IMAGE: Salesforce
Good news for people who embrace digital transformation for the workforce; you are not alone. A 2025 Salesforce research reveals that digital labour adoption—what it calls a digital workforce of intelligent AI agents augments your human workforce, and transforms the way work gets done, i.e. agentic AI—is expected to jump 450 per cent over the next two years. This is expected to boost employee productivity by 37 per cent. The findings reveal that CHROs expect to redeploy 21 per cent of their workforce as their organisations implement and embrace digital labour.
We are beginning to see the impact of such a move, as evidenced by Microsoft’s recent move to reduce about 3 per cent of its entire workforce globally.
The Salesforce study also showed that more than four in five HR leaders in APAC already, or plan to, reskill employees to be more competitive in a market shaped by AI agents. They agree that soft skills—like relationship building and collaboration—will be even more critical as humans work alongside agents.
Nicholas Lee, chair at industry association SGTech, said, “The rapid rise of agentic AI, as highlighted by Salesforce, marks a turning point for Singapore. It offers a powerful opportunity to address our labour constraints and boost productivity. …[u]ltimately, we want to ensure AI empowers our workforce and propels Singapore’s digital future.”
To support this workforce transformation in ASEAN, Salesforce announced plans to train 7,500 Agentblazer Champions in 2025. Earlier this year, Salesforce pledged US$1 billion over five years to back Singapore’s digital ambitions under the National AI Strategy 2.0. The investment aims to accelerate local adoption of Agentforce, equipping Singapore firms with a limitless digital workforce to unlock new levels of productivity, innovation and growth.
Grab, a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, is reaping the benefits of being early with agentic AI. Rene Hefner, region head of sales enablement at Grab, says that the tool helped its network of sellers navigate the Grab solution maze, master conversation with prospective customers; and helps sellers be more efficient and focused on high-value work.
IMAGE: Salesforce
“Using tools like Jarvis AI and Agentforce Core AI, for example, our sellers are coached on how to sell solutions instead of just responding to queries on products. Additionally, Agentforce Sales Coach trains them on how to present to C-suite customers across our offerings, filling in product knowledge gaps, and finally, AI automation lets them focus on high value work that makes them successful at their core jobs – selling.”
Hefner notes that Grab sellers today save over 10,000 hours monthly, are able to create business reports in 15 minutes from 6 hours previously, and can hold elevated sales conversations with customers that lead to better outcomes.
Sujith Abraham, senior vice president and general manager for ASEAN at Salesforce, notes that “the rise of agentic AI represents a pivotal moment for ASEAN businesses, offering not just efficiency gains but a fundamental reimagining of organisational capacity.”
To that end, Abraham claims that Agentforce offers a unified platform for enterprises to unlock a new labour model, allowing businesses to boost productivity, reduce costs, and drive new levels of innovation and growth.
Key APAC findings include:
