Artificial Intelligence has reached a decisive milestone. We are no longer simply in the era of chatbots that draft emails, but in the era of agentic AI: autonomous agents capable of executing complex end-to-end business processes.
At the Agentforce World Tour Paris event, industry leaders such as the brokerage platform Meilleurstaux.com and the HR giant Adecco shared their first operational feedback on deploying these AI agents.
As a software house specializing in custom software development and automation for SMEs, we analyzed these testimonials. While these technologies benefit large corporations, they represent an even more agile and powerful competitiveness lever for small and medium-sized enterprises. Decryption and action plan.
1. Saving 30 minutes per file: the concrete case of Meilleurstaux
At Meilleurstaux Placement, wealth management advisors each handle a portfolio of about a hundred clients. Before each appointment, the advisor had to manually compile dozens of scattered pieces of information: email histories, reports, phone call transcripts and product sheets. A time-consuming task that took about 30 minutes per appointment.
Since the beginning of the year, the company has deployed an AI agent to automate this research and document synthesis phase. The agent processes risk levels, customer issues and proposes suitable solutions in the form of a unified view.
Key figures to remember:
- 1,200 daily uses of the AI agent by the teams.
- 20 minutes average usage per session.
- +2% overall productivity observed in the first few months, a figure steadily increasing as adoption grows.
The value for your SME: Imagine your salespeople or customer relationship managers freed from the chore of “information research” before every client meeting. By centralizing and synthesizing your data through custom automation, your teams spend more time advising and selling, and less time searching.
2. The AI agent that works while you sleep: the Adecco lesson
For Pierre Matuchet, Senior VP IT & Digital Transformation at Adecco, the distinction is clear: “GenAI gave us speed, agentic AI gives us transformation.”
Adecco uses an AI agent specifically for candidate prequalification. The process is simple: the recruiter launches the agent the evening before leaving. During the night, the agent autonomously conducts conversations with hundreds of candidates to validate their basic criteria. The next morning, the recruiter arrives at the office with several dozen sorted and prequalified candidates, ready for a high value-added human interview.
The value for your SME: Reactivity is often the weak point of SMEs compared to larger structures, due to a lack of 24/7 personnel. A personalized AI agent can provide a first level of qualification (quotes, applications, level 1 customer support) continuously, ensuring maximum responsiveness without overloading your teams.
3. The two golden rules for successful automation in your SME
The experience of these two organizations highlights two critical success factors that every SME leader should keep in mind:
Rule #1: Don’t automate a “broken” process
This is Pierre Matuchet’s main advice (Adecco): “Simply agentifying a broken process will lead nowhere.” AI is not magic. If your data organization or current working method is unclear, AI will only accelerate the chaos. Successful automation first requires designing a logical, smooth and structured workflow.
Rule #2: Human adoption comes before productivity
At Meilleurstaux, although the tool is performing, only a quarter of advisors still use it daily. Adrien Vesteghem, Chief Data & AI Officer, insists on the importance of support: regular training, designation of internal “champions” and reminders. The success of AI depends on the trust your employees place in it.
Action plan: where to start in your SME?
Here are actionable leads to start your transformation today:
- Identify your “documentary bottlenecks”: List repetitive tasks where your employees spend more than 15 minutes gathering data (preparation of complex quotes, synthesis of client files, processing of forms). This is where agentic AI has the highest added value.
- Standardize before automating: Lay out the chosen process. Write down clearly: What is the input data? What logical rule should be applied? What is the expected result?
- Bet on a custom solution: Unlike large groups that must adapt heavy generic platforms to their structure, an SME has every interest in developing a tailor-made software solution. This allows direct integration of automation and AI bricks perfectly aligned with your business logic, without superfluous features.
Agentic AI is no longer reserved for publicly traded companies. Thanks to custom development, it becomes the most profitable and most available collaborator for your SME.
Ready to unleash your team’s potential through automation? Contact the Olateq team to design your ideal software solution.