AI All Grown Up

If you thought Salesforce had fully embraced AI, think again. The company has much more in store. AI All Grown Up and Salesforce is the educator!

Alongside the announcement of the new Agentforce platform, Salesforce has teased plans to offer free premium instructor-led courses and AI certifications throughout 2025, reflecting a bold commitment to fostering AI skills and expertise.

We’ve talked quite a bit over the last year about the need for AI education, and lo and behold here comes Salesforce to the rescue!

Ah, they grow up so fast. Once just a baby cradeled in our arms with endless possibilities and potential.

It was just like a year or so ago we heard of ChatGPT. Prior to that most people’s main exposure to artificial intelligence was their smart phones, which today we realize weren’t reall that smart. Generative, predictive and agentic AI have barreled down the pipeline increasing our vocabulary, and understanding, of what artificial intelligence can do.

From generative content to sounds and images, AI continued to amaze us. Then predictive AI did our calculations faster than we could have imagined. Then agentic AI did nearly everything imaginable. AI All Grown Up.

Like a very proud mentor of the process, I want to talk about Salesforce’s major contribution.

Addressing the AI Skills Gap: Salesforce’s $50 Million Investment

As the veritable plethora of AI tools rapidly expands, Salesforce is taking proactive steps to address the growing AI skills gap by investing $50 million into workforce upskilling initiatives. The company aims to ensure that businesses and individuals are prepared to utilize their new wave of AI tools effectively.

While the full details have yet to be released, Salesforce has revealed that its premium AI courses and certifications will be made available for free via Trailhead by the end of 2025. This could mean certifications such as AI Associate and AI Specialist, which currently cost $75 and $200 respectively, may soon be offered at no cost. Gratis. Free,

Salesforce has also mentioned “premium instructor-led training,” sparking speculation that AI-focused, instructor-led Trailhead Academy courses could become accessible to everyone in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Expanding AI Education with Global AI Centers

Salesforce’s AI upskilling push is part of a broader initiative to establish “AI Centers” across the globe. Following the opening of its first center in London in June, Salesforce is planning to launch additional AI hubs in cities like Chicago, Tokyo, Sydney, and even a pop-up center in San Francisco. These centers will host in-person premium courses and serve as gathering spaces for industry experts, partners, and customers.

This initiative benefits not only the Salesforce ecosystem by increasing AI knowledge where expertise is scarce, but also aligns with Salesforce’s strategy of bringing AI-driven solutions to market through new products like Copilot Studio, Data Cloud, and the newly launched Agentforce platform.

Agentforce: Salesforce’s Third Wave of AI

On August 28, 2024, Salesforce introduced Agentforce, a suite of autonomous AI agents that marks a significant leap in how businesses engage with customers. Described as the “Third Wave of AI,” Agentforce goes beyond traditional chatbots, providing intelligent agents capable of driving customer success with minimal human intervention.

What is Agentforce?

Agentforce is a comprehensive platform designed for organizations to build, customize, and deploy autonomous AI agents across various business functions, such as customer service, sales, marketing, and commerce. These agents operate independently, accessing data, crafting action plans, and executing tasks without needing constant human oversight.

It is like Artificial Intelligence just graduated highschool and is off to a world of new adventures and growth opportunities at college or university!

Key Features of Agentforce:

Autonomous Operations: Agents operate independently, guided by customized parameters.
Real-Time Data Adaptation: Agents can adjust their actions based on live data.
Seamless Human Integration: Agents collaborate with human workers only when necessary.
Low-Code Customization: Businesses can easily build or customize agents without extensive coding expertise.

The Technology Behind Agentforce

At the core of Agentforce is the Atlas Reasoning Engine, a system designed to mimic human reasoning. Here’s how it works:

Query Evaluation: Atlas refines user queries for clarity and relevance.
Data Retrieval: It pulls the most pertinent data from multiple sources.
Plan Building: The system then constructs a step-by-step action plan.
Plan Refinement: The plan is further refined to ensure accuracy and reliability.
Autonomous Execution: The engine allows agents to reason, make decisions, and complete tasks with minimal human intervention.

Customization Tools: Agent Builder

Agentforce provides tools like Agent Builder, a low-code platform for customizing out-of-the-box agents or creating new ones for specific business needs. With this tool, users can:

Define Tasks: Assign jobs to agents with natural language instructions.
Create Action Libraries: Build a library of possible actions for agents to choose from, leveraging tools like Flows, Prompts, and MuleSoft APIs.
Test Responses: Test agent actions and refine their behavior within the builder interface.
Partner Actions: Integrate specialized actions from the Agentforce Partner Network to expand agent capabilities.

The Agentforce Partner Network

Salesforce’s partner ecosystem plays a key role in Agentforce’s versatility, with contributions from companies like AWS, Google, IBM, and Workday. Together, they’ve developed over 20 agent actions available through the Salesforce AppExchange.

As proud parents we watch our Artificial Intelligence child venture into the world making friends along the way. Learning social skills.

Benefits and Impact of Agentforce

Increased Efficiency: Agents handle routine tasks, allowing human workers to focus on more complex challenges.
24/7 Availability: Agents operate continuously across multiple channels, ensuring round-the-clock service.
Scalability: Agentforce scales with business needs, making it easy to adjust workforce capacity.
Improved Customer Satisfaction: Agents provide faster, more accurate responses, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Early Adopters and Success Stories

Several companies are already benefiting from Agentforce:

Wiley: Achieved a 40% increase in case resolution during the busy back-to-school season.
OpenTable: Uses Agentforce to deliver high-touch support for restaurants and diners.
Saks: Exploring Agentforce to elevate luxury retail experiences with personalized service.

Availability and Pricing of Salesforce’s AI All Grown Up

Agentforce for Service and Sales will be generally available on October 25, 2024, with some components of the Atlas Reasoning Engine launching in February 2025. Pricing starts at $2 per conversation, with volume discounts available.

The Future of AI and Work

Salesforce’s ambitious vision is to empower one billion AI agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This reflects their belief that the future of work will involve a hybrid workforce, where humans and AI agents collaborate to drive customer success.

AI All Grown Up and We Couldn’t Be Prouder

Our amazing AI child has graduated college and ventured out into the workforce.

Agentforce vs. Einstein Bots: What’s the Difference?

Autonomy: Agentforce operates independently, whereas Einstein Bots require human intervention for complex tasks.
Intelligence: Agentforce leverages the advanced Atlas Reasoning Engine for complex decision-making, while Einstein Bots rely on simpler AI models.
Task Complexity: Agentforce handles multi-step, cross-domain tasks, while Einstein Bots are best suited for simpler, repetitive tasks.

Conclusion

Agentforce represents a major leap forward in AI-powered customer engagement. By providing autonomous, intelligent agents capable of managing complex tasks, Salesforce is positioning itself at the forefront of AI innovation. As businesses continue to explore ways to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction, Agentforce could redefine how organizations interact with customers and streamline their operations.

If this is the Third Wave of AI, what will the fourth wave bring?

Written by Tectonic’s Solutions Architect, Shannan Hearne