AI and skills are the two forces that will, in tandem, determine the future of business in Africa — but one without the other will fail, according to software group Salesforce.
The company introduced its agentic (capable of independent action) AI platform, Agentforce, as a new model for digital labour at an event in Johannesburg this week.
These autonomous agents, capable of executing real tasks across departments, are embedded into the Salesforce ecosystem and are already in use by customers worldwide.
The company’s South African leadership made it clear that the success of this technology does not hinge on the software, but on the readiness of people to use it. That means addressing the continent’s most critical bottleneck: digital skills.
“Agentforce is not about replacing humans,” said Linda Saunders, country manager and head of solution engineering for Salesforce in Africa.
“It’s about removing the friction in everyday work. It’s often about answering the same internal HR questions repeatedly or processing routine service requests. Agents can handle that, freeing up people to do meaningful work.”
Robin Fisher, senior area vice-president for Salesforce emerging markets, said: “Autonomous agents are already in play. This is not future tech. But you can’t deploy intelligence into an organisation that doesn’t know how to interpret or apply it. The agentic era needs a workforce that can collaborate with AI, not compete against it.”
That collaboration is already under way. Salesforce now offers all users free access to build and test agents through its Trailhead learning platform. In the past six months, more than 600 South Africans have earned Agentforce certifications.
This is not future tech. But you can’t deploy intelligence into an organisation that doesn’t know how to interpret or apply it
— Robin Fisher, senior area vice-president for Salesforce emerging markets
However, technology adoption alone won’t move the needle. The bigger challenge is overcoming entrenched hiring practices and misaligned training systems.
Ursula Fear, Salesforce’s senior talent programme manager for Africa, is building an alternative model.
“Everyone’s invited,” she told Business Times in an exclusive interview. “You need internet access, a device, and a Gmail account. That’s it. From there, you can build the skills, earn the credentials, and move directly into employment pipelines we’re co-developing with industry.”
She told the story of an Uber driver who completed Salesforce training and is now working in tech, having restarted his life. A military dentist who came into the ecosystem anonymously is now thriving as a certified consultant and has bought a house. A team of rural schoolchildren built and deployed Salesforce solutions for a sausage factory.
The foundation for such outcomes is a series of partnerships across Africa with workforce development organisations such as ALX, Collective X and regional universities. And yet the formal system lags.
“The qualification framework in South Africa has a five-year shelf life,” said Fear. “Salesforce releases new updates every four months. The worlds of academia and enterprise are not aligned. They are missing each other completely. We have money for skills. But the engine that funds them is geared for the past.”
The issue goes beyond education. “Companies still ask if a course aligns with a qualification. They don’t ask if a person can do the job.”
That’s beginning to change. Salesforce is working with banks, including Absa, on rural intervention programmes that train people in underserved communities and bring them into live projects with real clients. In some cases, trainees are placed into nonprofits to gain work-integrated experience before being moved into commercial roles.
Fear’s approach is based on localisation: building communities of practice and learning hubs in cities, universities and even tier-three towns. “I want to see digital hubs in every rural area. I want kids to attend World of Work camps in school holidays and leave with a sense of what this economy needs and how they can plug in. Awareness starts early, and access starts now.”
That vision is mirrored in the global impact Salesforce is projecting. The company expects to generate $1.6-trillion (R28-trillion) in new business revenue and create 9.3-million new jobs globally by 2026. In South Africa, 33,000 jobs are forecast to be created by 2028 through the Salesforce ecosystem.
• Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx
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