There’s no scarcity of hype round AI brokers proper now. Each device guarantees clever automation. Each headline hints at totally autonomous techniques. However as IT groups weigh the chance, you’ve in all probability been requested: “Can we use an agent for this?”
However behind that query is a greater one: “Ought to we?”
Not each workflow advantages from AI automation. And never each agent delivers significant ROI. The perfect IT groups know that automation isn’t about chasing developments — it’s about selecting the best device for the job, understanding the way it suits into your stack, and realizing the place the dangers are.
Let’s speak about tips on how to strategy agentic automation with an IT mindset: intentional, systems-aware, and centered on constructing issues that work.
The price of over-automating
Within the rush to show AI worth, some IT groups are automating by default — launching brokers into processes with unclear possession, shifting guidelines, or edge instances that rely closely on human judgment. The outcome?
- Brokers making selections with no context
- Workflows breaking when situations or inputs shift
- Groups shedding visibility into how techniques behave
These aren’t implementation bugs, they’re what occurs when automation outpaces structure. And when that’s true, deploying an agent may very well introduce threat as a substitute of decreasing it.
Over-automation creates brittle logic, introduces compliance threat, undermines belief within the platform, and introduces efficiency points, leading to larger working prices. You don’t need brokers managing workflows that also rely closely on human judgment, messy exceptions, or evolving enterprise guidelines.
DevSecOps accomplished proper
Bridge the hole between new instruments and abilities to construct safe AI brokers and apps. Uncover tips on how to craft a considerate DevSecOps technique in our information.
Methods to inform if a workflow is prepared for an AI agent
So how have you learnt when an agent is smart? Usually, good candidates for agentic automation are:
- Rule-based: Clear determination logic with predictable outcomes
- Excessive-volume: Sufficient scale to justify automation overhead
- Low-risk: Errors are recoverable or well-contained
- Information-stable: Underlying construction doesn’t change each dash
Assume: lead routing, case triage, inside entry requests. These are the sorts of repetitive duties and achievable use instances the place clever brokers meaningfully cut back handbook load with out sacrificing oversight.
Check first. Then automate.
Automation that’s exhausting to check is automation that’s exhausting to belief. Earlier than trusting AI brokers to automate vital workflows, rigorous testing with Salesforce DevOps Testing is important. DevOps Testing helps integration with quite a lot of take a look at suppliers, providing you with the pliability to validate workflows utilizing your most popular instruments. It additionally integrates with Agentforce Testing Heart to assist guarantee brokers behave reliably throughout eventualities.
That’s why DevOps Heart brings change monitoring, model management, automated testing, and automatic deployment right into a platform-native expertise so groups can iterate with confidence, not chaos.
And by “shifting left” — conducting thorough testing early within the growth course of — you’ll be able to determine and resolve points earlier than they influence customers or require expensive rework, finally bettering effectivity and confidence in your deployments. Each automated stream, agent, or integration needs to be verified with:
- Safe sandbox environments to simulate actual eventualities
- Information masking and seeding to guard PII throughout testing
- Repeatable take a look at instances that validate outcomes at scale
Don’t neglect scalability and peak masses
Past performance, scalability is paramount. How nicely does your agent carry out when dealing with 10,000 requests per second?
Be sure your brokers can deal with sudden spikes in exercise, particularly throughout peak gross sales occasions or main product launches, by totally testing their efficiency underneath simulated real-world situations. Don’t let peak visitors derail your buyer expertise — get in entrance of it.
Salesforce Scale Check is constructed for this. Testing isn’t nearly confirming code works — it’s about proving it scales. Scale Check enhances current Full Copy Sandboxes, permitting you to simulate peak masses in a production-like setting. By incorporating Scale Check into your growth course of, you straight deal with real-world efficiency and scalability issues.
IT nonetheless owns automation – even when brokers are concerned
At the same time as automation turns into extra clever, the position of IT doesn’t shrink — it shifts. Your staff nonetheless defines:
- The logic and enterprise guidelines
- What knowledge brokers can entry
- Fallbacks and exception dealing with
- Monitoring, controls, and audits
The perfect groups begin by mapping the method, not writing prompts. And as brokers change into extra accessible by way of low-code instruments and API orchestration, IT’s position as architect of conduct, security, and scale turns into much more vital.
IT doesn’t simply help automation, it leads it
By rigorously testing your Agentforce functions and performing on efficiency insights, you’re not solely bettering effectivity and decreasing downtime; you’re setting the stage for vital price financial savings, a greater backside line, and elevated buyer lifetime worth.
That is what means that you can take a look at and see the dimensions you’ve ready for: cut back handbook labor, streamline automation, forestall downtime, and put together for profitable launches of latest deployments.
AI brokers are highly effective. However like every device, the worth doesn’t come from novelty — it comes from match. Earlier than launching one into your workflow, ask:
- Is that this course of repeatable and nicely understood?
- Are the dangers clear, and are mitigations in place?
- Can we take a look at, monitor, and regulate as wanted?
If the reply is sure, automation is smart. If not, the higher transfer is to step again, map the method, and deal with the core inefficiencies first. AI brokers don’t construct nice techniques. Nice techniques make sensible use of brokers. And that begins on the Salesforce Platform: the place IT drives the technique, not simply the execution.
Have questions on tips on how to scale your AI brokers + apps efficiently?
Take a look at our one-stop store for assets to information you thru all issues Salesforce and scalability.
