BusinessWorld's B-Side Podcast Examines Where the AI Revolution in Business Stands in 2026
Key Takeaways
- •Salesforce projected that 2026 would be the year of the 'Agentic Enterprise,' with autonomous AI integrated into core business infrastructure rather than limited to chatbot interfaces.
- •BusinessWorld's B-Side podcast featured Gavin Barfield, chief technology officer and vice-president for solutions at Salesforce, to discuss the state of the AI revolution in business.
- •Because Salesforce issued the original year-end forecast, the podcast episode doubles as a progress check delivered from inside the company that made the projection.
- •The 'agentic enterprise' concept refers to organizations that embed autonomous AI agents, capable of planning and executing multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention, into their core operations.
- •Salesforce introduced its Agentforce suite of agentic AI products in 2024 and has ranked among the most prominent proponents of the agentic enterprise concept.
The year 2026 was projected to be the year of the “Agentic Enterprise,” according to US-based cloud software company Salesforce, which forecast that autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) would no longer be limited to simple chatbots but would become more ingrained in the core infrastructure of businesses to increase productivity and drive growth.
With 2026 now heading into its final quarter, the question is whether that projection has actually come to fruition — a question that carries practical weight for companies weighing whether autonomous agents belong in small-scale trials or in the core systems that run their operations.
That question anchors the latest episode of B-Side, the podcast of Philippine business publication BusinessWorld. To help navigate recent developments in the AI revolution in business, the episode features Gavin Barfield, chief technology officer (CTO) and vice-president for solutions at Salesforce. Because the year-end forecast came from Salesforce itself, the episode doubles as a progress check delivered from inside the company that made the projection.
The term “agentic enterprise” describes organizations that embed autonomous AI agents — software capable of planning and executing multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention — into their core operations, rather than confining artificial intelligence to conversational chatbot interfaces. Salesforce, headquartered in San Francisco and best known for its customer relationship management (CRM) software, has been among the most prominent proponents of the concept, having introduced its Agentforce suite of agentic AI products in 2024.
The shift toward autonomous agents has been one of the most closely watched themes in enterprise technology, as companies weigh how such systems can automate repetitive workflows and contribute to productivity gains. Against that backdrop, the yardstick the episode returns to is the one Salesforce set out at the start of the year: whether agents have moved beyond conversational interfaces into the core business infrastructure the “Agentic Enterprise” label implies.
The episode is available on Spotify, where listeners can follow BusinessWorld B-Side.
Source: “[B-SIDE Podcast] Where Are We Now in the AI Revolution in Business?” — BusinessWorld Online, October 9, 2026.
