3 Ways High-Growth SMBs Will be Using AI in 2025 We're entering a 'new chapter of human productivity potential that's multiple orders of magnitude beyond the past.'

Artificial intelligence isn't a tool for only enterprises anymore. As generative AI tools have become increasingly accessible, small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) have been integrating AI into their everyday operations. As it turns out, 75% of SMBs say they are investing in AI, and growing SMBs are nearly two times more likely to invest in AI than their declining peers¹. That's huge.

These businesses recognize the importance of embracing AI and prioritizing data strategies that provide speed, reliability, and a clear understanding of their customers. As the wave of generative AI gives way to a new era of agentic AI—allowing AI systems to act autonomously, making decisions and taking actions without constant human oversight—SMBs are realizing even greater opportunities.

"We're embarking on a new chapter of human productivity potential that's multiple orders of magnitude beyond the past, and this will have effects on all businesses, especially for SMBs," says Adam Evans, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Salesforce AI. Evans oversees Agentforce, a digital labor platform for bringing trusted, autonomous AI agents into the flow of work. Built on Salesforce's unified platform, it enables companies to "agentify" every workflow and app for customer success, he says.

Prior to his current role, Evans co-founded a pair of AI businesses—both of which were acquired by Salesforce. "As someone who built businesses from the ground up, startups and small businesses are always going to be scrappy and doing more than they have the time or resources for," Evans says. "With Agentforce, small teams will be able to scale faster with a 24/7 digital workforce across sales, service, marketing, and e-commerce. It can unlock unlimited capacity for your business."

Here, Evans discusses three ways high-growth SMBs will be utilizing AI this year to achieve their ambitious goals.

1. Reaching more customers with marketing campaign automation

Oftentimes, SMBs have small marketing teams or even marketing teams of one. Building and managing successful campaigns is difficult with limited resources. Thankfully, that's where automation comes in.

With smart AI tools like Agentforce, marketers can build better campaigns faster, using AI-powered agents to generate campaign briefs, identify target audience segments, create content, or even build a customer journey—with a single prompt. "And because Agentforce never sleeps, it will continually analyze performance against KPIs and proactively recommend improvements over the course of the campaign," Evans says.

2. Personalizing content generation

With agentic AI, SMBs can create higher-quality content. In sales, for example, businesses can use agentic AI to personalize outreach to leads.

Tools like Agentforce receive data from the most recent interaction that's been stored in a company's CRM as well as third-party data about their company profile. "The agent also draws on documents you upload that share your selling best practices, such as sales enablement materials," Evans explains. "Then it uses sophisticated reasoning to personalize emails to individual prospects, according to their profiles and interests."

3. Improving sales with customer recommendations

Imagine if you could offer e-commerce customers a completely AI-powered personal shopper that helps steer them to the perfect product without extra lifting from sales or customer service. It's possible thanks to agentic AI.

With Agentforce, customers can have personalized conversations with agents directly on a website or using a messaging app like WhatsApp. Because Agentforce has access to secure customer data, AI-powered agents are able to help customers find products and make purchases based on their unique preferences.

"Two of the top challenges for SMBs is acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones¹," Evans says. "With 24/7 digital labor, SMBs can make sure they never miss a sale and create positive experiences to keep loyal customers."

Click here to learn more about agentic AI and how Agentforce can help scale your SMB.

^{1 Small & Medium Business Trends Report, Sixth Edition (Salesforce)}