Philippine Companies Adopt AI Technology Beyond Proof-of-Concept Stages
Philippine companies are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technology beyond proof-of-concept stages, according to Gavin Barfield, chief technology officer and vice president for solution engineering at Salesforce Asean.
The shift away from experimental projects is driven by businesses demanding AI applications linked to specific performance indicators such as faster case resolution, fewer calls handled by contact center employees, shorter sales cycles, and higher conversion rates.
Barfield cited health maintenance organization Maxicare as a local deployment of Salesforce's Agentforce platform, which checks a member's coverage, remaining benefits, and the cost of proposed treatment before issuing authorization. The process has been reduced from 20 minutes or longer to less than 30 seconds.
Salesforce is pursuing an incremental approach where companies initially deploy an agent for a narrowly defined task, measure the result, and then expand into other applications. Barfield emphasized the need for governance layers to control AI agents' actions, ensure accurate data, and enforce company policies.