As Thailand progresses towards its vision of becoming a regional artificial intelligence hub, we're at a pivotal moment with a new era of agentic AI -- autonomous AI agents that can act, decide and drive positive outcomes without constant human intervention.
The technology, poised to power a US$6-trillion digital labour market, presents a significant opportunity in Thailand against the backdrop of an ageing national workforce. However, successfully navigating the complexities of agentic AI is crucial to realising its full potential.
As AI startups and solutions flood the market, chief information officers (CIOs) need solutions that deliver tangible quality and productivity, moving beyond flashy demonstrations.
Overcoming integration challenges and other complexities is essential for AI to become a true success. To navigate these hurdles and maximise return on investment (ROI), CIOs should focus on the following strategic pillars.
1. Developing a strategic and integrated approach to agentic AI: Instead of pursuing isolated AI projects, CIOs should adopt a pattern-centric approach, identifying common processes and patterns across the organisation to ensure scalable optimisation and better ROI.
It's crucial to treat AI as an integrated layer of intelligence, rather than just a niche tool. This requires cultivating a culture of experimentation from the top down to foster widespread acceptance. Taking advantage of a deeply unified platform for building and deploying agents can significantly boost operational optimisation, reduce security risks and cut costs.
DATA QUALITY
2. Building a strong data foundation: An AI agent's effectiveness is directly tied to the data it can access. For Thai organisations embarking on their agentic AI transformation journeys, it's important to have a system that connects valuable business data and metadata, providing agents with the necessary context.
According to a recent "State of IT" research paper by Salesforce, 39% of developers from Thai organisations say their data quality and accuracy isn't sufficient for the successful development and implementation of agentic AI. This is why solutions such as Salesforce's Data Cloud offer a compelling advantage. By providing unified access to critical company data and metadata, these solutions simplify traditional data management.
Data standardisation is also a must. CIOs should lead initiatives to ensure data is clean, consistent and readily available, breaking down silos and modernising infrastructure. With robust data governance and integration, this can unlock valuable insights from archived data.
At the start of the big data era the phrase "data is the new oil" was common. In the era of agentic AI, data is the oxygen. Without good quality data of sufficient quantity, AI and AI agents will suffocate and not thrive.
3. Ensuring responsible and trustworthy AI: In regulated industries such as finance, healthcare and government, CIOs face even more pressure to ensure responsible AI use and meet strict compliance requirements. Building trust in technology is key. According to a Salesforce survey, 52% of CIOs globally cited a lack of trusted data as a top concern when implementing AI.
To build trust, there needs to be a focus on transparency (seeing what the agent did), explainability (understanding why it did it) and control (knowing what to do next).
4. Aligning agentic AI with business goals and showcasing impact: Technical prowess alone is not enough; CIOs must align agentic AI initiatives with overarching business goals. They should clearly articulate how AI drives growth, enhances efficiency and improves experiences for both customers and employees.
By focusing on tangible outcomes, CIOs can demonstrate that AI is a strategic asset. Transparently communicating the purpose and benefits of digital labour is crucial, highlighting how automation can relieve employees of repetitive tasks and boost their satisfaction.
5. Keeping the human element of AI adoption top of mind: CIOs also need to act as chief education officers, proactively addressing cultural resistance and fostering innovation. Natural concerns about job displacement and workflow disruption should be anticipated and 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 increase adoption from the bottom up.
AI LITERACY AND SKILLS
In addition, championing 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 such as adaptability, collaboration and emotional intelligence. Setting measurable goals for reskilling underscores its importance.
Other vital elements include addressing employee scepticism by sharing the wins and demonstrable value of digital coworkers, such as improved first-call resolution. Gamification and incentives can also motivate employees to embrace AI.
To unlock the full potential and ROI of agentic AI, Thai CIOs must adopt a strategic, holistic, culturally aware and human-centric approach, particularly as Thailand's digital landscape evolves. By integrating AI with data and automation, while considering local market conditions and workforce dynamics, CIOs can navigate complexities, foster innovation and lead their organisations to unprecedented efficiency and long-term success.
David Mould is the chief technology officer and solutions director with Salesforce Thailand