ANZ has begun deploying an artificial intelligence (AI) agent within its new customer relationship management (CRM) system to help business bankers regain hours of lost productivity by automating tasks and streamlining workflows.
ANZ says its CRM system and the use of AI agents, powered by Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, will help bankers uncover potential customers, visualize customer insights and prioritize day-to-day activities by integrating data from 20 different systems into one interface.
Bankers will also have access to real-time customer account summaries, which is expected to save them the equivalent of approximately one business month per year. The new chat interface also makes it easier to search and access customer data for more insight.
The use of Agentforce, which ANZ claims is the first to be rolled out at scale in the Asia Pacific region, follows the national rollout of the new CRM system across business bankers and field teams.
Claire Morgan, ANZ Group business and private bank executive, said the platform will transform the way the bank’s business and private bankers manage customer relationships, delivering a better experience for customers, brokers and bankers.
“Our new platform is a game-changer, simplifying systems, saving time, and helping bankers focus on what matters most: building strong relationships and helping customers run and grow their businesses. This is one of several major investments we are making to strengthen our front line and deliver on our customer-first strategy,” Morgan said.
“We are also accelerating our digital roadmap, bringing forward the launch of the ANZ Plus front end for most SME customers to the end of 2027,” he said, referring to ANZ’s new digital banking service. “This means providing our customers with a more seamless and connected experience on our market-leading platform.”
ANZ is the latest of Australia’s Big Four banks to double its investment in AI. Earlier this year, Macquarie Bank launched an AI agent that provides instant personalized support to customers through its mobile app and online banking platform.
In 2025, Westpac deepened its partnership with Accenture to deploy AI agents in its engineering department, and reported that AI-powered software engineers reduced complex code migration tasks from six days to one hour.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank is leveraging generative AI for customer protection and personalization, gaining global attention by deploying AI voice and text bots designed to engage and waste phone scammers’ time. It also leverages its large data lake to personalize customer app interfaces.
For Salesforce, the deal with ANZ represents a major win for its Agentforce platform in Asia Pacific. Software-as-a-Service giants are under pressure to demonstrate that their AI tools can deliver a return on investment to enterprise customers who are increasingly wary of “AI pilot purgatory,” where AI projects fail to move into production.
Research from Cisco and the Australian Institute of Governance found that Australian organizations have been slower to adopt AI than those in other regions, putting A$142 billion worth of economic opportunity at risk.
Key challenges to AI adoption faced by Australian businesses include lack of governance readiness, use of shadow AI tools by employees, lack of formal training, and uncertainty about how to measure returns from AI investments.
