Salesforce Introduces Agentforce for Retail and Retail Cloud with Modern POS
Just ahead of the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference in New York, Salesforce has announced Agentforce for Retail and Retail Cloud with Modern POS, further expanding its AI-driven capabilities into the retail sector. This launch underscores Salesforce’s commitment to leveraging agentic AI to enhance productivity and streamline retail operations.
Saks Fifth Avenue and SharkNinja: Early Adopters
Retail giants like Saks Fifth Avenue and SharkNinja are among the first to test Agentforce for Retail, showcasing its potential to redefine customer engagement and operational efficiency in the industry.
Agentforce for Retail
Agentforce for Retail equips businesses with a library of pre-built AI agent skills tailored specifically for retail use cases, delivering what Salesforce calls “digital labor.” These skills are designed to simplify routine tasks, freeing up human employees to focus on higher-value activities.
New Pre-Built Skills
- Order Management: Enables customers to conversationally update payment, shipping, or other order details.
- Guided Shopping: Provides natural language-based product recommendations and supports conversational checkouts.
- Appointment Scheduling: Automates scheduling for deliveries, installations, and consultations with real-time availability updates.
- Loyalty Promotion Creation: Assists marketers in creating and optimizing loyalty promotions using conversational prompts.
These tools aim to help retailers deploy AI agents efficiently, improving customer satisfaction and operational scalability.
Retail Cloud with Modern POS
Retail Cloud with Modern POS consolidates online and offline inventory data into a single, unified platform, empowering retailers with modern tools for seamless customer experiences.
Key Features
- Clienteling: Allows associates to create detailed customer profiles, capturing shopping history, preferences, and loyalty status.
- Mixed-Cart Omnichannel Fulfillment: Tracks each item in a shopper’s cart individually, supporting fulfillment preferences like Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS).
- Mobile-First Design: Frees associates from fixed checkout counters, enabling POS functionality anywhere.
- Inventory Management: Simplifies tracking and managing inventory across channels.
Retail Cloud integrates seamlessly with Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, and Order Management, ensuring a cohesive ecosystem for retailers.
Why This Matters
This dual announcement highlights Salesforce’s strategy to embed Agentforce as a foundational capability across its multi-cloud architecture, while also tailoring solutions for specific industries like retail.
“Together, AI-fueled digital labor and a modern POS can unlock a new scale of operational capacity for retailers,” said Nitin Mangtani, Salesforce SVP and GM of Retail, in a press release.
With Agentforce for Retail, Salesforce empowers brands to embrace AI-driven automation while modernizing their point-of-sale systems, enabling a seamless blend of personalized customer engagement and operational excellence.