CRM and customer experience in financial services, week ending 16 October 2026

Week ending 16 October 2026 · 14 sources

AI agents move into service, sales and agreement work

Docusign and Salesforce launched agreement management natively across Salesforce for agentic workflows 1. Kogan put an AI agent on customer service, from order status to initiating returns 2.

Which way the market is moving

AI agents take on service and sales tasks

Kogan has put an AI agent on customer service, and Salesforce's new Hunter sales agent has a flagship data partner in Demandbase 23.

Kogan has put an AI agent on customer service, handling everything from order status to initiating returns 2. Salesforce has a new outbound sales agent called Hunter, and Demandbase has been named its flagship data partner 3. The first agent answers customers; the second goes looking for prospects 23.

Yahoo Finance reports that Salesforce has turned the agent allowlist into a CRM product 4. An allowlist sets which agents are permitted to act, so control over agents is becoming part of the CRM itself 4.

What it means: Agents that start returns or prospect for sales act on customer records, so deciding which agents may act, and on what data, is a risk question as much as a feature choice. Financial institutions will want that control documented before agents touch regulated customer interactions.

Questions for vendors:

  1. Which actions can your AI agents take without a person approving them, and how is each action logged?
  2. How do we decide which third-party agents can act in our CRM, and who maintains that list?
  3. What data does an outbound sales agent draw on, and from which partners?

In the registry: AgentNext (BUSINESSNEXT), AgentOS (Infobip), Odigo CCaaS Enterprise (Odigo)

Banks rework the platforms behind customer experience

ABSA Bank consolidated 22 systems into one with Salesforce, and Customers Bank will deploy Palantir's Foundry and AI platforms to improve customer experience 56.

ABSA Bank consolidated 22 systems into one with Salesforce 5. Customers Bank will deploy Palantir's Foundry and AI platforms to improve customer experience 6.

The two cases take different routes. ABSA reduced the number of systems behind its customer work, while Customers Bank is adding a data and AI platform aimed at customer experience 56. The ABSA figure comes from Salesforce's own customer story, so it is a vendor account rather than an independent review 5.

What it means: Consolidation figures like 22 into one are worth testing in reference calls, since most of the effort sits in data migration and retiring old systems. Adding a separate data and AI platform raises its own questions about how it connects to the CRM and case tools already in place.

Questions for vendors:

  1. Which systems were retired in your consolidation references, and over what period?
  2. How does your data and AI platform connect to our existing CRM and case management?
  3. Can we speak to a reference customer about the migration, not just the end state?

In the registry: CRM and Marketing (Abrigo), Customer Data Platform (Treasure AI), Copilot (Zendesk)

Agreements move inside the CRM

Docusign and Salesforce have launched Intelligent Agreement Management natively across Salesforce to power agentic agreement workflows 1.

Docusign and Salesforce have launched Intelligent Agreement Management natively across Salesforce 1. The companies say it is built to power agentic agreement workflows 1.

Because it runs natively across Salesforce, agreement work sits in the same platform as customer records 1. It lands in the same week Salesforce gained a flagship data partner for its Hunter sales agent and was reported to have turned the agent allowlist into a CRM product 134. Agreements are now part of the wider agent push in CRM 14.

What it means: Financial institutions that sign customer agreements, from loan contracts to advice documents, will want clear records of when an agent rather than a person prepared or sent an agreement. Where the agreement record lives also matters for retention and audit.

Questions for vendors:

  1. Which agreement steps can an agent start, and which need a person to approve?
  2. Where are agreement data and audit trails stored, in Docusign or in Salesforce?
  3. How are signing and consent records retained if we leave either platform?

In the registry: Remote Online Notarization (Secured Signing), Copilot (Zendesk), Agentic Studio (eGain)

Personalisation reaches credit offers and onboarding

TransUnion and Bankrate have teamed up on more personalised credit offers, and REA Group is scaling personalisation to business customers 910.

TransUnion and Bankrate have teamed up on more personalised credit offers 9. TransUnion says the work makes it easier for millions of Americans to find credit offers that meet their needs, through smarter matching 9.

REA Group is scaling personalisation across both sides of its marketplace, applying B2C concepts to B2B customers 10. At the onboarding end, OCR Studio, which builds identity document verification and bank card scanning, has partnered with FinOn, a modular payment infrastructure provider, on payments onboarding 11.

What it means: Personalised credit matching puts lenders' offers in front of customers through third parties, so lenders need to know how matching decisions are made and explained. Business customers are also being treated with consumer-style personalisation, which affects how commercial banking teams use CRM data.

Questions for vendors:

  1. How are personalised offers matched to a customer, and can each match be explained afterwards?
  2. What customer data feeds personalisation, and what consent covers its use?
  3. How does identity verification at onboarding pass results into the CRM record?

In the registry: Odigo CCaaS Enterprise (Odigo), Customer Data Platform (Treasure AI), CRM and Marketing (Abrigo)

Salesforce public sector deals and partner changes

HMRC selected Salesforce to modernise UK tax services, and Argano acquired Salesforce partner Oktana 1213.

Salesforce has been selected by HMRC to modernise tax services for UK citizens and businesses 12. HMRC's choice puts a large UK public body on Salesforce for citizen and business services 12. Yahoo Finance links Salesforce's new Missionforce CMO hire to its public-sector AI ambitions 14.

In the partner market, Argano has acquired Oktana to advance its Salesforce and AI capabilities 13. Oktana's Salesforce work now sits under Argano 13.

What it means: Large public sector wins can shape a vendor's priorities and capacity. Ownership changes at implementation partners can affect the delivery teams and contract terms behind a financial institution's CRM programme.

Questions for vendors:

  1. Has your implementation partner changed ownership recently, and what happens to named staff and contract terms?
  2. How will public sector commitments affect roadmap and support capacity for financial services customers?

In the registry: CRM and Marketing (Abrigo), AI CRM (Creatio), AgencyMatrix (Zywave)

Sources

  1. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-13: Docusign and Salesforce Launch Intelligent Agreement Management Natively Across Salesforce to Power Agentic Agreement Workflows
  2. iTnews, 2026-10-13: Kogan taps AI agent to handle customer service
  3. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-15: Demandbase Named Flagship Data Partner for Hunter, Salesforce’s New Outbound Sales Agent
  4. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-12: Salesforce Just Turned the Agent Allowlist Into a CRM Product
  5. Salesforce, 2026-10-13: ABSA Bank consolidated 22 systems into 1 with Salesforce.
  6. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-15: Customers Bank to Deploy Palantir's Foundry, AI Platforms to Improve Customer Experience
  7. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-12: BofA double upgrades Salesforce to Buy on AI strategy
  8. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-12: Salesforce Advances 3% on Bank of America Double Upgrade to Buy With $285 Target; ServiceNow Climbs 3%, Palantir Holds Steady
  9. Finextra (retail banking), 2026-10-15: TransUnion and Bankrate team up for more personalised credit offers
  10. iTnews, 2026-10-12: REA Group scales personalisation across both sides of its marketplace
  11. Finextra (security), 2026-10-12: OCR Studio and FinOn partner for payments onboarding
  12. Salesforce, 2026-10-15: Salesforce Selected by HMRC to Modernise Tax Services for UK Citizens and Businesses
  13. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-13: Argano Advances Salesforce and AI Capabilities with Acquisition of Oktana
  14. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-09: How Salesforce’s New Missionforce CMO Hire (CRM) Shapes Its Public-Sector AI Ambitions

About crm and customer experience software

CRM and customer experience software manages relationships and service: customer records, sales pipelines, contact centres and engagement.

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