We’re at a pivotal moment. Agentic AI --autonomous AI agents that can act, decide, and deliver positive outcomes without constant human oversight-- is transforming how businesses operate.

The opportunity is immense. The digital labor market is projected to reach $6 trillion, with AI rapidly evolving from today’s generative models toward agentic systems capable of autonomous decision-making. This shift is set to reshape the future of work, education, and personal decision-making.

Indonesia Strives to Harness the Potential of Agentic AI

Amid a fast-changing business landscape, Indonesian C-suite executives are showing strong optimism for AI adoption. According to YouGov C-Suite Research, 82 percent view AI as a top priority, and 42 percent rank it as their number-one focus. The main drivers are delivering more innovative customer and employee experiences (49 percent) and meeting rising demands for faster, more personalized services (46 percent). These figures reflect a growing recognition among business leaders that AI-driven innovation is critical for maintaining a competitive edge.

Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs, Nezar Patria, highlighted that the government is actively building a national AI roadmap, strengthening regulatory frameworks, and promoting research and development (R&D) through collaboration between industry, academia, and communities. Priorities include building robust AI infrastructure and establishing R&D clusters to enhance the nation’s computing capabilities.

Yet despite 84 percent of CIOs globally believing AI will be as transformative as the internet, only 11 percent have fully implemented it, a stark reminder of the complexities holding businesses back.

From Hype to Impact

With AI startups flooding the market with flashy demos, CIOs face pressure to distinguish hype from genuine impact. The focus must shift toward solutions that deliver measurable improvements in quality and productivity.

Overcoming integration challenges and other complexities is essential to turning AI into a success story. CIOs should anchor their strategies around five core pillars:

1. Develop a Strategic, Integrated AI Approach

Avoid fragmented, one-off AI projects. Instead, adopt a pattern-centric strategy, identifying common processes across the organization for scalable optimization and higher ROI.

Treat AI as an integrated layer of intelligence, not just a niche tool. Foster a top-down culture of experimentation to encourage acceptance. A unified platform for building and deploying agents can boost operational efficiency, reduce security risks, and lower costs.

2. Establish a Solid Data Foundation

An AI agent’s performance is only as strong as the data it can access. Transformation starts with connecting valuable business data and metadata to give agents the context they need.

Data standardization is critical. In APAC, 93 percent of leaders cite data silos as a major challenge, especially among organizations already deploying AI agents. CIOs must ensure data is clean, consistent, and readily available, breaking down silos and modernizing infrastructure. Robust governance can also unlock insights from archived data.

3. Ensure Responsible and Trustworthy AI

In regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, and government, CIOs face high stakes in ensuring responsible AI use and compliance. Globally, 52 percent cite a lack of trusted data as a key barrier.

Embedding transparency and accountability at every touchpoint builds trust, a competitive advantage, not just a compliance checkbox.

4. Align AI With Business Goals

Technical capability means little without clear alignment to business objectives. CIOs must show how AI drives growth, efficiency, and better customer and employee experiences.

By focusing on tangible outcomes and communicating benefits transparently, leaders can position AI as a strategic asset rather than a novelty.

5. Manage the Human Side of AI Adoption

AI isn’t just a technology shift – it’s a cultural one. CIOs also act as chief education officers, proactively addressing cultural resistance and fostering innovation. Natural concerns about job displacement and workflow disruption need to be addressed by explaining how AI will augment human capabilities, freeing employees for higher-value, creative, and strategic tasks. Identifying change agents within the organisation can further boost adoption from the bottom up.

Continuous reskilling and upskilling is essential, integrating this into the workforce strategy to teach employees AI literacy and how to collaborate with agents, alongside crucial 'human’ skills like adaptability, collaboration, and emotional intelligence. Setting measurable goals for reskilling underscores its importance.

To accelerate adoption, spotlight internal wins, such as improved first-call resolution. Use gamification, recognition, and incentives to motivate teams to embrace their digital coworkers. 

Embracing AI-Human Collaboration

As industries continue to prioritise trusted, inclusive, and impactful AI, CIOs are central in driving this next phase of digital transformation.

To unlock the full potential and ROI of agentic AI, CIOs must adopt a strategic, holistic, and human-centric approach. By integrating AI with data and automation and embracing a future where AI and human intelligence work collaboratively, CIOs can navigate complexities, foster innovation, and lead their organisations into a new era of productivity, innovation, and sustainable growth.

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Gavin Barfield, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Solutions, Salesforce ASEAN

The views expressed in this article are those of the author.

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