What Is a Digital Worker?

Every day at work, you and your team handle countless routine tasks—processing invoices, responding to customer enquiries, updating records. Each of these are essential, but they take time away from strategic, high-value work. What if they could handle themselves? That’s exactly what a digital worker does.

Digital workers, which are powered by artificial intelligence (AI), act like virtual employees by handling repetitive processes with speed and accuracy. In this guide, you’ll learn how the digital workforce operates, its biggest benefits, where it fits into different industries, and what to consider before implementing it.

What we’ll cover:

• Digital worker, defined
• Understanding how digital workers operate
• Benefits of employing digital workers in business
• Digital workers vs. traditional automation
• Top use cases for digital workers
• Challenges surrounding digital workers
• How businesses implement digital workers

A digital worker is an AI software application that mimics human capabilities and handles complex tasks. They are AI agents that function as virtual employees and can perform various roles that previously could only be accomplished by human workers.

Digital workers perform digital labor, which is a catch-all term for work facilitated by digital technologies. That encompasses everything from automating routine tasks to creating user-generated content on digital platforms.

These sophisticated systems of digital workers — also known as digital employees or digital colleagues — can analyze data, make decisions, and even interact with customers, augmenting the capabilities of the human workforce. The rise of digital workers has created a hybrid workforce where human employees and AI-driven systems collaborate seamlessly.

You’ve probably used automation tools before — maybe to schedule emails, generate reports, or process invoices. Digital workers take automation to the next level. Instead of following the same fixed steps every time, they use agentic AI, machine learning, and RPA (robotic process automation) to analyse data and adapt to new information.

Digital workers are far more flexible than traditional chatbots, acros, or automations because they don’t follow rigid scripts. These autonomous agents can adapt, make data-driven decisions, and even work alongside you as a digital colleague to improve efficiency. Rather than replacing your team, digital employees take on repetitive, time-consuming tasks that free human employees to turn their attention to high-impact work like strategy, creativity and problem-solving.

Work moves faster when repetitive tasks don’t slow employees down. Adding AI agents to your digital workforce keeps processes running smoothly with, among many other benefits. Here are a few.

Manual processes take time and add unnecessary expenses. Whether it’s processing invoices or managing payroll, these tasks can create bottlenecks. A digital colleague completes them instantly, keeping workflows moving.

High-volume data tasks leave room for mistakes, even from the most experienced employees. Digital workers follow precise instructions, ensuring accuracy in areas like financial reporting, compliance checks and auditing. That consistency improves decision-making and reduces costly errors.

Employees do their best work when they’re focused on meaningful projects. Digital labor can take over the tedious, repetitive tasks so your team can shift attention to strategy, innovation, and customer interactions. That shift leads to a better work experience and less burnout — as well as happier customers.

Scaling operations often means hiring more staff, which isn’t always practical or quick. Digital employees adjust to business demands to manage increased workloads without additional overhead. Whether you’re expanding into new markets, handling seasonal spikes, or improving service response times, they help businesses grow without slowing down.

Not all automation works the same way. Traditional tools follow strict, rule-based instructions, while digital workers bring a new level of intelligence and adaptability that help humans and agents work together in new ways.

Basic automation tools rely on pre-programmed rules. They perform repetitive tasks the same way every time, which tends to work well for structured, predictable workflows. However, if a process requires adaptation, like responding to unexpected data inputs, traditional automation quickly reaches its limits.

A digital worker doesn’t just follow a script. It uses AI and machine learning to recognize patterns, adjust tasks dynamically, and even refine its approach over time. That flexibility makes it ideal for processes that involve decision-making, unstructured data, or variable conditions.

Want to try it for yourself? You can interact with Agentforce — Salesforce’s digital worker — located in the chatbox at the bottom of this page.

Automation shouldn’t replace employees — it should support them. Digital colleagues integrate into existing workflows, handling time-consuming tasks so your team can focus on higher-level work. By using agentic systems, businesses can combine AI-powered digital workers with human expertise to deliver faster, more personalised customer service. In customer service, for example, an AI agent can process routine inquiries while human agents step in for complex cases.

Unlike traditional bots, which only execute commands, digital workers evaluate data in actual time to make informed decisions. In finance, they can detect anomalies in transactions. In compliance, they make sure reports align with regulations. In IT, they identify security threats and trigger automated responses. By working with real-time information, digital workers help businesses react faster and with greater accuracy.

Digital workers fit into almost any industry, helping with both better accuracy and growth. Here’s what that can look like across different fields.

Digital workers are always available, which means they can interact with customers at any time to nurture inbound leads, handle objections, or book meetings for human sales reps. They can also help with outreach at scale, providing personalized and customized messages based on your customer relationship data (CRM) data. Armed with this information, digital employees can reach out to more contacts in a more customized way, than a human could on their own.

These digital colleagues can also lend a hand with sales forecasting by analysing large datasets to uncover patterns and provide accurate sales predictions that help teams compile long-term plans.

Fast response times improve customer satisfaction, which is why digital employees are a great addition to service teams. They can automate email replies and categorize support tickets, ensuring customers get answers quickly.

Platforms like Agentforce can combine AI-driven automation with live agent support, creating a seamless service experience. By handling routine inquiries, these agents allow human agents to focus on complex issues.

When it comes to marketing, digital workers can do more than just take over repetitive tasks. They can build campaigns by generating briefs, segmenting audiences, and generating customized messaging.

Then, once the campaign a live, they can continue to provide value by keeping tabs on progress, and optimizing based on performance and KPIs.

Digital workers can are great at helping shoppers find exactly what they need. They can support commerce teams by act as personal shoppers for every customer. They can do that by quickly serving up what a shopper is looking for, then make suggestions about what else may be a good fit, and assisting with search queries. It can all be done in an omnichannel capacity — through your site or on messaging apps — serving customers where and when they want it.

Plus, digital colleagues can provide these services to your buyers, helping them find products, make purchases, and track orders via chat or within sales portals.

While digital workers improve efficiency, they also come with challenges which can be overcome with the right approach. Successfully integrating them into your operations requires the right strategy, technology and planning.

While digital workers can process structured inputs like spreadsheets and databases with ease, unstructured data — like handwritten documents, freeform emails, and PDFs — may cause roadblocks. There’s a simple fix: incorporate deep learning AI capabilities like natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision, which allow digital workers to extract and analyse information from less structured inputs.

A poorly designed digital worker may struggle when workflows change. If automation is too rigid, it can create bottlenecks instead of improving efficiency. Choosing configurable automation solutions that integrate with different platforms means digital workers can adjust as your processes evolve. A flexible approach prevents automation from becoming an obstacle rather than an advantage.

Not every company has enough repetitive work to justify the investment in a digital worker. If automation only handles a handful of tasks, the return on investment (ROI) of agents may not be worth it. Before implementation, conduct a feasibility study to identify high-volume, time-consuming tasks that will benefit most from automation. Here are a few scenarios to consider if you need an AI agent.

Digital workers can be a natural part of your workflow—the key is choosing automation that fits your processes, introducing it in a way that supports employees, and tracking its impact over time.

To start building out your digital workforce, begin by identifying where automation will have the biggest impact, whether it’s in customer service, finance or operations. Make sure employees understand how their digital colleagues will support their work alongside them, not replace them. Once in place, regularly assess digital employee performance and look for new ways to expand it where it will add value.

Remember, technology alone doesn’t create efficiency — the way you apply it does. Agentforce helps businesses integrate digital workers that enhance customer service, increase productivity and support employees in delivering better experiences. Learn more about Agentforce to get started on building your digital labour workforce.