On 20th May, Sydney played host to the Agentforce Financial Services Summit, bringing together hundreds of executives from banking, insurance, and wealth management to explore the next frontier in digital transformation: agentic AI.
Attendees heard how the latest wave of AI – powered by intelligent agents like Agentforce – is transforming customer service, modernising contact centres, and driving operational efficiency at scale.
From BIAN board members to executives from ANZ, Zurich, Challenger, VentureCrowd and more, thought leaders shared real-world insights on how financial institutions can harness agentic AI to meet rising customer expectations and remain competitive in an increasingly digital world.
Here are the key highlights, tips and takeaways from the day, proudly sponsored by Infosys | Simplus.
KEYNOTE
Financial Services industry is at an inflection point
Flying in from New York, Eran Agrios, SVP & GM, Financial Services at Salesforce, shared a recurring theme from her global conversations with financial institutions: the pressure to transform – and do it fast.
“One bank executive recently told me, ‘I’m delivering outcomes based on my watch, not my calendar’,” she said.
The industry faces a perfect storm: accelerating innovation demands, intensifying regulatory scrutiny, rising fraud risks, global trade dynamics and shifting economic conditions.
Meanwhile, AI is dominating every conversation. In a recent Salesforce survey, 84% of financial leaders said they believe AI will deliver greater business impact than the internet.
And yet, age-old issues around manual data entry and siloed systems are still impacting many. Relationship managers estimate that 41% of time is being spent on low-value, repetitive tasks.
Agentic AI is emerging as a way banks can reimagine operations and unlock productivity at scale by freeing up human teams to focus on higher-value work.
Introducing Agentforce for Financial Services
At the summit, attendees got a first look at Salesforce’s latest agentic AI offering: Agentforce for Financial Services.
Launching in June, Agentforce for Financial Services will offer a library of pre-built, role-based AI agent, templates, and actions – enabling banks, insurers, and wealth managers to create an agent in minutes. These agents can automate tasks unique to the industry, such as recommending loan options, preparing investment reviews, or accelerating claims processing.
Examples of financial services AI agents include:
- Banking Service agents that handle routine tasks, like transaction reviews and card cancellations
- Banker agents that automate meeting prep and meeting follow-ups, saving up to 90 minutes per meeting
- Digital loan office agents that guide applications based on customer needs and profiles
- Marketing agents that help banks hyper-personalise engagement.
Also arriving in June is the Process Compliance Navigator – a powerful new feature that embeds regulatory controls directly into daily workflows. It reduces the burden of compliance training, shifts risk management from reactive to proactive, and provides analytics to demonstrate compliance effectiveness – no matter where the interaction happens.
ANZ Bank says AI represents the single biggest change program in the next few years
Gerard Florian, Group Exec, Technology & Group Services, ANZ Bank says that the integration of AI is not just about the tech implementation, but how banks bring their employees along the journey.
“When ChatGPT went viral in late 2022, we made a deliberate decision to embrace AI safely and responsibly,” he said. “But we knew this couldn’t be a tech-only conversation. It had to be leader-led.
“So, we created an AI Immersion Centre, giving leaders hands-on experience to understand AI’s potential and bring that vision back to their teams. That’s been key to helping us build momentum. It’s the single biggest change program we’re facing over the next few years.”
ANZ has already seen results from its digital transformation, working with Salesforce to build its digital banking platform, ANZ Plus. Since its launch in 2022, ANZ Plus has achieved a fivefold increase in delivery speed and a 35% reduction in the cost to serve. The platform now supports more than one million customers and continues to expand with new products and features.
With the foundations in place, Gerard sees AI agents as the next step forward. “Now we have our platform in place, there’s an opportunity with Agentforce to accelerate innovation and boost operational efficiency across a multi-agent ecosystem,” he said.
In the near future, AI agents at ANZ could support bankers with meeting preparation, follow-ups, loan application triage, and even report generation – freeing teams to focus more on customer experience and value creation.
BIAN and Zurich on digital transformation and putting the customer first
Steve Van Wyk, Chairman of BIAN and former Group CIO at HSBC, emphasised that true transformation goes beyond technology.
“Digital transformation isn’t a program or project —it’s about putting the customer at the heart of everything and continuously trying to improve everyday activity through digital means,” he said. “AI gives banks a chance to approach transformation differently and reimagine what’s possible.”
Jacqui Lennon, Chief of Technology and Transformation at Zurich, agreed that meaningful change starts with customer impact.
“The key driver for us was moving faster, staying closer to the customer, and delivering value more quickly,” she said. “AI allows us to eliminate human-to-document activity, so our people can spend more time with our customers.”
Zurich began its digital transformation across Australia and New Zealand three years ago, supporting more than 1,800 employees. Education, Jacqui said, has been critical to its success.
“Driving transformation at scale isn’t easy. It’s not just a tech challenge – it’s an organisation-wide journey. We’ve focused on educating everyone, especially the board and leadership, so we can have informed, mature conversations about AI and risk.”
CAMPGROUND
Enhancing productivity with AI in the banking value chain
With banks under pressure to innovate, reduce costs, and improve experiences, the question is no longer if they should use AI—but how to scale it effectively.
In a fireside chat, our CEO David Strangward spoke with Andrew Groth EVP, Asia Pacific, Infosys about how banks are navigating this journey using insights from the Infosys Bank Tech Index – a quarterly study tracking tech investment, adoption, and talent trends across 400+ global banks.
According to the Index, AI is globally delivering the strongest productivity gains in three key areas: customer service, fraud detection, and operations. Examples include ABN AMRO using generative AI to summarise calls in real time, JP Morgan improving fraud detection by 15–20%, and Australian banks using AI for credit decisions and software development.
Despite the momentum, the data also reveals that nearly half of all AI initiatives are still stuck in pilot or proof-of-concept phases. “Compliance, legacy systems, poor data, and lack of AI talent continue to slow progress,” said Andrew. “Most importantly, successful AI implementation requires strong executive sponsorship and a culture that embraces innovation.”
Infosys itself has gone AI-first. Teams across legal, HR, sales and finance have adopted AI to speed up decisions and reduce admin. Their rollout of AI ‘buddies’ has improved developer productivity by up to 80%. Even sustainability programs are being optimised with AI.
A recent example of AI in action was at the Australian Open, where Infosys helped design a fully immersive, virtual fan experience. “What would have taken 4-5 weeks a few years ago to create one virtual scenario, today takes seconds to create any scenario imaginable. I chose to play tennis against Roger Federer – under the water. I even saw a turtle swim by while I was serving.”
Andrew is confident the industry is reaching a tipping point. “In the next 12 months, we’ll see AI adoption accelerate. As regulations mature and legacy systems evolve, the balance will shift from experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation.”
INSIGHTS
Building digital trust: How to strengthen privacy and compliance
In an era of rising cyber threats and regulatory scrutiny, trust and compliance have never been more critical, as shown by these trends:
- Data breaches are at an all-time high, with the average cost reaching $4.9 million in 2024
- 54% of tech leaders say they need stricter safeguards against AI-related threats
- 94% of organisations that suffer critical data loss never recover their data
Building digital trust is essential to delivering long-term value. A breach of that trust results not only in reputational damage, but also significant financial loss. So, how can financial services organisations secure their data and build digital trust while remaining compliant? Salesforce shared five key focus areas:
- Sensitive data protection – Ensuring both customer and corporate data is safeguarded
- Privacy Act reforms – Aligning with evolving regulations and understanding how AI comes up with results
- Agentic AI security – Assessing and securing the use of AI agents across the enterprise
- Governance frameworks – Establishing clear policies and controls for responsible data use
- Appetite for tech risk – Board members want more organisational risk-taking in tech
Is your contact centre ready for AI?
Contact centres are evolving fast – from reactive support hubs to AI-powered engagement engines. At the summit, Matthew Watson, Director of Customer Service Transformation, explained how AI agents are already transforming service by freeing human reps from low-value admin work.
“On average, only around 3 hours of a customer service rep’s 8-hour shift is spent actually helping customers,” Watson said. AI is changing that – automating tasks like case summaries, ticket triage and workflow updates – so humans can focus on complex, high-value conversations.
Syed Ahmed, Head of Customer Engagement Platforms at P&N Bank and BCU Bank, shared how AI and its unified Salesforce platform have helped them eliminate the ‘swivel chair’ problem of siloed apps by consolidating customer channels. Tools like Einstein voice summaries and real-time transcription are now saving the banks up to 60 seconds per call.
His advice? “Start with a clear AI strategy, prioritise change management and test everything rigorously, using tools like Data Cloud sandboxing and LLM response testing before going live.
Driving better ROI from martech investments
Despite the hype around AI, many financial services marketers still struggle to leverage the full capabilities of AI. According to Salesforce Marketing & CX Consultant Luke Tucker, 64% of marketers in APAC are dissatisfied with their ability to unlock ROI from AI tools.
“A lot of businesses hit a wall because they haven’t evolved their operating model to fully adopt new technology like AI,” said Luke.
To bridge that gap, he recommends establishing a transformation pod—a dedicated team comprising 20–30% of a marketing function. These change champions are tasked with auditing customer journeys, identifying AI use cases, and driving innovation, while the rest of the team focuses on business as usual.
This two-speed “build and run” model enables organisations to modernise and fast-track AI adoption without disrupting day-to-day operations.
One company seeing success is Challenger. Now in its third year of a digital marketing strategy powered by Salesforce CRM – including Lightning, Marketing Cloud, and Data Cloud – Challenger is seeing real, tangible results.
“Salesforce helped us build a strong business case with value analysis,” said Carly. “We forecasted 2x ROI over five years, with payback in just 14 months and a 10% lift in customer acquisition. Thanks to automation and streamlined workflows, we’ve already seen a 20% boost in marketing productivity.”
DEMO
Building AI agents for a digital workforce
In this hands-on session, Scott Barter, Distinguished Solution Engineer at Salesforce, took us “under the hood” to learn how to configure an Agentforce AI agent.
Using a fictitious scenario, Barter introduced Rachel Morris, a customer visiting Cumulous Bank’s website to explore refinancing options. Rachel notices an option to chat to an agent.
The agent is configured using pre-built assets in Salesforce for Financial Services. It can provide helpful information on all home loan products and services (accessed via Data Cloud), calculate a better rate if one exists, and book an appointment with an in-branch specialist.
When Rachel asks about loan features, the agent responds with clear, accurate information. She then asks if Cumulous can offer a better rate. The agent shifts gears – using reasoning and calculations to propose a competitive offer.
When Rachel requests to speak with someone, the agent automatically creates a lead, attaches a full transcript, and a summarised conversation ‘catch up’ so a human banker can pick up the case seamlessly.
Days later, Rachel returns to the site. Because the agent remembers her previous interaction, there’s no need to repeat anything. It helps her schedule a branch appointment, checking the home loan specialist’s availability, booking the appointment and preparing the specialist with all relevant context.
From initial inquiry to appointment booking, the agent delivers streamlined, human-like service – saving time and enhancing customer experience, all within company-set guardrails.
Amplify the power of Salesforce with Infosys | Simplus
Digital transformation in banking is evolving – and for many, that means rethinking the role of legacy systems, culture, operational efficiency and risk management to deliver seamless, trusted customer experiences. For organisations exploring agentic AI, now is the time to develop a strategy for enterprise-wide implementation.
Infosys | Simplus are Salesforce transformation experts, ready to help businesses on their AI journey. We bring a deep understanding of Salesforce and digital transformations, honed from over 5,000 projects.
We can assist with your transformation vision and roadmap, Salesforce implementation, change management and managed services support.
For expert advice and to explore our AI offerings, contact us today.
