ANZ rolls out AI-powered CRM to reshape business banking
ANZ has rolled out a new customer relationship management system across its Business & Private Bank, using Salesforce's Agentforce 360 platform and agentic AI features. The bank describes the deployment as a first at scale for a bank in the Asia-Pacific region.
The CRM replaces a legacy system and consolidates customer and account data previously spread across 20 platforms. Staff now access information through a single dashboard, reducing time spent switching between systems.
ANZ is positioning the project as part of a broader shift in its business banking model. It has outlined a 2030 strategy focused on becoming a "simpler, faster bank" and improving customer experience in business and private banking. It has also flagged plans to expand its business banker headcount by 2030, with technology expected to reshape how frontline roles operate day to day.
Agentic features
Agentforce adds an AI layer that goes beyond searching and surfacing information. Within the CRM workflow, it can carry out "value-adding tasks", including real-time account summaries and customer data retrieval through a chat interface.
ANZ expects real-time account summaries alone to save bankers the equivalent of about one working month per year. It also says the chat interface changes how staff search for and access customer information.
Agentforce is intended to organise information, automate routine tasks, and streamline multi-step workflows. Bankers can also use it to manage data-enabled opportunity leads, visualise customer insights, and prioritise daily activities.
The Agentforce deployment follows a national rollout of the CRM to ANZ business bankers and frontline teams. ANZ did not provide a timetable for how quickly Agentforce functions will expand across teams or use cases, but says banker feedback is shaping the platform's development.
That feedback loop is intended to refine what ANZ calls "agentic actions and outputs" over time. The bank describes the approach as iterative, with frontline input influencing which tasks are automated and how information is presented.
Frontline investment
The CRM rollout sits alongside other changes in ANZ's small and medium business offering. Clare Morgan, ANZ Group Executive, Business & Private Bank, said the bank expects the platform to reshape relationship management across business and private banking.
"Our new platform is a game changer - simplifying systems, saving time, and helping bankers focus on what matters most: building strong relationships and helping customers run and grow their businesses. It's one of several major investments we're making to uplift our frontline and deliver on our customer-first strategy," Morgan said.
ANZ is also bringing forward a significant digital channel change for smaller business customers. It is accelerating its digital roadmap and moving up the launch of the ANZ Plus front end for most small to medium business customers to late 2027.
"We're also accelerating our digital roadmap, bringing forward the launch of the ANZ Plus front end for most small to medium business customers to late 2027. That means a more seamless, connected experience for our customers on a market leading platform," Morgan said.
ANZ's comments suggest it expects closer links between banker-facing tools and customer-facing digital channels as it updates its business banking proposition. The CRM consolidates internal data sources, while the ANZ Plus front end signals a redesign of how many small and medium business customers interact with the bank digitally.
The bank has also framed the initiative in the context of the pressures facing small business owners. "We know running a business is hard. Our job is to make banking easy and simple," Morgan said.
ANZ said the rollout follows recognition from Canstar as Small Business Bank of the Year for a tenth time. It linked the technology upgrade to its broader commitment to small-to-medium enterprises across Australia and said it will continue enhancing the CRM as banker feedback shapes future development.