims, procurement, and fraud management.
Still, adoption isnât just about features. Itâs about trust. As Salesforceâs Eran Agrios, SVP and GM, Financial Services noted, âAI shouldnât replace the human connectionâit should scale it.â
What It Means for Fintech Leaders
For fintech founders and CIOs, Agentforce is a signalânot just of Salesforceâs roadmap, but of where the industry is heading. The question is no longer if agentic AI will become part of your operations, but how youâll deploy it in a way that enhancesânot underminesâyour brand.
Agentforce may be Salesforceâs play, but it sets a precedent for what fintech and financial services companies should expect from enterprise AI:
No-code deployment that moves fast
Built-in compliance to satisfy regulators
Real ROI on automationânot just hype
The Bottom Line
Agentforce showcases a blueprint for the next evolution of work in financial services. And as economic pressure mounts and customer expectations skyrocket, firms will need to rethink how they deliver high-touch, high-trust service at scale.
If agentic AI can do thatâwithout losing the human touchâit could become one of the most important shifts in fintechâs next chapter.
The $4.4 trillion question: Whoâs ready to lead it?
#2 How Agentic AI Is the Future of Work, Not a Threat to It
Sanjna Parulekar, SVP of Agentforce Product Marketing, Salesforce
At Salesforceâs Agentforce World Tour in New York City, the key learnings were also about a mindset shift. The kind that reframes fear into opportunity and complexity into utility.
Leading that conversation was Sanjna Parulekar, SVP of Agentforce Product Marketing at Salesforce, who offered a clear-eyed vision that digital labor isnât about replacing humans. Itâs about removing the grind, so people can finally get back to doing their best work.
âDigital labor sounds scary,â Parulekar acknowledged. âBut think about your dayâhow much of it is spent actually creating versus just prepping, documenting, or repeating tasks? Agentforce is here to extend your team, not shrink it.â
Augmentation, Not Automation
That distinction is critical. Parulekar isnât selling fear. Sheâs reframing AI not as a harbinger of job loss, but as a tool that gives stretched teams breathing room.
Her own marketing team is proof of concept. âNo oneâs giving me 500 extra headcount,â she said. âBut that doesnât mean our job to support sales is any less important. So we built an internal Agentforce assistant inside Slack that handles repetitive seller questions.â
Thatâs the promise of agentic AI: giving teams access to digital workers who can support the business in ways that would be cost-prohibitiveâor simply impossibleâwith headcount alone.
Solving the Trust Gap
Still, Salesforce isnât naive to the skepticism. AI is at a cultural inflection point. According to Parulekar, what makes today different from the predictive AI wave of years past isnât just marketing hypeâitâs infrastructure. âWe didnât have the compute power. We didnât have LLMs at this scale. Now we do.â
But technology alone doesnât build trust. Parulekar sees Salesforceâs edge in the ability to make AI usable and approachable across the org chart.
âWhen customers come to us, theyâre not saying, âI want AI,ââ she explained. âTheyâre saying, âI want to boost sales productivity,â or âI want to reduce support wait times.â Our job is to translate generative and agentic AI into answers for those business problems.â
This translation hinges on one thing: data. Salesforceâs strategy is to bake agentic AI directly into the workflows and compliance controls of Financial Services Cloud. The agents arenât generic botsâtheyâre embedded digital coworkers that follow firm-specific rules, policies, and goals.
A Future Every Department Can Touch
Crucially, agentic AI isnât confined to the IT department. âMy events lead is talking about agents she wants to build,â Parulekar said. âShe saw what was possible from the event, and now she wants to execute. And she canâbecause itâs low-code. Thatâs the difference.â
Itâs a subtle but powerful shift: moving AI from centralized experimentation to department-level implementation. And itâs working.
âSalesforce has the opportunity to not just keep AI in IT,â Parulekar added, âbut to activate it across the business.â
The Bottom Line
The takeaway from Parulekar is clear: this isnât about science fiction. Itâs about giving real people the space to solve real problems faster, better, and with more creativity.
âIn a world where trust, transparency, and speed matter more than ever,â she said, âagentic AI isnât replacing human talentâitâs amplifying it.â
#3 The Digital Co-Worker Has Arrived: How Agentic AI Is Delivering Real ROI in Financial Services

Finally, letâs get into execution. Specifically, how banks, wealth managers, and insurance providers are already deploying Agentic AI to drive real results across productivity, efficiency, and growth.
Greg Jacobi, VP & GM of Lending and Banking at Salesforce, cut through the hype with a grounded perspective: Agentic AI isnât a far-off concept. Itâs here. Itâs working. And itâs redefining what it means to build capacity in financial services.
âWeâve launched Agentforce for Financial Services with a set of pre-built, role-based templates,â Jacobi told me during an exclusive interview. âYou can quickly spin up an AI agentâwhether itâs for customer service or supporting a financial advisorâand get immediate utility.â
From Hours to Minutes: Where AI Is Already Delivering ROI
For Jacobi, the real promise of Agentic AI lies in freeing human talent from low-value work.
âMeeting prep is a great example,â he explained. âA moderately complex client relationship can take hours to prep forâjust to gather data, check portfolios, and pull insights. Weâve helped customers take that time down from 90 minutes to under 10.â
In other words, Agentic AI isnât theoretical efficiencyâitâs measurable time savings, repurposed into deeper client engagement.
Itâs also enabling faster onboarding for junior advisors.
âImagine someone earlier in their career having access to a digital co-worker who ensures theyâre staying within investment guidelines, preparing effectively, and building trust quickly,â Jacobi said. âThatâs not just productivityâitâs a confidence accelerator.â
Solving the Industryâs Talent Crisis
As I shared above, the timing couldnât be more critical. According to Salesforce, if the current trajectory continues, the U.S. will face a shortfall of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034. At the same time, customer demand for more personalized, responsive financial service is rising rapidly.
âWe need to make these jobs more scalableâand frankly, more attractive,â Jacobi said. âAgents help solve that. They take the grunt work off advisorsâ plates, giving them more time to focus on what they love: working with clients.â
That kind of support model repositions Agentic AI not as a job killer, but as a force multiplier.
âIf youâre a financial advisor, imagine if you had the budget to hire five people to support your book of business. What roles would you fill?â Jacobi asked. âThatâs how we think about Agentforceâgiving you a digital team that helps you operate at a higher level.â
Why Digital Labor Is A Strategy
Jacobi doesnât shy away from the disruption AI will bring. But he challenges the common fear narrative. âThereâs massive productivity potential here. Yes, it will change how we work. But it wonât eliminate the need for human talentâit will elevate it.â
In a post-pandemic world where financial advisors are expected to be more than stock pickersâplaying roles as life coaches, strategic planners, and wellness guidesâthe need for human empathy, nuance, and insight is greater than ever.
âDigital labor lets humans focus on what only humans can do,â Jacobi said.
What Fintech Leaders Should Be Paying Attention To
The implications for fintech leaders are clear:
AI isnât optional: Itâs quickly becoming the backbone of modern client engagement.
ROI is already happening: The shift from pilot programs to full deployment is well underway.
Scalability matters: As the advisor gap grows, firms that embrace AI will have a serious head start in serving more clients without ballooning costs.
The Bottom Line
In an industry built on trust and relationships, itâs easy to assume that AI would be a threat. But as Jacobi makes clear, itâs just the opposite: âAgentic AI gives us the tools to serve better, scale faster, and stay human in the process.â
At a time when the financial services workforce is aging, and client expectations are accelerating, that might be the most important ROI of all.
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JUNE 11-12
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That wraps up todayâs editionâthanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!
Love,
Nicole đ