Now, with Agentic AI on everyone’s lips, most businesses have begun to seriously raise the question of return on investment. Yes, of course, there’s a lot of talk about potential benefits, but what we really need are concrete ways to measure how much money these AI-powered agents will save. We go through the main methods of measuring ROI below, based on Salesforce customer examples, insights from early adopters, and the Agentforce AppExchange ROI calculator that we’ve built at Aquiva Labs.
Quantifiable Benefits: Beyond the Hype
Businesses need to focus on metrics that are tangibly measured—other than mere rhetoric of efficiency improvement—they have to monitor concrete benefits, such as time saved, cost reductions, or revenue increases. Salesforce does publish quite a number of examples of positive results from its customers. It reports that Wiley resolved 40% more cases with the improved new chatbot, outperforming their old chatbot and freeing their service teams to focus on more complex cases. OpenTable uses Agentforce for routine enquiries to free up its customer support resources to engage in higher-order customer conversations, strengthening their customer relationships. Saks anticipates Agentforce streamlining routine enquiries, freeing their service teams to focus on personal, meaningful interactions with customers.
Time Horizon: Short-Term Gains and Long-Term Value
Measuring the actual ROI involves assessing both the immediate and long-term effects of the implementation of the AI agents. Whereas some benefits, such as productivity gains due to task automation, may accrue more readily, others may take a longer period to materialise, such as revenue growth sustained over time on account of improved customer retention and brand loyalty. For example, the Agentforce AppExchange ROI calculator, developed by Aquiva Labs, projects revenue impact over a three-year timeframe and asks for user input on variables such as AI adoption growth rate and customer interest in the product. In this way, companies are able to see how much value an AI investment could yield over a long period and make strategic decisions based on that insight.
Minimising Risks and Challenges: The Path to Long-Term Sustainability of ROI
While we may be optimistic about the prospect of AI agents, we believe it’s important not to become complacent regarding potential risks that could negatively impact ROI. Data security and compliance are crucial, particularly when AI agents operate on sensitive customer data. The “hallucination” problem, where AI agents generate inaccurate or misleading information, must be addressed carefully to maintain accuracy and trust. User adoption and training are also critical factors since people must be able to work comfortably with, and trust, AI agents if their potential is to be fully realised. Proactively mitigating these risks—as Salesforce has done with its Trust Layer—allows businesses to ensure that the implementation of AI results in a sustainable ROI and prevents unintended consequences. Salesforce’s AI architecture, arguably one of the most advanced, guarantees secure data retrieval, dynamic grounding, data masking, prompt defence, zero retention, toxicity detection, data demasking, and audit trail capabilities.
Salesforce’s Agentforce: Empowering Businesses to Calculate ROI
Salesforce is leading from the front in enabling businesses to measure the ROI of AI agents. Its customer-facing calculator enables quick return-on-investment calculations for service-oriented use cases. At Aquiva, we identified a gap in the market for AppExchange partners and developed a calculator tailored for them. From user inputs on customers, growth predictions, and specifics about the AI solution, the calculator outputs the total projected return over three years, breaking down the impact across revenue generation, customer retention, and AI feature revenue. We aim to provide a tool that estimates potential gains, allowing companies to justify creating their own custom AI agents on the Salesforce platform.
Agentforce AppExchange ROI Calculator
3-Year Total Projected Revenue Impact
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Total ROI: 0%
| Year | Revenue Without AI | Revenue Impact | Retention Impact | AI Feature Revenue | Total Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Year 2 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Year 3 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
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By focusing on metrics that matter, considering both short- and long-term implications, and addressing potential risks, you can cut through the hype and make informed choices about your AI investments. Contact us below to discuss how we can help you on the Agentic AI journey.
Written by:
Greg Wasowski
VP, Solution Consulting & Industry Advisory
