Multi-agent AI to boost productivity — Salesforce
By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz and Edg Adrian A. Eva, Reporters
PHILIPPINE COMPANIES should adopt multi-agent artificial intelligence (AI) systems to boost productivity and create new jobs as workflows become more agent-driven, according to US-based software company Salesforce.
“There’s tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs in the Philippines and everywhere to use this technology to think about how new jobs and new activities that we’ve never thought of can be created,” Mick Costigan, vice-president of the futures team at Salesforce, said in a video interview.
Multi-agent systems are multiple AI systems working together to perform tasks on behalf of a user or system.
“Since December, we’ve seen a really fast pace of improvement in the models underlying this,” Mr. Costigan said. “I think by next year you’ll start to see this type of agent being [used more ].”
He cited Zurich-based recruitment company Adecco, which uses multi-agent systems to process resumes and match applicants with job opportunities.
“Quite a lot of the customers that we work with are actually finding these agents useful for doing a lot of that long tail of work that wasn’t done before,” he said.
About 89% of Philippine leaders said they’re confident in using agents as digital team members to expand their workforce capacity in the next 12 to 18 months, tech giant Microsoft said in its 2025 Work Trends Index report.
As AI agents become more proactive decision-makers, Mr. Costigan cited the emergence of a new leadership role — the agent-in-chief — which is an AI-powered system that serves as an executive assistant.
“Think about the agent-in-chief as a chief-of-staff that is helping organize more complex things, and part of that is interfacing with lots of other specialized agents that are taking on tasks for them,” he said.
As more companies shift to an agent-driven workflow, Mr. Costigan cited the importance of human judgment trusting agent systems.
“We’re going to learn, over the next years, where human judgments really matter in all these different processes, and how we keep human judgment in the process even as we’re shifting a lot of the workflow to agents,” he added.
‘AI THIRD WAVE’
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) could also use the autonomous capabilities of agentic AI to enhance customer service and boost sales.
“This technology should be available even to a small bakery with just five staff members — one that might want an AI agent to handle birthday cake orders,” Galvin Barfield, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Solutions at Salesforce ASEAN, told reporters in Manila last week.
It could also be used by a small hardware store with only five workers to check inventory online, he added.
“Customer service is the first use case, I mean, that’s the obvious one,” Mr. Barfield said. “The second one is around sales, such as business development reps.”
He said agentic AI, like Salesforce’s AgentForce, represents the third wave of artificial intelligence.
He added that it is one step ahead of the previous wave — co-pilot — because it could autonomously perform tasks, make decisions and act without waiting for human prompts.
MSMEs in the retail sector can assign tasks to an agentic AI, such as answering customer inquiries, processing orders and refunds or using insights from Customer 360, a unified platform that provides a complete view of each customer.
Mr. Barfield said the tech augments human workers by letting them focus on complex tasks while AI handles basic and repetitive ones, resulting in shorter waiting times and increased business productivity.
“There are opportunities for customers and companies to reimagine where they use humans and where they use autonomous agents, and to move humans into higher-value tasks,” he added.
A report by global tech advisory firm Access Partnership estimates that the Philippines could gain as much as P2.8 trillion in economic benefits from AI adoption.
Key sectors expected to benefit significantly include professional services, particularly the information technology and business process management industry, as well as retail, manufacturing and financial services.
However, Filipino MSMEs face challenges in adopting AI due to limitations in infrastructure, awareness and funding, according to a 2025 report by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
Mr. Barfield said both MSMEs and large companies could have equal access to Salesforce’s AI tools, such as AgentForce, which gives them the same opportunities regardless of business size or spending.
“We democratized access to software,” he said. “Salesforce was born to support small and medium enterprises, giving them access to enterprise technology without having to invest millions of dollars like large companies.”
“And we’re doing the same for AI — it’s exactly the same approach,” he added.
