IBM's Salesforce Report Exposes Why Most AI Projects Fail to Scale

IBM just released The State of Salesforce 2025–2026, a deep dive into how enterprises adopt agentic AI.
The verdict? Most are spending more but gaining less.

Only 33% of Salesforce customers meet AI ROI targets.
72% fail to scale across teams. 20% abandon their projects entirely.
For IBM, the reason is clear: AI is often built without governance, measurement, or purpose.

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1. ROI Before Features

IBM's first pillar — Optimize ROI while managing unpredictability — mirrors ReplyFabric's DNA.
Before building a single feature, we ask: does it save time, reduce workload, or improve quality?

Our north star metrics are simple:

• Fewer hours spent in the inbox
• Faster customer response times
• Measurable accuracy in classification and drafting

We don't build to impress — we build to perform.

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2. Governance as a Competitive Advantage

IBM found that only 21% of companies have proper AI governance.
That's where ReplyFabric leads.

We embed governance from the ground up:

• GDPR and EU data hosting
• Transparent agent workflow (categorize → draft → validate)
• Human approval before send
• SOC 2 readiness in progress

Governance isn't bureaucracy. It's how we earn trust — and scale responsibly.

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3. Agentic AI With a Job Description

IBM suggests giving every AI agent a clear "job description."
We already do that.

Each ReplyFabric agent has a defined role:

• Categorizer – understands what an email is about
• Reply Generator – drafts with full context using RAG
• Validator – checks accuracy, tone, and relevance

That structure allows us to track real performance — accuracy, time saved, validation rate — like any employee.

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4. Integrations Can Wait (but not too long)

IBM’s report is clear:

“Connecting Salesforce to other data sources multiplies ROI. Only 26% of firms have done it — the rest are missing value.”

We see that as a clear ambition.
HubSpot and Salesforce will be our first integrations — not from day one, but soon after.
Still, we don’t advise teams to start there.
The best entry point is a simple shared inbox like info@.
Once the team experiences real value, the integration request will come naturally — stronger, and from within.

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5. Turning Governance Into a Brand Promise

IBM calls governance a "competitive accelerator."
At ReplyFabric, it's our core philosophy.

While others rush to automate, we focus on control, compliance, and confidence.
In a world obsessed with speed, trust will be the true differentiator.

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Final Thoughts

IBM's report confirms what we’ve believed since day one:

Agentic AI isn't about replacing people — it's about orchestrating intelligence with accountability.

ReplyFabric was built for that reality: measurable, explainable, and human-centered.

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TL;DR

IBM's Salesforce report highlights three keys to scalable AI:

1. Measure ROI like a CFO.
2. Govern AI like a board member.
3. Integrate only where it truly adds value.

That's exactly how we built ReplyFabric.

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📥 Download the IBM report: The State of Salesforce 2025-2026: 3 pillars for cost-effective agentic AI at scale