AgentsAugust 27, 2026via Salesforce Newsroom
New Study of 2,025 Agentic AI Leaders: First To Launch Isn’t Fastest to ROI
Why it matters
Practitioners deploying agents now have real data on what separates quick pilots from sustained returns. The 4x sales lift for retail agents is significant, but the study's core finding—first-mover advantage ≠ ROI advantage—reshapes how enterprises should think about timing and execution.
Key signals
- Agent deployments more than doubled over past year
- Retailers running AI agents grew online sales at 4x rate vs. non-users
- Study of 2,025 agentic AI leaders (Salesforce platform data)
- Finding: early adopters do not automatically achieve fastest ROI
- Focus on agent deployment strategy and execution, not speed to launch
The hook
Agent deployments doubled in a year. But Salesforce's 2,025-company study reveals the early movers aren't winning on ROI.
Key Takeaways Agent deployments more than doubled over the past year, according to Salesforce’s platform data, and those agents are driving real results. Retailers running AI agents grew online sales at four times the rate of those that didn’t. For the many organizations now deploying their first ag…