Ana Alonso, Senior Vice President for Growth Markets at Salesforce
Salesforce has reinforced its commitment to South Africa’s digital future, using its annual World Tour event in Johannesburg to showcase how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way organisations operate. Held at the Kyalami International Convention Centre, the event brought together business leaders, technology experts and partners to explore the next phase of enterprise transformation: the Agentic Enterprise.
Opening the event, Salesforce executives and customers highlighted how AI-powered agents are enabling businesses to combine human expertise with intelligent automation to improve productivity, efficiency and customer experiences. A live demonstration from The Courier Guy showcased agentic AI in action, while discussions focused on overcoming the challenges that continue to cause many AI pilot projects to fail.
Salesforce expands AWS marketplace availability
A major announcement from the event was the availability of Salesforce products on AWS Marketplace in South Africa. The move gives local organisations easier access to Salesforce technologies, including Agentforce, Data Cloud 360, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Slack and Tableau.
According to Salesforce, the expansion strengthens its collaboration with AWS and provides businesses with trusted platforms to support their digital transformation journeys. Globally, Salesforce has surpassed $5 billion in lifetime sales through AWS Marketplace, highlighting growing demand for its cloud and AI solutions.
Absa deepens AI collaboration
Salesforce also announced the renewal of its strategic collaboration with Absa, extending the relationship across multiple business units and African markets.
The partnership will focus on technologies such as Agentforce, Data Cloud and Loyalty Cloud, supporting Absa’s ambitions around AI-driven customer experiences and real-time insights.
As part of the collaboration, Absa has become the first bank in Africa to deploy Salesforce Agentforce. The bank’s AI-powered assistant, Abby, is now live on both the Absa Banking App and website, helping customers access information more quickly. On the Absa Business Banking platform, Abby can assist users in all 11 official South African languages.
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South Africa’s AI opportunity
During a media roundtable, Salesforce leaders described South Africa as a key growth market and an important part of the company’s long-term strategy for Africa.
Newly appointed Senior Vice President for Growth Markets, Ana Alonso, emphasised the potential for AI to help African organisations leapfrog traditional barriers to growth while improving customer service and competitiveness.
Salesforce Country Manager for Africa, Linda Saunders, compared today’s AI revolution to the early days of the internet, warning that organisations that delay AI adoption risk being left behind. She stressed that education and trust remain critical to helping businesses move from experimentation to implementation.
Investing in skills for the future
Beyond technology, Salesforce highlighted the importance of workforce development in ensuring that AI delivers broad economic benefits. With youth unemployment remaining a significant challenge in South Africa, the company is expanding programmes aimed at digital skills development and career readiness.
Through initiatives such as Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, the company has already helped produce more than 3,200 certified alumni across eight African countries. Additional programmes supporting students, rural communities and digital skills training form part of Salesforce’s broader mission to ensure that the benefits of AI are accessible to everyone.
As businesses increasingly embrace AI-driven transformation, Salesforce believes South Africa is at a pivotal moment—one where the combination of technology, skills development and trusted partnerships could help shape a more competitive and inclusive digital economy.
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