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Pioneering AI-Driven Customer Engagement

Pioneering AI-Driven Customer Engagement

With Salesforce at the forefront of the AI revolution, Agentforce, introduced at Dreamforce, represents the next phase in customer service automation. It integrates AI and human collaboration to automate repetitive tasks, freeing human talent for more strategic activities, ultimately improving customer satisfaction. Tallapragada emphasized how this AI-powered tool enables businesses, particularly in the Middle East, to scale operations and enhance efficiency, aligning with the region’s appetite for growth and innovation.

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Rise of Agentforce

Rise of Agentforce

The Rise of Agentforce: How AI Agents Are Shaping the Future of Work Salesforce wrapped up its annual Dreamforce conference this September, leaving attendees with more than just memories of John Mulaney’s quips. As the swarms of Waymos ferried participants across a cleaner-than-usual San Francisco, it became clear that AI-powered agents—dubbed Agentforce—are poised to transform the workplace. These agents, controlled within Salesforce’s ecosystem, could significantly change how work is done and how customer experiences are delivered. Dreamforce has always been known for its bold predictions about the future, but this year’s vision of AI-based agents felt particularly compelling. These agents represent the next frontier in workplace automation, but as exciting as this future is, some important questions remain. Reality Check on the Agentforce Vision During his keynote, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff raised an interesting point: “Why would our agents be so low-hallucinogenic?” While the agents have access to vast amounts of data, workflows, and services, they currently function best within Salesforce’s own environment. Benioff even made the claim that Salesforce pioneered prompt engineering—a statement that, for some, might have evoked a scene from Austin Powers, with Dr. Evil humorously taking credit for inventing the question mark. But can Salesforce fully realize its vision for Agentforce? If they succeed, it could be transformative for how work gets done. However, as with many AI-driven innovations, the real question lies in interoperability. The Open vs. Closed Debate As powerful as Salesforce’s ecosystem is, not all business data and workflows live within it. If the future of work involves a network of AI agents working together, how far can a closed ecosystem like Salesforce’s really go? Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech giants also have their sights set on AI-driven agents, and the race is on to own this massive opportunity. As we’ve seen in previous waves of technology, this raises familiar debates about open versus closed systems. Without a standard for agents to work together across platforms, businesses could find themselves limited. Closed ecosystems may help solve some problems, but to unlock the full potential of AI agents, they must be able to operate seamlessly across different platforms and boundaries. Looking to the Open Web for Inspiration The solution may lie in the same principles that guide the open web. Just as mobile apps often require a web view to enable an array of outcomes, the same might be necessary in the multi-agent landscape. Tools like Slack’s Block Kit framework allow for simple agent interactions, but they aren’t enough for more complex use cases. Take Clockwise Prism, for example—a sophisticated scheduling agent designed to find meeting times when there’s no obvious availability. When integrated with other agents to secure that critical meeting, businesses will need a flexible interface to explore multiple scheduling options. A web view for agents could be the key. The Need for an Open Multi-Agent Standard Benioff repeatedly stressed that businesses don’t want “DIY agents.” Enterprises seek controlled, repeatable workflows that deliver consistent value—but they also don’t want to be siloed. This is why the future requires an open standard for agents to collaborate across ecosystems and platforms. Imagine initiating a set of work agents from within an Atlassian Jira ticket that’s connected to a Salesforce customer case—or vice versa. For agents to seamlessly interact regardless of the system they originate from, a standard is needed. This would allow businesses to deploy agents in a way that’s consistent, integrated, and scalable. User Experience and Human-in-the-Loop: Crucial Elements for AI Agents A significant insight from the integration of LangChain with Assistant-UI highlighted a crucial factor: user experience (UX). Whether it’s streaming, generative interfaces, or human-in-the-loop functionality, the UX of AI agents is critical. While agents need to respond quickly and efficiently, businesses must have the ability to involve humans in decision-making when necessary. This principle of human-in-the-loop is key to the agent’s scheduling process. While automation is the goal, involving the user at crucial points—such as confirming scheduling options—ensures that the agent remains reliable and adaptable. Any future standard must prioritize this capability, allowing for user involvement where necessary, while also enabling full automation when confidence levels are high. Generative or Native UI? The discussion about user interfaces for agents often leads to a debate between generative UI and native UI. The latter may be the better approach. A native UI, controlled by the responding service or agent, ensures the interface is tailored to the context and specifics of the agent’s task. Whether this UI is rendered using AI or not is an implementation detail that can vary depending on the service. What matters is that the UI feels native to the agent’s task, making the user experience seamless and intuitive. What’s Next? The Push for an Open Multi-Agent Future As we look ahead to the multi-agent future, the need for an open standard is more pressing than ever. At Clockwise, we’ve drafted something we’re calling the Open Multi-Agent Protocol (OMAP), which we hope will foster collaboration and innovation in this space. The future of work is rapidly approaching, where new roles—like Agent Orchestrators—will emerge, enabling people to leverage AI agents in unprecedented ways. While Salesforce’s vision for Agentforce is ambitious, the key to unlocking its full potential lies in creating a standard that allows agents to work together, across platforms, and beyond the boundaries of closed ecosystems. With the right approach, we can create a future where AI agents transform work in ways we’re only beginning to imagine. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial

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How Skechers Solved Its Ecommerce Challenges

How Skechers Solved Its Ecommerce Challenges

Skechers Boosts Direct-to-Consumer Sales with Ecommerce Platform Upgrades Skechers, now a global brand in 2024, credits its recent ecommerce platform upgrades for saving time and increasing direct-to-consumer sales. However, it wasn’t always equipped with the right technology to support its massive growth. During Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Eric Cheng, Skechers USA Inc.’s director of ecommerce architecture, shared insights into how key technology decisions helped the brand expand and enhance its website and content capabilities. “Today, we’re present in over 180 countries worldwide,” Cheng said, speaking on stage at the Moscone Center. Skechers’ journey began in 1992, and its expansion has taken the brand across borders, reaching millions of customers worldwide. “We connect hundreds of millions of customers through our retail stores and ecommerce platform to deliver a unique experience,” Cheng noted, emphasizing the need to meet the diverse demands of each market. Skechers ranks No. 273 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American e-retailers by online sales, where it is categorized as an Apparel & Accessories retailer. Digital Commerce 360 projects that Skechers will reach 0.65 million in online sales by 2024. Ecommerce Platform Challenges Cheng acknowledged that Skechers’ digital transformation wasn’t immediate: “The journey did not just happen overnight; it took time and effort.” Skechers faced challenges in three key areas: content management, scalability, and customer experience. The legacy system was inadequate, lacking robust tools for efficient content delivery, previewing scheduled content, and handling localization. As Cheng described, launching a marketing page often required the content team to be on standby at midnight—an unsustainable approach for 17 countries. How Skechers Solved Its Ecommerce Challenges To overcome these hurdles, Skechers partnered with Astound Digital. Together, they implemented Salesforce Service Cloud and Manhattan Active Omni for order management. Kyle Montgomery, senior vice president of commerce at Astound Digital, joined Cheng on stage and highlighted the goal: “Their vision was to unify, supply, and scale.” This transformation enabled Skechers to bring 17 countries in Europe, Japan, and North America onto a single platform. Jennifer Lane, Salesforce’s director of success guides, also emphasized the flexibility achieved using Salesforce’s Page Designer and localization solutions from Salesforce’s AppExchange. Integrations with Thomson Reuters for tax, CyberSource for payments, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud for personalization further enhanced Skechers’ capabilities. The Results Cheng highlighted three key improvements after the ecommerce overhaul. First, content creation and localization tools improved operational efficiency by over 500%. The time to launch in new markets was dramatically reduced from five months to just a few weeks. Additionally, Skechers saw a notable sales boost, with a 24.5% increase in its direct-to-consumer segment during Q1 2023. Skechers’ success demonstrates the significant impact of a well-executed ecommerce platform upgrade, allowing the brand to scale globally while improving customer experience and operational efficiency. Contact Tectonic to learn what Salesforce can do for you. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Third Wave of AI at Salesforce

Third Wave of AI at Salesforce

The Third Wave of AI at Salesforce: How Agentforce is Transforming the Landscape At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce unveiled several exciting innovations, with Agentforce taking center stage. This insight explores the key changes and enhancements designed to improve efficiency and elevate customer interactions. Introducing Agentforce Agentforce is a customizable AI agent builder that empowers organizations to create and manage autonomous agents for various business tasks. But what exactly is an agent? An agent is akin to a chatbot but goes beyond traditional capabilities. While typical chatbots are restricted to scripted responses and predefined questions, Agentforce agents leverage large language models (LLMs) and generative AI to comprehend customer inquiries contextually. This enables them to make independent decisions, whether processing requests or resolving issues using real-time data from your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system. The Role of Atlas At the heart of Agentforce’s functionality lies the Atlas reasoning engine, which acts as the operational brain. Unlike standard assistive tools, Atlas is an agentic system with the autonomy to act on behalf of the user. Atlas formulates a plan based on necessary actions and can adjust that plan based on evaluations or new information. When it’s time to engage, Atlas knows which business processes to activate and connects with customers or employees via their preferred channels. This sophisticated approach allows Agentforce to significantly enhance operational efficiency. By automating routine inquiries, it frees up your team to focus on more complex tasks, delivering a smoother experience for both staff and customers. Speed to Value One of Agentforce’s standout features is its emphasis on rapid implementation. Many AI projects can be resource-intensive and take months or even years to launch. However, Agentforce enables quick deployment by leveraging existing Salesforce infrastructure, allowing organizations to implement solutions rapidly and with greater control. Salesforce also offers pre-built Agentforce agents tailored to specific business needs—such as Service Agent, Sales Development Representative Agent, Sales Coach, Personal Shopper Agent, and Campaign Agent—all customizable with the Agent Builder. Agentforce for Service and Sales will be generally available starting October 25, 2024, with certain elements of the Atlas Reasoning Engine rolling out in February 2025. Pricing begins at $2 per conversation, with volume discounts available. Transforming Customer Insights with Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud Dreamforce also highlighted enhancements to Data Cloud, Salesforce’s backbone for all cloud products. The platform now supports processing unstructured data, which constitutes up to 90% of company data often overlooked by traditional reporting systems. With new capabilities for analyzing various unstructured formats—like video, audio, sales demos, customer service calls, and voicemails—businesses can derive valuable insights and make informed decisions across Customer 360. Furthermore, Data Cloud One enables organizations to connect siloed Salesforce instances effortlessly, promoting seamless data sharing through a no-code, point-and-click setup. The newly announced Marketing Cloud Advanced edition serves as the “big sister” to Marketing Cloud Growth, equipping larger marketing teams with enhanced features like Path Experiment, which tests different content strategies across channels, and Einstein Engagement Scoring for deeper insights into customer behavior. Together, these enhancements empower companies to engage customers more meaningfully and measurably across all touchpoints. Empowering the Workforce Through Education Salesforce is committed to making AI accessible for all. They recently announced free instructor-led courses and AI certifications available through 2025, aimed at equipping the Salesforce community with essential AI and data management skills. To support this initiative, Salesforce is establishing AI centers in major cities, starting with London, to provide hands-on training and resources, fostering AI expertise. They also launched a global Agentforce World Tour to promote understanding and adoption of the new capabilities introduced at Dreamforce, featuring repackaged sessions from the conference and opportunities for specialists to answer questions. The Bottom Line What does this mean for businesses? With the rollout of Agentforce, along with enhancements to Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud, organizations can operate more efficiently and connect with customers in more meaningful ways. Coupled with a focus on education through free courses and global outreach, getting on board has never been easier. If you’d like to discuss how we can help your business maximize its potential with Salesforce through data and AI, connect with us and schedule a meeting with our team. Legacy systems can create significant gaps between operations and employee needs, slowing lead processes and resulting in siloed, out-of-sync data that hampers business efficiency. Responding to inquiries within five minutes offers a 75% chance of converting leads into customers, emphasizing the need for rapid, effective marketing responses. Salesforce aims to help customers strengthen relationships, enhance productivity, and boost margins through its premier AI CRM for sales, service, marketing, and commerce, while also achieving these goals internally. Recognizing the complexity of its decade-old processes, including lead assignment across three systems and 2 million lines of custom code, Salesforce took on the role of “customer zero,” leveraging Data Cloud to create a unified view of customers known as the “Customer 360 Truth Profile.” This consolidation of disparate data laid the groundwork for enterprise-wide AI and automation, improving marketing automation and reducing lead time by 98%. As Michael Andrew, SVP of Marketing Decision Science at Salesforce, noted, this initiative enabled the company to provide high-quality leads to its sales team with enriched data and AI scoring while accelerating time to market and enhancing data quality. Embracing Customer Zero “Almost exactly a year ago, we set out with a beginner’s mind to transform our lead automation process with a solution that would send the best leads to the right sales teams within minutes of capturing their data and support us for the next decade,” said Andrew. The initial success metric was “speed to lead,” aiming to reduce the handoff time from 20 minutes to less than one minute. The focus was also on integrating customer and lead data to develop a more comprehensive 360-degree profile for each prospect, enhancing lead assignment and sales rep productivity. Another objective was to boost business agility by cutting the average time to implement assignment changes from four weeks to mere days. Accelerating Success with

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Zendesk Launches AI Agent Builder

The State of AI

The State of AI: How We Got Here (and What’s Next) Artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from the realm of science fiction into a transformative force reshaping industries and lives around the world. But how did AI develop into the technology we know today, and where is it headed next? At Dreamforce, two of Salesforce’s leading minds in AI—Chief Scientist Silvio Savarese and Chief Futurist Peter Schwartz—offered insights into AI’s past, present, and future. How We Got Here: The Evolution of AI AI’s roots trace back decades, and its journey has been defined by cycles of innovation and setbacks. Peter Schwartz, Salesforce’s Chief Futurist, shared a firsthand perspective on these developments. Having been involved in AI since the 1970s, Schwartz witnessed the first “AI winter,” a period of reduced funding and interest due to the immense challenges of understanding and replicating the human brain. In the 1990s and early 2000s, AI shifted from attempting to mimic human cognition to adopting data-driven models. This new direction opened up possibilities beyond the constraints of brain-inspired approaches. By the 2010s, neural networks re-emerged, revolutionizing AI by enabling systems to process raw data without extensive pre-processing. Savarese, who began his AI research during one of these challenging periods, emphasized the breakthroughs in neural networks and their successor, transformers. These advancements culminated in large language models (LLMs), which can now process massive datasets, generate natural language, and perform tasks ranging from creating content to developing action plans. Today, AI has progressed to a new frontier: large action models. These systems go beyond generating text, enabling AI to take actions, adapt through feedback, and refine performance autonomously. Where We Are Now: The Present State of AI The pace of AI innovation is staggering. Just a year ago, discussions centered on copilots—AI systems designed to assist humans. Now, the conversation has shifted to autonomous AI agents capable of performing complex tasks with minimal human oversight. Peter Schwartz highlighted the current uncertainties surrounding AI, particularly in regulated industries like banking and healthcare. Leaders are grappling with questions about deployment speed, regulatory hurdles, and the broader societal implications of AI. While many startups in the AI space will fail, some will emerge as the giants of the next generation. Salesforce’s own advancements, such as the Atlas Reasoning Engine, underscore the rapid progress. These technologies are shaping products like Agentforce, an AI-powered suite designed to revolutionize customer interactions and operational efficiency. What’s Next: The Future of AI According to Savarese, the future lies in autonomous AI systems, which include two categories: The Road Ahead As AI continues to evolve, it’s clear that its potential is boundless. However, the path forward will require careful navigation of ethical, regulatory, and practical challenges. The key to success lies in innovation, collaboration, and a commitment to creating systems that enhance human capabilities. For Salesforce, the journey has only just begun. With groundbreaking technologies and visionary leadership, the company is not just predicting the future of AI—it’s creating it. The State of AI. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Battle of Copilots

Battle of Copilots

Salesforce is directly challenging Microsoft in the growing battle of AI copilots, which are designed to enhance customer experience (CX) across key business functions like sales and support. In this competitive landscape, Salesforce is taking on not only Microsoft but also major AI rivals such as Google Gemini, OpenAI GPT, and IBM watsonx. At the heart of this strategy is Salesforce Agentforce, a platform that leverages autonomous decision-making to meet enterprise demands for data and AI abstraction. Salesforce Dreamforce Highlights One of the most significant takeaways from last month’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco was the unveiling of autonomous agents, bringing advanced GenAI capabilities to the app development process. CEO Marc Benioff and other Salesforce executives made it clear that Salesforce is positioning itself to compete with Microsoft’s Copilot, rebranding and advancing its own AI assistant, previously known as Einstein AI. Microsoft’s stronghold, however, lies in Copilot’s seamless integration with widely used products like Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. Furthermore, Microsoft has established itself as a developer’s favorite, especially with GitHub Copilot and the Azure portfolio, which are integral to app modernization in many enterprises. “Salesforce faces an uphill battle in capturing market share from these established players,” says Charlotte Dunlap, Research Director at GlobalData. “Salesforce’s best chance lies in highlighting the autonomous capabilities of Agentforce—enabling businesses to automate more processes, moving beyond basic chatbot functions, and delivering a personalized customer experience.” This emphasis on autonomy is vital, given that many enterprises are still grappling with the complexities of emerging GenAI technologies. Dunlap points out that DevOps teams are struggling to find third-party expertise that understands how GenAI fits within existing IT systems, particularly around security and governance concerns. Salesforce’s focus on automation, combined with the integration prowess of MuleSoft, positions it as a key player in making GenAI tools more accessible and intuitive for businesses. Elevating AI Abstraction and Automation Salesforce has increasingly focused on the idea of abstracting data and AI, exemplified by its Data Cloud and low-level UI capabilities. Now, with models like the Atlas Reasoning Engine, Salesforce is looking to push beyond traditional AI assistants. These tools are designed to automate complex, previously human-dependent tasks, spanning functions like sales, service, and marketing. Simplifying the Developer Experience The true measure of Salesforce’s success in its GenAI strategy will emerge in the coming months. The company is well aware that its ability to simplify the developer experience is critical. Enterprises are looking for more than just AI innovation—they want thought leadership that can help secure budget and executive support for AI initiatives. Many companies report ongoing struggles in gaining that internal buy-in, further underscoring the importance of strong, strategic partnerships with technology providers like Salesforce. In its pursuit to rival Microsoft Copilot, Salesforce’s future hinges on how effectively it can build on its track record of simplifying the developer experience while promoting the unique autonomous qualities of Agentforce. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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AI Agents, Tech's Next Big Bet

AI Agents, Tech’s Next Big Bet

What Marketers Need to Know About AI Agents, Tech’s Next Big Bet Companies like Salesforce and OpenAI are making significant investments in AI agents, which are digital assistants poised to represent the next evolution of artificial intelligence. These agents promise to autonomously handle a variety of tasks, from making reservations to negotiating business deals. During OpenAI’s DevDay event in San Francisco last week, the company showcased a voice bot that successfully ordered 400 chocolate-covered strawberries from a local delivery service, specifying delivery and payment terms with minimal issues. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated, “2025 is when agents will work,” highlighting the potential for these technologies to revolutionize workflows. While this may seem futuristic, companies like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pactum AI are already implementing their own AI agents, though examples from brands like Qantas Airways remain relatively scarce—a point of discussion at Advertising Week New York. What Are AI Agents? AI agents extend beyond mere chatbots. According to Parasvil Patel, a partner at Radical Ventures, they lack a single unifying definition and encompass a wide range of functionalities, from automating workflows to scheduling meetings. The overarching goal, however, is clear: “The ultimate aim is to execute work autonomously,” Patel explained. Currently, AI agents are in the “co-pilot” phase, handling specific tasks such as summarizing meetings. The true breakthrough will occur when they transition to “autopilot,” managing more complex tasks without human intervention. According to Patel, this shift could take up to 24 months. When Did They Emerge? AI agents first gained attention on social media in early 2023, with various startups, including AutoGPT—an open-source application built on OpenAI’s models—promising autonomous capabilities. However, Patel notes that many of these early experiments were not robust enough to be deployed effectively in production environments. How Are Companies Using AI Agents? The appeal of AI agents lies in their ability to save time, enhance efficiency, and free employees from repetitive tasks. For instance, a large distribution company struggling to manage 100,000 suppliers utilized Pactum’s AI, which deploys autonomous agents for negotiations. Instead of seeing negotiations as a dead end, these AI agents continuously customized payment deals based on the speed of suppliers’ goods. This approach led to price discounts, rebates, and allowances. Salesforce has also seen positive results with its AI agents. Its pilot program, AgentForce, launched with five clients—including OpenTable and global publisher Wiley—and achieved a 40% increase in case resolution compared to its previous chatbot for Wiley. At the firm’s Dreamforce event, Salesforce demonstrated AgentForce with Ask Astro, assisting attendees in planning their schedules by suggesting sessions and making reservations. Salesforce’s chief marketing officer, Ariel Kelman, stated that the company has heavily invested in developing its AI agent platform in response to client demand. “What companies are figuring out with generative AI is how to deliver productivity improvements for employees and provide meaningful interactions with customers,” he noted. What About Roadblocks? The journey to fully functional AI agents is not without challenges. Managing different data formats—text, images, and videos—can be complex, as highlighted by William Chen, director of product management for AI & emerging tech at Agora. “Your system is only as good as your data source,” he said. For Salesforce, the challenge lies in the nascent customer adoption of AI agents, with companies just beginning to explore how to leverage them for productivity, according to Kelman. The key challenge is determining what solutions work best for employees and customers across various use cases. Are Jobs at Risk? Not necessarily. AI agents are unlikely to replace jobs in the immediate future. Instead, they allow employees to focus on more strategic and meaningful tasks. Rand explained, “The role of people will shift to configuring the autopilot, rather than flying the plane, which is a positive change.” For example, a major logistics client of Pactum, which previously relied on human negotiators for managing deals with freight providers, can now use AI agents to negotiate more efficiently. This adaptability allows companies to dynamically shift their business strategies based on market conditions. What’s Next? While early adopters of AI agents are seeing initial successes, there’s much more to discover. Salesforce plans to launch its next AI agent later this month: a Sales Development Representative (SDR) designed to manage early-stage sales interactions. Typically, human SDRs follow up on marketing leads through emails and calls, but this AI agent will qualify leads, providing human salespeople with a targeted list of 50 to 100 prospects eager to engage. “Instead of receiving a list of 500 leads, they’ll get a refined list of those who actually want to talk,” Kelman concluded. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Build Launch and Track Campaigns

Build Launch and Track Campaigns

Revolutionizing Campaigns: How Marketing Agents Empower Your Marketing Team Marketing agents are transforming how businesses create, launch, and track campaigns—delivering better results while boosting internal team productivity and cohesion. With the power of AI and data, these agents act as collaborative partners, enhancing marketing efficiency and creativity in unprecedented ways. A Smarter Approach to Campaign Challenges Marketers have long faced the challenge of creating quality content at scale. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 54% of B2B marketers struggle to meet this demand, while B2C marketers often lack the resources to make their efforts scalable and consistent. On top of this, they must ensure campaigns are efficient, customer-centric, and stand out in a competitive landscape. Enter marketing agents—AI-powered tools that help teams manage and optimize campaigns, from strategy to execution. At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce unveiled Agentforce, a suite of intelligent agents integrated across the Customer 360 platform, including Agentforce Campaigns. With 71% of marketers planning to adopt generative and predictive AI within the next 18 months, as per Salesforce’s State of Marketing report, tools like Agentforce are poised to redefine how campaigns are built and delivered. How Humans and AI Agents Work Together Marketing agents are AI-powered virtual assistants that collaborate with humans to analyze data, generate insights, and execute marketing plans. Unlike traditional tools, they understand the context behind your needs and suggest actionable solutions—whether that’s creating content, optimizing campaigns, or analyzing results. By automating time-consuming tasks, marketing agents free teams to focus on high-value activities like strategy and personalization. But the key to maximizing their potential lies in shifting your mindset: instead of simply seeking efficiency, aim to transform how you deliver exceptional customer experiences. 8 Ways Agentforce Campaigns Elevates Your Marketing 1. Intelligent Recommendations Agentforce Campaigns turns insights into actions. For example, Marketing Cloud’s Einstein not only tracks your goals but also suggests adjustments or new campaigns tailored to your objectives, helping you stay ahead. 2. Instant Campaign Briefs Building a campaign starts with a solid brief. With Agentforce, you can create one in seconds using natural language prompts. The AI-generated brief incorporates your goals and guidelines, making collaboration and approvals seamless. 3. Contextual Content Creation Agentforce generates emails, landing pages, and calls to action directly aligned with your brand’s tone and campaign goals. Marketers can refine outputs with natural language prompts, ensuring a perfect fit for their strategy. 4. Effortless Audience Segmentation No SQL skills? No problem. Describe your ideal audience in natural language, and Agentforce will translate that into actionable segments—helping you target precisely the right customers. 5. Automated Journey Activation Agentforce simplifies multi-channel journey creation by drafting personalized campaign flows. You can refine, approve, and activate these journeys with ease, saving time while enhancing impact. 6. Unlimited Content Variations AI eliminates content constraints, allowing you to generate multiple variations for personalized campaigns. Target high-value customers, newcomers, or loyal fans with tailored messages—all at scale. 7. Explore Nuanced Segments Agentforce enables marketers to create segments without relying on overburdened data science teams. Dive into deeper audience insights, such as churn rates based on location, age, or past behavior, with just a prompt. 8. Embed Continuous Testing Testing is often deprioritized due to time limitations. Agentforce automates testing workflows, making it easier to incorporate A/B testing and iterative learning into every campaign. Getting Started with Agentforce Campaigns Agentforce Campaigns is available in Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced Editions, designed to empower businesses of all sizes. By integrating AI-driven tools into your workflow, you can elevate your marketing to new heights—enhancing creativity, efficiency, and customer engagement. Ready to revolutionize your campaigns? Explore how Agentforce can help you win customers and foster a more productive, cohesive marketing team. Salesforce Disclaimer: Unreleased features mentioned here are subject to change and may not become available as described. Make purchasing decisions based on currently available features. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud Innovations

Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud Innovations

What Our Dreamforce Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud Innovations Mean for You This year’s Dreamforce was nothing short of amazing. It was exciting to reconnect with fellow Trailblazers, exchange brilliant ideas, and showcase the innovations we’ve been crafting at Salesforce. A recurring theme throughout the event was how businesses can leverage data and AI to forge deeper customer-driven relationships by bringing internal teams closer together. These innovations are designed to transform not only how companies engage with customers but also how their teams work together. Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud Innovations. Seamless integration between Marketing, Commerce, Sales, and Service teams is crucial for creating unified customer experiences. Often, customers feel as though they are interacting with separate departments rather than one cohesive company—this is largely due to disconnected technology and processes. But thanks to Salesforce’s advancements in unified data, AI, and automation, those days are numbered. Now, departments can collaborate more effectively, delivering hyper-personalized, frictionless experiences across the entire customer lifecycle. Let’s explore the latest Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud innovations announced at Dreamforce 2024 and how they can benefit your business. What You’ll Learn Salesforce Marketing Cloud Innovations These four innovations in Marketing Cloud are built on the Salesforce Platform and powered by Data Cloud, offering marketers a seamless view of customer data across the business. This foundation makes it easier to deliver unified customer experiences, improve handoffs between teams, and measure success more effectively. 1. Agentforce Embedded in Marketing Workflows Agentforce for Marketing combines generative and predictive AI to create an end-to-end campaign experience that marketers can launch and optimize with ease. Here’s how it helps: Example: A marketer looking to prevent customer churn can launch a re-engagement campaign. Agentforce will identify the right audience, craft personalized messages, and optimize delivery based on customer behavior. 2. Empowering Small and Medium Businesses The new Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition brings enhanced AI and automation capabilities to SMBs, enabling them to scale personalization and improve productivity: 3. Automating Data Preparation and Analytics with Einstein Marketing Intelligence (EMI) EMI uses AI and Data Cloud to automate the ingestion, transformation, and analysis of marketing data: 4. Einstein Personalization for 1:1 Experiences Einstein Personalization uses AI to recommend products, content, or services based on individual customer preferences: Example: A service agent could offer a discount on a product a customer was recently viewing, creating a seamless, personalized experience. Salesforce Commerce Cloud Innovations As businesses scale and handle increasing amounts of data, managing complex commerce systems can be a challenge. The new Commerce Cloud updates simplify these complexities by extending unified commerce capabilities across the organization. 1. Simplifying Cross-Functional Commerce Tasks By unifying data from across the business, Commerce Cloud enables better cross-functional collaboration: 2. AI-Powered Commerce Agents with Agentforce Commerce Cloud introduces three AI-powered agents to streamline business processes: 3. Streamlining Checkout for a Faster, Easier Experience With new express payment options like Link by Stripe and Amazon Pay, Commerce Cloud Checkout speeds up transactions and improves conversion rates by 14%. Plus, Buy with Prime integration allows shoppers to use their Amazon Prime accounts for a faster checkout experience, complete with trusted delivery and hassle-free returns. The Future of Unified Commerce Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers a unified platform that brings together sales, service, and marketing, providing a 360-degree view of the entire customer journey. This unified commerce approach enables businesses to deliver seamless B2B and B2C experiences, all powered by a single platform. By integrating enterprise-wide data, trusted AI, and automated workflows, Salesforce helps businesses scale personalized, intelligent experiences across every touchpoint. Every interaction becomes an opportunity for growth, setting the standard for success in today’s customer-driven world. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Revolution Customer Service with Agentforce

Revolution Customer Service with Agentforce

Agentforce stole the spotlight at Dreamforce, but it’s not just about replacing human workers. Equally significant for Service Cloud was the focus on how AI can be leveraged to make agents, dispatchers, and field service technicians more productive and proactive. Join a conversation to unpack the latest Sales Cloud innovations, with a spotlight on Agentforce for sales followed by a Q&A with Salesblazers. During the Dreamforce Service Cloud keynote, GM Kishan Chetan emphasized the dramatic shift over the past year, with AI moving from theoretical to practical applications. He challenged customer service leaders to embrace AI agents, highlighting that AI-driven solutions can transform customer service from delivering “good” benefits to achieving exponential growth. He noted that AI agents are capable of handling common customer requests like tech support, scheduling, and general inquiries, as well as more complex tasks such as de-escalation, billing inquiries, and even cross-selling and upselling. In practice, research by Valoir shows that most Service Cloud customers are still in the early stages of AI adoption, particularly with generative AI. While progress has accelerated recently, most companies are only seeing incremental gains in individual productivity rather than the exponential improvements highlighted at Dreamforce. To achieve those higher-level returns, customers must move beyond simple automation and summarization to AI-driven transformation, powered by Agentforce. Chetan and his team outlined four key steps to make this transition. “Agentforce represents the Third Wave of AI—advancing beyond copilots to a new era of highly accurate, low-hallucination intelligent agents that actively drive customer success. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce is a revolutionary and trusted solution that seamlessly integrates AI across every workflow, embedding itself deeply into the heart of the customer journey. This means anticipating needs, strengthening relationships, driving growth, and taking proactive action at every touchpoint,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. With advanced security features, compliance with industry standards, and unmatched flexibility. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” In contrast to now-outdated copilots and chatbots that rely on human requests and strugglewith complex or multi-step tasks, Agentforce offers a new level of sophistication by operating autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans for any task, and executing these plans without requiring human intervention. Like a self-driving car, Agentforce uses real-time data to adapt to changing conditions and operates independently within an organizations’ customized guardrails, ensuring every customer interaction is informed, relevant, and valuable. And when desired, Agentforce seamlessly hands off to human employees with a summary of the interaction, an overview of the customer’s details, and recommendations for what to do next. Deploy AI agents across channelsAgentforce Service Agent is more than a chatbot—it’s an autonomous AI agent capable of handling both simple and complex requests, understanding text, video, and audio. Customers were invited to build their own Service Agents during Dreamforce, and many took up the challenge. Service-related agents are a natural fit, as research shows Service Cloud customers are generally more prepared for AI adoption due to the volume and quality of customer data available in their CRM systems. Turn insights into actionLaunching in October 2024, Customer Experience Intelligence provides an omnichannel supervisor Wall Board that allows supervisors to monitor conversations in real time, complete with sentiment scores and organized metrics by topics and regions. Supervisors can then instruct Service Agent to dive into root causes, suggest proactive messaging, or even offer discounts. This development represents the next stage of Service Intelligence, combining Data Cloud, Tableau, and Einstein Conversation Mining to give supervisors real-time insights. It mirrors capabilities offered by traditional contact center vendors like Verint, which also blend interaction, sentiment, and other data in real time—highlighting the convergence of contact centers and Service Cloud service operations. Empower teams to become trusted advisorsSalesforce continues to navigate the delicate balance between digital and human agents, especially within Service Cloud. The key lies in the intelligent handoff of customer data when escalating from a digital agent to a human agent. Service Planner guides agents step-by-step through issue resolution, powered by Unified Knowledge. The demo also showcased how Service Agent can merge Commerce and Service by suggesting agents offer complimentary items from a customer’s shopping cart. Enable field teams to be proactiveSalesforce also announced improvements in field service, designed to help dispatchers and field service agents operate more proactively and efficiently. Agentforce for Dispatchers enhances the ability to address urgent appointments quickly. Asset Service Prediction leverages AI to forecast asset failures and upcoming service needs, while AI-generated prework briefs provide field techs with asset health scores and critical information before they arrive on site. Setting a clear roadmap for adopting Agentforce across these four areas is an essential step toward helping customers realize more than just incremental gains in their service operations. Equally important will be helping customers develop a data strategy that harnesses the power of Data Cloud and Salesforce’s partner ecosystem, enabling a truly data-driven service experience. Investments in capabilities like My Service Journeys will also be critical in guiding customers through the process of identifying which AI features will deliver the greatest returns for their specific needs. Agentforce leverages Salesforce’s generative AI, like Einstein GPT, to automate routine tasks, provide real-time insights, and offer personalized recommendations, enhancing efficiency and enabling agents to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Agentforce is not just another traditional chatbot; it is a next-generation, AI-powered solution that understands complex queries and acts autonomously to enhance operational efficiency. Unlike conventional chatbots, Agentforce is intelligent and adaptive, capable of managing a wide range of customer issues with precision. It offers 24/7 support, responds in a natural, human-like manner, and seamlessly escalates to human agents when needed and redefining customer service by delivering faster, smarter, and more effective support experiences. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM

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Agentforce Autonomous Agents

Agentforce: Transforming Business Operations with Autonomous Agents Agentforce empowers organizations to create and manage autonomous agents that streamline tasks across various business departments. These include Sales Agents, Service Agents, Marketing Agents, Commerce Agents, and Platform Agents—truly delivering on the vision of “an Agentforce in every app.” But how does Agentforce work, and what are the building blocks for configuring these agents? Salesforce emphasizes that Agentforce is built with clicks, not code, making it highly accessible to users. This claim was validated by many attendees at the ‘Agentforce Launchpad’ during Dreamforce, who noted that the tool is as declarative and user-friendly as Salesforce promised. The Building Blocks of Agentforce 1. Agent Builder The journey begins with the Agent Builder within Agentforce Studio. This configuration tool allows users to define their agent’s attributes, such as the avatar, name, and description, using natural language inputs—essentially describing the agent in conversational terms. Salesforce describes it as: “If you can dream it, Agentforce can do it.” The Agent Builder interface comprises: Salesforce also provides out-of-the-box agents, such as Sales Agents, which can be enabled via guided setup. 2. Agent Topics Topics are the foundational building blocks that determine an agent’s scope of work. For example, a topic like “Order Management” grants the agent access to data such as order histories and product specifications. In the Dreamforce keynote, Saks’ service agent demonstrated the importance of topics by resolving customer queries tied to its assigned topics. However, queries outside the defined topics were flagged as “guardrails,” ensuring the agent stayed within its designated scope. 3. Topic Actions Actions, tied to topics, define what an agent can do. These actions are often flows, such as querying a CRM database or triggering automated processes. Users can assign existing actions or create new ones by referencing Apex, Flow, prompts, or MuleSoft APIs. For example, integrating external data sources requires defining a new Agentforce action tied to a MuleSoft API. This allows the agent to query data just as human users would. Testing Agents with the Atlas Reasoning Engine Agentforce’s Atlas Reasoning Engine powers agents with advanced capabilities. Users can test agents within the Agent Builder interface, following the reasoning process step-by-step: Once configured, agents are ready to operate across their assigned communication channels (e.g., email, WhatsApp, voice). Omni Supervisor: Real-Time Agent Monitoring Omni Supervisor, originally a Service Cloud feature, now extends to monitoring agents. It provides insights into overall trends, allows real-time oversight of interactions, and even enables listening to recent conversations. The Role of Data Cloud in Agentforce Data powers Agentforce, enabling agents to provide highly contextual responses. The Data Cloud processes both structured data (e.g., Salesforce records) and unstructured data (e.g., emails, voice memos) using its Vector Database for advanced processing. 1. Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Salesforce employs RAG to enhance the accuracy of agent responses. RAG integrates the Atlas Reasoning Engine with Data Cloud, creating a feedback loop. Data Cloud enriches user prompts by retrieving relevant data, making agent responses more contextual and informed. 2. New Data Streams To enhance Agentforce capabilities, data can be ingested into the platform in three ways: For instance, connecting an order management system like Snowflake is streamlined via Salesforce’s prebuilt connectors. 3. Data Graphs Data Graphs visualize relationships between Data Model Objects (DMOs), enabling users to ensure all necessary data is available for optimal agent performance. Real-time Data Graphs enhance identity resolution, segmentation, and action execution for seamless data flow. Inside Prompt Builder Prompt Builder allows users to create or refine prompts that power Agentforce actions. Low-code tools guide users through the process, offering features such as previewing results and assessing feedback toxicity ratings. Search Index in RAG The Search Index is a critical component of RAG. It retrieves relevant data from Data Cloud to enhance agent reasoning. Search parameters can be configured in three ways: Tectonic’s Thoughts Agentforce, powered by Data Cloud and advanced AI tools like the Atlas Reasoning Engine, represents a new era of automation and efficiency for businesses. Whether through Sales, Service, or Marketing Agents, organizations can leverage this technology to streamline operations, personalize customer experiences, and achieve better outcomes. With over 5,200 customers implementing Agentforce in their sandboxes within the first two days of Dreamforce, the platform is already proving its transformative potential. By 2025 over a billion agents had been created! Agentforce isn’t just about improving efficiency; it’s about redefining what’s possible for business operations. Content updated January 2025. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Generative AI for Match Commentary

Generative AI for Match Commentary

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Companies are exploring the use of artificial intelligence for sports commentary, showcasing one of the many innovative applications of this technology in the sports arena. ABC7 reporter J.R. Stone recently got a firsthand look at IBM’s integration of Generative AI to analyze and enhance playing abilities during a demonstration at Dreamforce 2024 in San Francisco. This same technology has also been implemented at prestigious events like Wimbledon and the US Open. “This year marks the introduction of Generative AI for match commentary, which utilizes data collected during the games to create real-time analysis and match summaries,” explained Nick Otto from IBM. In a related segment, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revealed a new AI system called “Agent Force,” while Senator Scott Wiener introduced a bill focused on AI safety. The AI tracks various metrics, including average ball and swing speeds, as well as performance on forehand and backhand shots. To put the technology to the test, Stone faced off against Otto in a ping-pong match, where Otto emerged victorious with a score of 11-7. After the match, the AI generated an entertaining summary: “Nick’s arm must have felt like a whirlwind, spinning the ball at an average speed of 8.45 mph. J.R. tried to keep up, but his 30 forehand shots and 5.56 mph swing speed were no match.” While the advancements in AI are exciting, UCLA Professor Ramesh Srinivasan emphasizes the need for caution. “This technology is both incredible and concerning because it raises questions about the future of human journalists and commentators,” he noted. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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