{"id":76177,"date":"2024-04-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=76177"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:22:21","slug":"ai-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/ai-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Personalized AI Agents Will ‘Forever Change’ Customer-Company Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s Note: <\/em><\/strong>This excerpt from Salesforce Futures Magazine<\/a> explores the diverse applications of personal AI agents. It also reveals why digital companions aren’t just technological marvels helping with basic tasks \u2014 they are becoming essential tools in addressing some of humanity’s most pressing challenges.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transformative promise of personal AI agents<\/a> \u2014 artificial intelligence systems designed to assist people with everyday tasks like scheduling a doctor\u2019s appointment, writing an email, or recommending a book \u2014 lies in their ability to compensate for human limitations. Anyone who’s struggled to finish one task during a busy day, let alone juggle many of them, can understand why this would be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infinite interns + patience <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Imagine an army of infinitely patient interns who stand ready to work on your behalf. These interns can either collaborate alongside you in the flow of work, or they can labor independently, periodically checking in to ensure they\u2019re on the right track. The more they work with you, the smarter they get, learning how you work and think across modes and contexts. Think about a world where all of us have the kind of expert staff currently enjoyed by CEOs: gifted helpers who learn our preferences, understand our goals, engineer outcomes, and specialize in doing all of the things we don\u2019t want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech blogger and consultant Venkatesh Rao encourages us to think about machine intelligence as fundamentally different from human intelligence, particularly when it comes to \u201cattention.\u201d Our personal agents will have endless patience for tedious, detailed tasks (think taxes, paperwork, applications, and more) that sap our attention and, occasionally, our desire to endure the human condition. Agents have the potential to remove this burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personalization<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Greater contextual intelligence and more persistent memory suggest agents will provide personalization that\u2019s far greater than what we see today. Itai Asseo and Phil Mui, who work on AI research and development<\/a> for Salesforce, encourage us to think about personalization in three categories: \u201cknow me,\u201d \u201cinform me,\u201d and \u201cempower me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the \u201cknow me\u201d category, agents keep your goals in mind, analyze your performance, and adjust to your unique style. Because every interaction with personal AI will be remembered\u200c \u2014 or stored as a state\u200c \u2014 \u200cand factored into future use cases, a flywheel effect takes hold: the more you use your agent, the better it gets at anticipating your needs in an intuitive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201cinform me\u201d category, we consider the possibility that agents could use their contextual intelligence to help guide and prioritize our attention and separate signals from noise. This has clear applications in the personal productivity space, but the implications on the consumer side are no less significant. Imagine an agent who helps you switch on \u201cZen Mode\u201d and other filters so you can better tune your environment, and even remove things from your plate by acting on your behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the \u201cempower me\u201d function, which speaks to personal AI\u2019s ability to serve as a coach\/mentor, or even a manager.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If personal AI can deliver such control, it will forever change the relationship between customers and companies by raising the bar for direct relational engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural interactions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Recent demos by startups Humane and Rabbit have started to tangibly articulate what agent-based offerings might look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common early use cases include ordering food, finding gifts for loved ones, planning trips and events, and scheduling appointments. What these demos hint at is a more fluid and flexible collaboration between humans and machines, especially when it comes to attention. Both offerings promise less tapping and scrolling and more focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both products also rely on conversational interfaces to do this, but we think voice will be only one of the ways people interact with their agents. Many proto-agents feature travel in their demos, but solving a multi-part travel puzzle that includes schedules, price comparisons, and airline and hotel preferences using only voice commands is less than ideal. Liz Trudeau of Salesforce Design encourages us to think about a more practical alternative. \u201cThink about a collaborative interaction, a flexible interface that adapts to the task at hand and the job the user is trying to accomplish,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Think about a collaborative interaction, a flexible interface that adapts to the task at hand and the job the user is trying to accomplish.<\/p>\nLiz Trudeau, Salesforce Design<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We like this concept, \u201cUI on the fly,\u201d because it emphasizes a truly responsive interface that adjusts accordingly as needs change. You can get a glimpse of what this multi-modal future might feel like in the much-discussed Google Gemini demo depicting the planning of a birthday party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In aggregate, these developments point to futures where tools are easier to use and it\u2019s easier than ever to get things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n