In a time when AI announcements come faster than enterprises can implement them, Ian Hagerman, Principal Architect at Egen, urges companies to take a grounded, process-driven approach to adopting AI. In his recent conversation with TFiR, Hagerman explained how Egen’s partnership with Salesforce and Google Cloud is designed to unlock real, usable AI functionality for enterprises.

From AI Hype to Real Business Strategy
Rather than deploying AI for its own sake, Hagerman emphasized the need to connect AI tools to actual business processes. “Think about where you’re constrained by headcount or stuck in manual workflows,” he said. That’s where AI can create the most immediate value.

Agentic AI, Today
One of the most accessible on-ramps to this kind of AI strategy is the use of Salesforce’s AgentForce platform, particularly when combined with Google’s Gemini models. According to Hagerman, these tools already support “bring your own LLM” functionality, meaning enterprises can integrate their own models and data into Salesforce to power intelligent, automated workflows.

Use Cases to Watch
Hagerman recommends looking at customer-facing use cases—particularly those involving enterprise search or multimodal inputs like audio and video—as ripe for early experimentation. “Field service, support, and audio-video capture workflows are great places to begin identifying agentic opportunities,” he noted.

Future-Proofing Starts Now
With both Google and Salesforce leaning heavily into agentic capabilities, now is the time for organizations to explore these tools, pilot integrations, and align AI initiatives with operational strategy—not just IT strategy.