Salesforce has hosted its 2025 Trailblazer Awards in Johannesburg, recognising the South African organisations using Salesforce’s platform and partner ecosystem to cut costs, accelerate sales cycles and improve operational performance.
Across this year’s finalists, 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. They also highlight the collective strength of the Salesforce ecosystem. Customers, partners, engineers and architects are all part of the story, and the awards give that collaboration a place to be acknowledged.
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.
Behind every nomination is a rigorous review, Saunders explained, because the judges consider the complexity of the business challenge, how creatively Salesforce was applied, the depth and clarity of results, and whether the solution can scale and shift culture. This year, 37 shortlisted nominations went through that process across nine categories, each one signalling a different facet of the continent’s digital momentum.
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:
AI-Driven Productivity Award: Absa Group
Absa Group stood out for demonstrating how AI can enhance human capability.Absa Group’s AI-powered relationship-manager assistant automates time-consuming preparation and follow-up work, returning hours to frontline bankers every month. Judges highlighted its responsible-AI design and the organisation’s strong adoption culture.
Customer Transformation Award: Capitec Bank Limited
Capitec Bank Limited’s unified, event-driven Salesforce architecture helped break down legacy silos, cut reconciliation work by 60% and reduce integration costs by 40%, helping it move towards a full, real-time Customer 360.
Marketing & Loyalty Maverick Award: Clicks Group
Clicks Group was recognised for next-level personalisation, using real-time behavioural data and advanced journey orchestration to double online loyalty conversions and reduce creative production time by 70%. Judges praised its ability to execute at scale without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Supply Chain & Logistics Supercharger Award: Dunlop Tyres SA
Dunlop Tyres SA delivered measurable operational gains through an automated container-optimisation engine that lowered freight costs and increased order values. Judges recognised the clarity of outcomes in a complex logistics environment.
Data Dynamo Award: The Shoprite Group
The Shoprite Group’s tech teams used Tableau to enable real-time, self-service analytics across the business. The judges recognised the Shoprite Group for scale and synergy of data, technology and culture that improved operational decision-making across thousands of employees.
Automation Ace Award: Weelee
Weelee earned this award for automating a previously manual, high-risk verification process. Its AI-driven solution cut vetting work by 70% and shrank processing time from 24 hours to 10 minutes.
Connected Data Champion Award: Absa Group
Absa Group claimed its second award for integrating complex, cross-system data through MuleSoft and Data Cloud. The bank established a real-time foundation for decision-making, enabling faster, safer customer interactions and durable architectural scalability.
Sales & Service Synergy Award: Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA)
Volkswagen Group South Africa was recognised for unifying sales and service operations to deliver faster cycles and more accurate quoting, pricing and customer support. The project focussed on modernising the front office without disrupting dealer or customer workflows.
Community Impact Award: Capitec Bank Limited
Capitec Bank Limited’s second award recognised its work beyond business results. Judges described the entry as “profoundly moving”, citing initiatives that expanded digital inclusion, supported financial literacy and empowered future leaders. Capitec Bank Limited demonstrated how the Salesforce platform can unlock social impact.
