AI agent use tripled: what counts is the hours you get back

What was actually measured

Salesforce published its Agentic Enterprise Index. It says business use of AI agents tripled this year. ZDNet AI sums it up: companies can now measure the return, and different approaches turn out to work best in different sectors.

That last line interests me most. No recipe comes out of this research. What works for an insurer with a call centre says little about your business with four people and a trailer.

Apart from that, it is simply good news. AI colleagues sat in the brochure for years instead of in the workshop. Now they are actually running somewhere, and someone is keeping track of what they do.

What AI automation is worth depends on who is measuring

Salesforce sells agent software itself. That does not make the research worthless. It means you read it the way you read a supplier's brochure: with interest, and with a hand on your wallet.

Large companies also measure differently than you do. They count headcount, ticket volume and turnaround time. You have no dashboard. You have a calendar, an inbox and a feeling on Thursday evening.

Almost every week a message reaches me that starts with: I want to use AI in my business, where do I begin? My answer is rarely a figure from a report.

The only measurement that counts for you

Take one recurring job. The quote you are still typing at night. The incoming mail you read three times before replying. The invoice you still have to check on Monday morning.

Write down what that job cost you this week. Not in percentages, just in quarter hours. Then hand it to an AI colleague for two weeks and count again.

When someone asks me how much time AI saves, I point at that little list. It is your own index, and you need no research firm to produce it.

And watch the second measurement. Were you done earlier on Friday? A return that only exists on paper and gives you no evenings back does not count for me.

What you can do with this tomorrow

Three things, half an hour of work in total.

• Pick one job that comes back every week and drains you. One, not five.
• Note how much time it took this week. A rough estimate beats nothing.
• Put a date in the calendar four weeks out to count again.

A month from now you will have something no study can give you: your own number. Want to think it through before you start, mail me at info@mia-automation.com. I would rather do the sums with you than have you steer by an index about someone else's business.