Trust: The Key to Scaling Agentic AI Across the C-Suite – Salesforce Insights
C-Suite leaders prioritizing trust in AI for business growth.
Recent Salesforce research reveals that **trust in AI** is the critical factor enabling C-suite executives to scale **agentic AI** – autonomous AI agents that act independently – driving revenue, competitiveness, and customer success. Nearly two-thirds of global C-suite leaders (65%) say trust plays a key role in revenue growth, 67% link it to competitiveness, and 64% to customer satisfaction[1].
Why Trust Unlocks AI's Full Potential
C-suite perspectives from 2025 Salesforce studies show a shift from experimentation to scaled deployment. CIOs report a **282% surge in full AI implementation** (from 11% to 42% year-over-year), with AI budgets nearly doubling and 30% allocated to agentic AI[2][3][4]. CEOs view agents as a competitive necessity, with 67% calling them essential and 65% expecting business model transformation[2].
Secure, accurate data as the foundation for trustworthy AI.
However, **trustworthy data and governance** remain the top bottlenecks. Around 80% of C-suite respondents cite accurate and secure data as essential for AI trust, yet over half of workers find trusted AI tools hard to access[1]. CIOs rank data security, privacy, and lack of trusted data as their biggest fears, with only 14% of IT budgets dedicated to data security and 23% confident in AI with built-in governance[3][4]. CFOs echo this, with 66% concerned about security threats, but now allocate 25% of AI budgets to agents, moving from caution to commitment[2].
Sales Teams and Revenue Impact
Beyond executives, **62% of sales teams** say AI trust drives revenue, and a third link it to customer satisfaction[1]. Workers trusting AI training data are 10% more likely to see revenue impact, highlighting how grounding AI in comprehensive company data boosts adoption and ROI[1]. Salesforce Data Cloud is positioned as a solution for a 360-degree customer view[1].
Sales teams leveraging trusted AI for revenue growth.
Scaling Challenges and CIO Priorities for 2026
CIOs are now building agentic workflows, integrating AI into core platforms, and collaborating closely with customer service (65% working more with service teams)[2][3]. Confidence is rising: 75% of CIOs feel more confident in their roles, 97% know more about AI, with improvements in employee skills (+43%) and AI KPIs (+33%)[3]. Salesforce CIO Daniel Shmitt notes, "Embedding AI into the flow of work and building trust into every step helps everyone move faster and with more confidence."[3][4]
CHROs are reassigning staff to technical roles like data scientists, while CIO-CHRO partnerships reimagine work amid AI proliferation[2][7]. Public sector insights emphasize 'Humans + AI' models, using agentic AI for triage to free humans for empathy-driven tasks[6].
Agentic AI scaling responsibly with trust at the core.
For Salesforce experts, the path forward is clear: prioritize **quality data**, governance, and unified platforms like Data Cloud to overcome trust barriers and realize agentic AI's ROI in 2026.