Absa Group blazes new trails in agent-first banking with Agentforce.

Absa offers leading banking solutions across retail, business, and investment sectors across Africa. They strive to empower their employees and customers to make Africa proud.

As Absa grows, they must automate personalised service while enhancing customer experiences.

From entrepreneurs building their dreams to families safeguarding their futures, Absa is empowering financial progress across Africa. “Absa is more than just a bank — we’re a catalyst for change,” said Lindelani Ramukumba, Business Banking CIO at Absa. “Our mission is to uplift communities across Africa and help millions achieve their financial goals.” 

Since beginning its digital transformation with Salesforce seven years ago, Absa has grown into South Africa’s #2 bank and expanded to 15 countries across Africa. AI-powered tools have been key to streamlining their operations, delivering personalised experiences at scale, and helping Absa serve their 10 million customers. As Absa expands into more markets where customers are less familiar with financial services, helping each customer find the right fit from over 40 business banking products is becoming more challenging.

For example, if a small business owner turns to Absa for a loan, finding the right option can be daunting. They might click the “Tell me more” link on Absa’s website, which pulls up a PDF with generic FAQs that may or may not answer their question. Or, they could interact with the bank’s chatbot, which would present them with a preset list of options. Although able to answer simple questions about topics like bank locations, the bot wouldn’t be able to provide any more detail than could be found in the PDF at the “Tell me more” link. 

Without the right guidance, the small business owner might apply for the wrong kind of loan and risk getting rejected — diminishing their chances of successfully starting their business. Across South Africa, Absa battles one of the highest income inequalities in the world and needed a way to make the application process clearer and more accessible to all.

Absa knows that delivering a seamless, secure, and empowering banking experience is key to supporting inclusive growth across Africa. To do this, they’re turning to Salesforce AI, automation, and data-driven insights to help customers access the right products at the right time and bridge income inequality across the continent.

Agentforce helps business banking customers explore their options with personalised, real-time assistance.

Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform, is transforming how Absa’s business banking customers navigate complex decisions. Acting as a personalised assistant, it provides real-time, tailored guidance for everything from straightforward requests to nuanced inquiries.

For example, if a customer asks, “I want to open a Business Evolve Core account” or “I need a bank statement of interest fees,” Agentforce delivers immediate, accurate answers. It also handles more complex questions, like “Based on my current spending, which type of credit card offers the best benefits?” or “What Sharia governance considerations are available in the Islamic Business Evolve Lite Account?”

Unlike Absa’s previous menu-driven chatbot, Agentforce understands conversational requests, asks follow-up questions to uncover each customer’s needs, and provides precise, customised guidance — no waiting, no guesswork.

By automating inquiry responses with Agentforce, Absa expects to double the impact of their 5,000 contact center reps. This increased efficiency won’t just help Absa keep pace with growing demand — it will set a new standard for personalised, on-demand banking that meets customers exactly where they are.

“By embracing AI capabilities while keeping our customers at the heart of everything we do, we're not just keeping pace with digital transformation — we're actively defining what banking will look like for millions of Africans tomorrow,” said Ramukumba.

Absa’s success with Agentforce builds on a solid foundation with Salesforce that began in 2018 — when Absa ranked #9 in South Africa — as the bank implemented Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, CRM Analytics, and MuleSoft for payment processing. Pulling off this kind of transformation — eliminating 90% of legacy systems — is no small feat for a bank of its size. Strong cross-functional collaboration and thoughtful change management helped make the shift possible. Today, employees have a streamlined view of real-time customer interactions, whether online, in-branch, or through the contact center.

In 2022, the bank took it a step further by adding Data Cloud, which brought together customer data from across CRM, transactional systems, and third-party analytics. Now, 80% of communications are personalised with a focus on financial education and well-being — leading to a 2x increase in open rates for hyper-personalised campaigns. All together, the bank has personalised 60 million messages. “Data Cloud gives us the insights we need to know our customers and create moments that matter at scale,” said Shenin Singh, Managing Executive: Customer Value Management. 

Today, Data Cloud’s real-time insights allow Agentforce to tap into a wealth of structured and unstructured data, including customer profiles, financial accounts, goals, and interaction history from Financial Services Cloud (FSC), Databricks, and Hadoop. With this unified data, Agentforce is able to clearly explain key details about Absa products such as loan eligibility and repayment terms, in plain language. Then it guides customers step-by-step to help them compare options, upload documents, and complete forms in a seamless, 24/7 experience.

Data Cloud’s seamless integration with Absa’s entire Salesforce ecosystem ensures that Agentforce operates with the most accurate, up-to-date information available, empowering it to resolve customer inquiries with precision. Plus, Salesforce’s Trust Layer guarantees that customer data is securely handled throughout every interaction, maintaining compliance in the highly regulated banking industry.

Agentforce is expected to resolve charge disputes 88% faster and handle 50% of fraud cases.

In the future, Absa plans to expand their use of Agentforce to speed up charge dispute resolution and assist with fraud prevention and detection.

Currently, disputing an incorrect charge or reporting fraud can mean long calls and multiple transfers to reps from different departments. Reps must manually cross-reference banking databases, case history, and policy documents to piece together the right information — slowing down response times and increasing the risk of errors. Furthermore, recruiting fraud specialists is difficult and expensive in the local labor market, making it harder to scale up prevention efforts. Agentforce will change that.

With Data Cloud pulling real-time data from Service Cloud and internal banking systems into a single view, Agentforce will give reps everything they need to resolve cases instantly — no more jumping between platforms, just fast, accurate answers. Debit order reversals, a common issue where customers dispute incorrect or unauthorised transactions, will go from a 30–45 minute process to under 5 minutes. For small business owners managing tight budgets, faster resolutions mean better cash flow. Agentforce will also automate up to 50% of fraud-related service requests, reducing wait times and improving support.

If a charge needs to be reversed, Agentforce will provide reps with all the necessary details upfront, with no need for customers to repeat themselves. If additional paperwork is required, the system will guide them through the process step by step. On the fraud prevention side, Agentforce will analyse transaction patterns in real time, flagging suspicious activity before it becomes a bigger issue. If further action is needed, it will alert a fraud specialist immediately, reducing manual workloads and improving response times.

"With Agentforce, our customers can sleep easier, knowing that if something goes wrong with a transaction, we'll handle it quickly and precisely,” said Ramukumba. “That's what real financial security feels like.”

Agentforce will help protect customer trust in every interaction.

At Absa, keeping customer information safe isn’t just about following compliance rules, it’s about earning and keeping the trust of the 10 million people who count on them. “Our customers share their financial lives with us, and that’s a responsibility we take extremely seriously,” said Singh.

With Agentforce, strong security is built in from the start. The Einstein Trust Layer helps keep data safe by clearly showing how information is being used, using powerful encryption to protect personal details, and making sure only the right people have access. It also automatically keeps up with the different regulatory laws across the 15 African countries Absa serves.

“What matters to our customers isn’t just that we protect their data, but that we use it responsibly to solve real problems,” said Ramukumba. “Agentforce only looks at the information needed to solve a specific issue, which means customers get helpful, personalised support without giving up their privacy.”

This balance — personalised support with strong security — is helping Absa create safer, more confident digital banking experiences that support financial inclusion across Africa.

Absa is redefining the future of banking with Agentforce, powered by Salesforce’s deeply unified platform. “Agentforce isn’t just AI. It’s AI deeply integrated into everything we do,” said Ramukumba. With real-time visibility across banking systems, AI-driven automation, and deep customer insights across channels, Absa will deliver faster, more personalised service at scale. And with built-in protections like the Einstein Trust Layer — designed to exceed rigorous financial industry security standards — Absa upholds its commitment to ethical AI and data transparency.

Agentforce marks the next phase of a transformation that began seven years ago when Absa modernised its banking experience with Salesforce, including Financial Services Cloud and Data Cloud. Moving to a unified platform has delivered impressive results, including a 574% boost in meaningful customer engagement and successful high-impact campaigns like Black Friday, which reached 60 million people. By focusing on personalised service, Absa has raised customer satisfaction from 77% to 85% and expanded its reach across the continent to drive greater impact.

Initiatives like the SHE business account, which provides female entrepreneurs with tailored financial solutions, mentorship, and networking opportunities, are just one example of how Absa is making a difference. 

By making AI a seamless part of every interaction, Absa isn’t just transforming banking — they’re opening doors of opportunity and financial empowerment for people across Africa.