Salesforce has just released its Digital Labor Trends Report, highlighting the latest insights from UK C-Suite businesses and how they approach using agentic AI in the workplace.
The results of this report indicate that UK businesses are in a confident position; 78% of leaders reported that their companies are already using AI agents, and 72% of leaders rated their technical infrastructure’s adaptability to AI as good or very good.
The Undeniable Rise of Digital Labor
If Salesforce has made one thing apparent throughout their entire Agentforce campaign, it is that digital labor is the way forward, and there is no denying its impact. The prospect of humans working seamlessly with AI agents or virtual employees is something that the mothership has continuously advocated for, citing it as a “net good for both employers and employees”.
As AI’s capabilities continue to adapt and evolve, it appears that business leaders’ vested interests in the technology are also enjoying similar growth. After an initial period of hesitation that naturally follows a technological breakthrough like this, the data has begun speaking for itself. Now, 84% of CIOs say AI will be as transformative as the internet, and Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff has cited AI as “the most important technology of our lifetime”.
It’s not just the thoughts that have evolved, either – in October last year, Salesforce reported that just 11% of CIOs had fully implemented AI in their businesses. Although not a direct comparison, Salesforce’s latest data illustrates a different scenario, with nearly 80% of C-Suite leaders admitting that their companies are now using AI agents – not just AI.
Why Is the UK Leading the Way With Agentic Adoption?
The UK has now firmly positioned itself as a leader in agentic adoption, and that can be seen in the latest reported statistics. However, adoption is only one part of how the UK has embraced the rise of AI.
This week, the UK’s Prime Minister Kier Starmer announced a new national skills drive to support the development of AI skills, with a commitment to train 7.5 million UK workers in AI by 2030.
Salesforce also announced that it would be supporting the drive directly, and “will work closely with the UK government to increase opportunities and access to AI training across the country.”
Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, spoke out in support of Salesforce, saying that it’s “great to see Salesforce join the effort to equip UK workers with the skills they need to thrive in an AI-powered economy.”
How Do We Fix the Remaining AI Skills Gap?
The UK government’s effort, with Salesforce in support, is a loud and powerful motion of support for the current and future economy and workforce, but it falls short in one key area: Who is this kind of effort actually for?
Although AI is firmly out of its fairly infantile chatbot stage, for many sectors and companies, it is still not a technology that is a firm part of their tech stack or everyday workflows. Of course, this varies quite heavily, but for many companies, AI solutions – especially those using cutting-edge frontier models – are still inaccessible.
For the companies and industries that it is more accessible to, the way companies and worker hierarchies are structured is experiencing the most notable shift in at least a decade. Entry-level positions are being quietly eroded, employee expectations continue to rise, and the question of who will replace mid-to-senior-level professionals once they retire or move on is one that remains unanswered.
An initiative to support the crucial AI skills development that the UK and beyond need is a welcome effort – AI is not going anywhere. However, now is the time to make both the existing and future workforce clear on where they stand – how to enter, how to progress, and what support is available for them.
How Quickly Does Change Need to Happen?
Fortunately, Salesforce has acknowledged the importance of this kind of initiative, with Zahra Bahrololoumi, Salesforce’s UKI CEO, stating: “Every board and business must prepare for this organizational transformation, equipping their people for a workforce that is both human and digital.”
This isn’t a change that needs to happen down the line either – the timeline is critical. Salesforce’s data shows that nearly one in four workers in the UK will be reassigned to different roles in the near future as a direct result of AI and the changing digital labor landscape. This kind of development needs to have the resources to support the people it will impact most.
It’s something that Ashley Braganza, the Professor of Business Transformation at Brunel University and a lead in the university’s Centre of Artificial Intelligence, says demands more research and understanding.
“How do you prepare people […] for jobs we don’t know about today?” he asked, in reference to AI’s fast-changing development. “I think some insights and research need to start happening [there] – what are those jobs?”
“What are those skills that people are going to need? Not just the people who are going to be in the workforce, either, but the ones who are going to be displaced. They need to have a route back into the workplace.”
Final Thoughts
As agentic adoption in the UK enjoys a promising rise, it poses several questions for Salesforce and the wider technology sector. Is the workforce ready for a half-human, half-agent future? Are the resources there for the right people, at the right time?
This agentic future is very much on the way, and there is no way of stopping it. But knowing how to approach it will be key.
