Salesforce the South African organisations using its platform and partner ecosystem to cut costs, accelerate sales cycles and improve operational performance.
Across this year’s finalists in the 2025 Trailblazer Awards, companies report an average 35% saving in service costs, a 22% increase in sales-cycle velocity, and combined outcomes that include more than R10-million operational efficiency savings, 13 000 workdays returned to businesses, and over 10 000 employees equipped with productivity-boosting tools.
These results show how South African organisations are moving beyond isolated upgrades and into enterprise-wide transformation. Using Salesforce, Agentforce, MuleSoft, Data Cloud, Tableau, Slack and an active partner ecosystem, the region’s digital leaders are modernising customer engagement, automating manual work and building the foundations for responsible AI adoption.
Linda Saunders, country manager and senior director of solution engineering for Salesforce Africa, said the results speak to a new maturity in how organisations are approaching technology.
“All the nominated companies are leading the way, demonstrating remarkable vision and impact through their dedication and hard work. They’re integrating systems properly, using data more effectively and building AI into their operations in a responsible way. That’s where the gains are coming from.”
Standout transformations
This year’s nominations cover the strongest examples of AI, automation, data modernisation and customer transformation on the continent.
In the AI Excellence category, banks, insurers and digital marketplaces are using AI to automate complex work and improve accuracy. Absa Group’s AI-powered relationship-manager assistant prepares client briefs and handles post-meeting actions, freeing up several hours per month for bankers. Discovery piloted an AI service assistant that answers customer queries with 100% verified factual accuracy. Weelee’s AI-driven verification engine cut manual vetting by 70% and reduced processing times from 24 hours to 10 minutes.
Customer Transformation nominees show how organisations are consolidating systems to create full, real-time customer views. BetterHome Group unified communications across its property brands, improving conversions across mortgage, legal and insurance journeys. Capitec Bank Limited brought all Salesforce orgs together into a secure, event-driven architecture, cutting reconciliation work by 60% and reducing integration costs by 40%. The Courier Guy moved from manual, siloed systems to one of the region’s most ambitious customer-360 programmes, identifying more than 600,000 re-engagement opportunities.
Marketing and Loyalty nominees demonstrated advanced personalisation at scale. Clicks Group used loyalty data to double online conversions and cut creative production time by 70%. Capitec Bank Limited increased operational output by 122% and automated three-quarters of its customer journeys. Woolworths Financial Services consolidated all customer communications onto Salesforce to provide personalised engagement across digital channels.
In supply chain and logistics, Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages digitised trade-promotion planning, while Dunlop Tyres SA used Salesforce to create an automated container-optimisation engine that reduced freight costs and increased order values. Mazy Plastics improved delivery reliability using Salesforce Maps for route optimisation.
Data Dynamo nominees highlighted the region’s push toward unified, real-time intelligence. Mr Price became the largest Tableau Cloud customer in South Africa and trained more than 250 staff in self-service analytics. Pepkor unified 30 million customer profiles across its retail brands through Data Cloud.
A platform for Africa’s ‘agentic era’
The awards come as organisations face rising expectations without equivalent increases in budgets or headcount, a gap increasingly closed through automation, connected data and trusted AI.
“Africa has an opportunity to lead in this ‘agentic era’, where AI doesn’t just automate tasks but plans, reasons and takes action,” Saunders said. “The organisations recognised show what responsible, future-ready transformation looks like.”
Salesforce created the Trailblazer Awards as an annual moment to recognise what real digital transformation looks like in South Africa. The awards highlight measurable results, which can be traced back to smarter architecture, better data, and technology.
Another purpose is peer learning. South Africa’s most ambitious organisations are solving similar challenges and the awards create a forum for sharing what works. They’ve become a benchmark for responsible AI, data governance and automation.
Winners and categories
The 2025 Trailblazer Awards recognise excellence across:
- AI-Driven Productivity
- Digital Transformation
- Customer Experience Innovation
- Integration Excellence
- Data & Automation Leadership
- Partner Innovation
- Community & Impact
Total nominees: 37
Award winners are:
- AI-Driven Productivity Award: Absa Group
- Customer Transformation Award: Capitec Bank Limited
- Marketing & Loyalty Maverick Award: Clicks Group
- Supply Chain & Logistics Supercharger Award: Dunlop Tyres SA
- Data Dynamo Award: The Shoprite Group
- Automation Ace Award: Weelee
- Connected Data Champion Award: Absa Group
- Sales & Service Synergy Award: Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA)
- Community Impact Award: Capitec Bank