Salesforce commits $6 billion to UK AI push, backs training 10 million workers by 2030

'We are at a very pivotal moment - every company, every industry': Salesforce is going all-out to power the agentic enterprise -- no matter what industry your business is in

Salesforce explains more on why its Headless 360 approach will help your business embrace AI Salesforce has laid out its continued backing for the UK as a key market in terms of both embracing current AI tools as well as developing new and exciting services and businesses alike. At its Salesforce World Tour London event, the company's President UKI, Zahra Bahrololoumi, noted how the company was looking to play a key role in the increasingly common Agentic Enterprise. Top of mind was the company's new "Headless 360" platform, which will allow users to access all of their Salesforce data from various apps or a terminal, potentially opening them up to huge improvements in productivity and efficiency. "A very pivotal moment" "We are at a very pivotal moment - every company, every industry - AI is transforming our lives - but how do we harness that power?" Bahrololoumi declared in the opening keynote at Salesforce World Tour London, "agentic AI doesn't just benefit commercial businesses, it can also elevate citizen services - from policing to food and transport, to health and welfare - our efforts show that when we do good in the word, we can actually do really well." "We're redefining CRM again with Customer 360 - it's making your organizations truly customer-centric...(and) this transformational work AI is ushering in a whole new chapter," Bahrololoumi added, "agentic AI is everywhere, it is in every experience, every industry, every company - it's not just about efficiency, it's about growth...and it is fundamentally changing what is possible when we reimagine enterprises." Bahrololoumi outlined the Salesforce's "incredibly bold" vision for the UK, which includes $6 billion investment committed to the country through 2030, and its role in backing the UK government's aim to train 10 million UK workers by 2030. "The UK...is such a vibrant AI market", she added in a later media Q&A session, outlining how Salesforce is "really committed" to educating businesses and partner ecosystems across the country. "Speaking to customers (about AI) we have gone beyond the pilot stage - we're now seeing incredible scale," she said, "agents working hand in hand with humans at the right point...and we know that those who do scale are the ones who have been intentional about orchestrating and organizing their data." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Making the case for an AI Cool Britannia - is Salesforce's Zahra Bahrololoumni finally going to see her National Skills Platform become reality?

Another London World Tour gathering for Salesforce and UK CEO for UK and Ireland, Zahra Bahrololoumi is once more making the case for the US firm's ongoing bet on Britain, currently running at $6 billion between now and 2030: We are so wholeheartedly behind the UK market. It is the third largest AI market globally, and if we think about the capital that's attracting, in 2025 alone, that was some $65 billion of VC funding, predominantly driven by AI. Just this year alone, I think we've attracted as a country $12.5 billion dollars worth of investment. If you think about that combined with the number of unicorns and start-ups that we're seeing - we've got 10 new unicorns this year alone - it is an eminently investable country and economy. Salesforce reflects this belief by putting its money where its mouth is, she adds: We're coming up now to nearly between $250 and $300 million for start-ups. We've got a vibrant venture and startup ecosystem focus here. So, I think when you combine the capital that's flowing in, you look at the capability, and [that] we are constantly scoring on whichever league table you want to choose in terms of the talent flow that we have here, and then you think about the opportunity around the capacity expansion, why wouldn't we do business here? We can have such a positive impact with our customers. Customer success still remains our number one, and we're doing fabulous work. We're powering some of the biggest British industries. We've got a pro-innovation regulatory environment, and we've got a pragmatic regulatory environment. We continue to work very closely with our, you know, with our government, and we will always work closely with our government to make sure that we're operating in a seamless and appropriate way. But... At this point it seems almost churlish to point out that one area where successive UK governments have let Salesforce down is in the ongoing failure to pick up on Bahrololoumni's pitch for a National Skills Platform, the case for which she has been arguing consistently for several years - and through several Ministers such is the febrile and transient nature of UK politics post-Brexit. Might a new Prime Minister - as seems very likely in the short term - be more responsive to her pleas, I wondered? But she's ready for me here, Earlier in her keynote address to the London event, she had told the attendant Ohana: We are wholeheartedly behind the government's mission to train 10 million people in AI by 2030. Through our Future Trailblazers initiative, and I've asked every single employee in UK and Ireland to volunteer and to get out to schools and teach young school children, actually of all ages, in AI literacy and in AI safety, And that's not all, because we are putting all of our resources, so much of it, into our UK ambition, which is incredibly bold. All of this is true, but why does no-one in government seemingly have the foresight to get behind the National Skills register idea? As I've noted before several times, it seems like such a no-brainer of an idea and a safe bet for some positive association with the bleeding edge of modernity so sought after by politicians of all hues. There may be some movement here, Bahrololomni hints, although it's clear that this isn't something she can talk more about right now, beyond insisting: There are ongoing conversations...we're being heard, finally. I anticipate that before long we will have a central front door, a single skills platform that anybody can use to access content and material to get themselves educated. Private push In the meantime, there is Trailhead, she points out, Salesforce's own free online learning platform, recently boosted by the Future Trailblazers initiative mentioned above: We're not waiting, we are taking action. We're serious about supporting the mission, irrespective of government, irrespective of Prime Minister, irrespective of all of those things. Our mission remains educating individuals and people in AI. We're so happy that our Future Trailblazers program has launched so successfully. We've got over a thousand people signed up, employees getting out to schools, educating children of all ages. We've got packaged materials ready to go. We've done a whole load of internal education, so we're going to continue to do that. Another educational asset that Salesforce has at its disposal is its AI Center, opened last year and recently transposed to a new campus in the heart of the City of London. Bahrololoumni enthuses: It forms a fabulous connected campus with our Salesforce Tower and honestly, it's going to be a fabulous place for businesses, for communities, for future talent to come in and experience AI firsthand, and to build the skills and the confidence to lead it...It's an incredible space, and even before we moved to a new location, there are thousand of people coming through it. We're committed to really educating communities, businesses, and our partner ecosystem, so it's a fabulous manifestation for us to be able to build and really make sense of this wonderful investment. And the AI center, whilst it started and is sited in London, will serve as a hub for the whole of the UK and the broader European region, she says: We want it to be a catalyst for UK innovation. I want to show what's possible when we bring humans and agents together to solve some of our most complex challenges, because guess what, agentic AI, it doesn't just benefit commercial businesses, no, it can also elevate citizen services, from policing through to transport, health, and welfare.