Katzion, a Salesforce Summit Partner and part of GlobalLogic under Hitachi, has won the 2025 Salesforce Partner Innovation Award in the Automotive category for its work with Audi Singapore. The award recognizes Katzion’s role in designing and maintaining an “Online Direct Sale” platform that enables Audi customers in Singapore to book test drives, engage in vehicle purchases, arrange financing, and receive support—all within a digitally integrated experience that connects seamlessly between home and showroom environments.
The win underscores a larger transformation sweeping the global automotive industry. With software now critical to retail journeys and agentic platforms emerging as enterprise differentiators, Katzion’s role in enabling this transition from a legacy showroom experience to an omnichannel, digitally enriched commerce stack positions it as a reference partner for mobility innovation.
Why did Salesforce award Katzion in the automotive category for 2025?
Katzion’s project for Audi Singapore stood out among global Salesforce implementations because it offered a tangible, fully functional example of “agentic enterprise” design in a sector that has traditionally lagged in digitization. Built on Salesforce technology, the Online Direct Sale platform incorporates Agentforce Marketing automation, MuleSoft integrations with third-party systems, and continuous support infrastructure—creating a fully connected digital commerce experience for luxury car buyers.
At the heart of the platform is a unified customer journey that begins with online engagement and ends with vehicle acquisition, all enabled through Salesforce-driven data orchestration. Customers can browse available models, book a test drive, apply for financing, and complete purchases either from the comfort of their home or from Audi’s flagship Singapore showroom. Katzion continues to manage support and maintenance for the entire digital retail system.
The implementation was recognized by Salesforce as a benchmark in agentic enterprise design. The award acknowledges how Katzion not only implemented a scalable technology stack but also created a business outcome where customer experience, operational efficiency, and brand sophistication converged. The use of Agentforce and integration of digital labor through AI-based orchestration became a model case study for what Salesforce refers to as “agent-first enterprise transformation.”
What is the strategic importance of Katzion’s partnership with Audi Singapore?
The partnership between Katzion and Audi Singapore began in 2021 and has evolved into a strategic relationship rooted in mobility innovation. Katzion serves as the dedicated Salesforce agency for Audi Singapore, responsible for development, enhancement, and end-to-end maintenance of its online retail stack.
This relationship is emblematic of the broader strategy at Audi to evolve from a product-centric luxury automaker into a provider of digital-first premium mobility. Audi Singapore’s Managing Director Martin Bayer emphasized that the platform launch marked a critical milestone in the company’s digital evolution. He described the project as a direct reflection of Audi’s commitment to a customer-centric, omnichannel future.
For Katzion, the engagement with Audi also validates its positioning as a specialist in automotive retail digitization. The company’s ability to deliver complex enterprise solutions with design and data capabilities—and to maintain them at scale—highlights its growing relevance in an industry racing to reconfigure its business model.
How does this reflect broader digital transformation trends in automotive retail?
Globally, the automotive sector is witnessing a redefinition of customer engagement models. The dealership-focused sales cycle is giving way to hybrid and digital-first pathways, where customer touchpoints begin long before they step into a showroom and continue far beyond vehicle delivery.
Luxury car brands such as Audi are particularly sensitive to these trends. With consumers expecting convenience, transparency, and personalization in every high-value purchase, the old model of salesperson-led conversions is being replaced by digital workflows, personalized content, and integrated financing tools.
What Katzion has delivered is not merely a website upgrade—it is a full-stack transformation that connects CRM, marketing, inventory management, and purchase logistics into a seamless journey. This has far-reaching implications for customer acquisition costs, brand loyalty, and post-sale engagement.
At the macro level, it reflects how automotive OEMs must now compete not just on horsepower and design but also on UX, platform scalability, and data-driven customer intelligence. As subscription models, EV servicing apps, and fleet-as-a-service models gain traction, the back-end infrastructure Katzion has implemented becomes even more vital.
What is Agentforce, and why does Salesforce see it as a $6 trillion opportunity?
The concept of Agentforce is Salesforce’s next-generation approach to integrating AI agents and human agents across enterprise workflows. The Agentforce framework envisions a workplace where AI-powered digital agents handle repetitive, data-heavy tasks—freeing human staff for high-value interactions and strategic decision-making.
In Katzion’s case, the integration of Agentforce Marketing with the Audi Singapore retail journey enabled targeted customer engagement, automated lifecycle communications, and improved lead conversion. These agents were not just rule-based bots—they were intelligent participants in the customer journey, informed by real-time CRM data and behavioral triggers.
According to Salesforce, the broader opportunity for agentic enterprise transformation across industries could unlock up to $6 trillion in economic value. Automotive retail, where margins are thin and customer expectations are rapidly rising, is seen as a prime candidate for such transformation. The Partner Innovation Awards were specifically structured this year to spotlight implementations that demonstrate scalable, measurable impact using agentic design patterns—and Katzion’s platform clearly fits that bill.
What does this award mean for Katzion’s global positioning?
Katzion, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Sydney, Australia, has rapidly emerged as a key player in digital automotive transformation. With over 165 employees across seven offices in five countries, the company focuses exclusively on connected, customer-centric mobility solutions for OEMs and dealerships.
The recognition from Salesforce cements Katzion’s position as a top-tier innovation partner not only in the Asia-Pacific region but globally. Its affiliation with GlobalLogic, itself part of Hitachi Group, adds a layer of enterprise credibility and scale—making it an attractive choice for other OEMs seeking large-scale digital transformation.
For GlobalLogic, this win contributes to its broader mission of accelerating AI-powered product engineering for forward-looking clients. The company, which has been in operation since 2000, now sees automotive, industrial automation, and digital health as key verticals for growth, and Katzion’s momentum is likely to feed into that trajectory.
How does Audi Group’s global strategy align with this Singapore initiative?
Audi Group has made no secret of its intent to become a leader in sustainable, digitally-enabled premium mobility. With more than 1.7 million vehicles sold in 2024 and revenue reaching €69.9 billion in 2023, the group is actively investing in digital platforms that go beyond product to deliver service-based experiences.
The Online Direct Sale platform in Singapore is a microcosm of that strategy. As one of the most digitally savvy markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore provides an ideal testbed for connected retail. The success of this model could influence Audi’s broader rollout strategies, especially in urban markets where physical dealership density is constrained but digital adoption is high.
Moreover, the group’s continued profitability—€6.3 billion in operating profit last year—affords it the financial muscle to invest in such forward-leaning initiatives. The Singapore project demonstrates how digital platforms can enhance not only customer experience but also operational resilience and brand positioning.
What should OEMs and dealer networks take away from this success story?
The Salesforce Partner Innovation Award granted to Katzion is more than a ceremonial recognition. It signals that the automotive retail battleground has shifted to digital terrain. OEMs and dealers who continue to treat online platforms as ancillary will likely fall behind those who see them as the core of their sales engine.
This means building or partnering for platforms that do more than display inventory—they must orchestrate test drives, financing, trade-ins, insurance integration, and after-sales service. Katzion’s work shows that such complexity is manageable, and more importantly, that it creates measurable business value.
For partners and consulting firms, the message is equally clear: implementation capability is no longer enough. The demand is for strategic guidance, industry-specific fluency, and outcome-focused innovation. Katzion’s blueprint is not just about technology—it’s about building competitive moats in a time of retail upheaval.
What are the next steps in the digital automotive evolution?
The success of the Katzion–Audi Singapore partnership could spark similar initiatives across the globe. In Europe, North America, and other parts of Asia, luxury OEMs are likely to evaluate how agentic platforms can help them adapt to rising customer expectations and operational complexity.
Katzion may also see this as a launching pad to pursue partnerships beyond automotive—into adjacent sectors such as two-wheeler electrification, commercial vehicle subscriptions, or fleet management solutions. With Salesforce continuing to double down on Agentforce, partners like Katzion stand at the forefront of a major enterprise transformation wave.
At a broader level, automotive commerce is entering a phase where the platform is the product. Those who master digital orchestration, data flow, and customer journey personalization will define what premium mobility looks like—not just for Audi, but for the entire industry.
What are the most important takeaways from Katzion’s Salesforce-backed retail transformation with Audi Singapore?
- Katzion, a GlobalLogic and Hitachi Group company, won the Salesforce 2025 Partner Innovation Award in the Automotive category for building a fully integrated Online Direct Sale platform for Audi Singapore.
- The platform enables seamless online-to-offline retail experiences, allowing customers to book test drives, purchase vehicles, and manage financing digitally, whether at home or in Audi’s showroom.
- Built on Salesforce’s Agentforce stack, the solution integrates CRM, marketing automation, MuleSoft connectors, and dealer management systems into a unified digital ecosystem.
- Audi Singapore described the platform as a strategic milestone in its digital evolution, reinforcing its brand position as a premium, customer-centric mobility provider.
- Salesforce highlighted Katzion’s platform as a benchmark in agentic enterprise transformation, part of a $6 trillion digital labor opportunity across industries.
- Katzion continues to support and maintain the entire platform, reflecting its long-term partnership with Audi Singapore and its credentials as a leading Salesforce Summit Partner in automotive retail innovation.
- This success story exemplifies how automotive OEMs are shifting toward digitally-driven, omnichannel sales models, with Katzion positioned as a strategic enabler in that transformation.
- The project is expected to influence similar initiatives across global markets, particularly as OEMs pursue premium digital retail models that can scale beyond traditional showroom boundaries.
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