AI providers need to show enterprise customers the value of the products, not just tell them, says Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and principal analyst at Valoir.

Virginia

Enterprise customers are increasingly interested in adopting artificial intelligence, but many remain cautious after early experiments failed to deliver significant results. Trusted partnerships with established vendors, such as Salesforce, are seen as important for companies seeking to implement AI solutions that provide real business value. 

Despite growing interest, fewer than 20 percent of companies have formal policies on AI use, and less than 10 percent offer training or reskilling for employees to adapt to AI-driven changes. Vendors that can demonstrate actual customer success stories are more likely to gain traction, with Salesforce highlighted as a leader in guiding clients through effective AI adoption.

Convincing enterprise customers to invest in AI

So what's your read on Dreamforce and Agent Force. Is it being adopted. Hey Caroline. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. So I'm here in San Francisco at Dreamforce and I will tell you that there's a lot of talk about the agenda enterprise and what that means for customers. And what we saw yesterday was exactly what with all due respect to Brody we're talking about the need to show real customer adoption with real recognizable brands talking about real business results. And I think what we've seen with A.I. is we went from sort of fear of missing out in the beginning to what we're calling FOMO the fear of messing up. Now customers are really concerned because they experimented on those big projects that you talked about that didn't necessarily yield results. And so are they more willing to experiment with a known trusted partner that's already part of their overall spend from an internal software basis. Or are they more willing to go out on a limb and try the new recruits that are coming in in terms of startups. Well we definitely heard from Salesforce customers yesterday was that trusted partner is really important. But I think we're probably seeing the biggest innovators dilemma that we've ever seen in tech. Salesforce knows. And when I was talking to Mark about this yesterday we talked about it. They have to bring all of those customers along which means not just innovating and driving the latest and greatest in technology but really providing those safety nets providing that guidance providing those examples of customers like them who've achieved real business success with A.I. What customers can you brag about that are making that sort of leap. Well I've I've talked to probably 20 or 30 agent force customers from small to large organizations across multiple verticals that have really achieved success today. The poster children yesterday were folks like Pepsi Williams and Sonoma Pandora Dell. So really across both consumer brands and more more tech brands would you say really focused on how they're delivering success today. Compare and contrast what you've learned at some of the other big bring together moments that we've had. You've been over an essay piece. You've also been an Oracle's A.I. world. Is that service now reality that they're vindicating the overall market capitalization in these companies and the A.I. bubble narrative that's brewing. You know I think that the challenge is customers don't want to be educated. They want to be successful. And those vendors that are really able to show and not tell how their customers are achieving a success today are ultimately going to be the ones that win. Can I can I ask a little bit about what your view is from the network that you're doing with customers with people as to whether too much money is being thrown at this for the amount of productivity gains we're getting in the here and now. You know I think we've seen a lot of folks sort of dip their toe in the pool and get incremental results. They really need to be comfortable diving in to get those kind of exponential benefits that we're talking about. And most folks simply aren't there yet. So how are they getting that. Well it's it's like I talked with Mark about yesterday. The vendors have to bring customers along and that's not about delivering the latest innovation which is important. It's about providing those baby steps to help them get there to help them understand what the payback is to help them understand what the business case is to help them focus their efforts not on that shiny A.I. object but on the one that's likely to deliver the most real value for their organization. Rebecca is an organization doing enough wholesale change in terms of interlacing human resources people management with the CTO and the technical side of the business to actually implement this right now. Well no Caroline the short answer is no. I mean we see fewer than 20 percent of companies have a policy on the use of A.I. today and fewer than 10 percent have training and reskilling in place not just to train people on how to use A.I. effectively but how to train them for what their future job is going to look like. And that's going to keep be a key part of this moving forward too. Is there a standout company that you think is been taking its clients along and helping them educate at the pace you think is necessary. Who's doing the best job today. Yeah. Again if we go back to the narrative that you have to show them not tell not tell them in terms of being able to show actual customers receiving results with the genetic A.I. today. Salesforce is way out ahead.

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