Third Wave of AI

13Dec

UK Leading AI’s Third Wave

The UK Leading AI’s Third Wave: Insights from Salesforce’s AI Readiness Index Salesforce’s latest UK AI Readiness Index positions the UK as a frontrunner in the third wave of AI innovation, particularly in agentic AI—autonomous systems capable of decision-making and action. This comes as nations globally compete for leadership in AI development, with significant implications for economic growth, national security, and technological sovereignty. UK’s AI Readiness Exceeds G7 Averages The index reveals that the UK’s overall readiness score is 65.5, outpacing the G7 average of 61.2. Both government and business sectors outperform their peers, reflecting a robust environment for innovation. Zahra Bahrololoumi, CBE, UKI CEO of Salesforce, highlights the transformative potential of this technology, stating: “Agentic AI is revolutionising enterprise software by enabling seamless collaboration between humans and AI agents, driving customer success. The UK AI Readiness Index affirms the UK’s vision and infrastructure to lead globally in this new wave of innovation.” Driving Forces Behind UK’s Leadership The UK’s strength lies in its holistic approach to AI development, integrating: Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark, notes: “These findings are proof that the UK is primed to leverage AI’s potential, showcasing our strength in fostering innovation, investment, and collaboration across sectors.” AI in Action: Transforming UK Businesses Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is helping UK organisations capitalise on AI’s potential. Leading companies such as Capita, Heathrow Airport, and Bionic have reported significant productivity gains: The Road Ahead: Maintaining Leadership The report outlines key priorities for sustaining the UK’s position: Salesforce’s commitment to the UK includes a $4 billion investment over five years and the opening of its AI Centre in London, aimed at training developers and administrators in cutting-edge AI technologies. What the Experts Say Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of techUK, remarks: “The Salesforce UK AI Readiness Index highlights the UK’s strong position to lead the next wave of AI innovation. By supporting SMEs, investing in skills, and ensuring flexible regulation, the UK can solidify its global AI leadership.” Paul O’Sullivan, UKI CTO and SVP Solution Engineering at Salesforce, reinforces the urgency: “We are in the third wave of AI—an autonomous age moving at unprecedented speed. The UK has a unique opportunity to lead, but this requires sustained focus on skills, innovation, and collaboration.” Conclusion As the AI revolution accelerates, the UK’s leadership in agentic AI positions it as a global AI powerhouse. By balancing innovation with responsibility and investing in infrastructure and talent, the UK is not just adapting to AI’s future but shaping it. Salesforce’s AI initiatives, including its Agentforce platform and London AI Centre, ensure the UK remains at the forefront of this transformational journey. 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

December 13, 2024in Agentforce Platform, AI Tools, Enterprise, Salesforce, Technology0 Comments

21Nov

Salesforce adds Testing Center to Agentforce for AI agents

Salesforce Unveils Agentforce Testing Center to Streamline AI Agent Lifecycle Management Salesforce has introduced the Agentforce Testing Center, a suite of tools designed to help enterprises test, deploy, and monitor autonomous AI agents in a secure and controlled environment. These innovations aim to support businesses adopting agentic AI, a transformative approach that enables intelligent systems to reason, act, and execute tasks on behalf of employees and customers. Agentforce Testing Center: A New Paradigm for AI Agent Deployment The Agentforce Testing Center offers several key capabilities to help businesses confidently deploy AI agents without risking disruptions to live production systems: Supporting a Limitless Workforce Adam Evans, EVP and GM for Salesforce AI Platform, emphasized the importance of these tools in accelerating the adoption of AI agents: “Agentforce is helping businesses create a limitless workforce. To deliver this value fast, CIOs need new tools for testing and monitoring agentic systems. Salesforce is meeting the moment with Agentforce Testing Center, enabling companies to roll out trusted AI agents with no-code tools for testing, deploying, and monitoring in a secure, repeatable way.” From Testing to Deployment Once testing is complete, enterprises can seamlessly deploy their AI agents to production using Salesforce’s proprietary tools such as Change Sets, DevOps Center, and the Salesforce CLI. Additionally, the Digital Wallet feature offers transparent usage monitoring, allowing teams to track consumption and optimize resources throughout the AI development lifecycle. Customer and Analyst Perspectives Shree Reddy, CIO of PenFed, praised the potential of Agentforce and Data Cloud Sandboxes: “By enabling rigorous pre-deployment testing, we can deliver faster, more accurate support and recommendations to our members, aligning with our commitment to financial well-being.” Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director at The Futurum Group, highlighted the broader implications: “Salesforce is instilling confidence in AI adoption by testing hundreds of variations of agent interactions in parallel. These enhancements make it easier for businesses to pressure-test autonomous systems and ensure reliability.” Availability With these tools, Salesforce solidifies its leadership in the agentic AI space, empowering enterprises to adopt AI systems with confidence and transform their operations at scale. 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

November 21, 2024in Agentforce Platform, Data, Enterprise, Salesforce0 Comments

13Nov

Copilots and Agentic AI

Agentic AI vs. Copilots: Defining the Future of Generative AI Artificial Intelligence has rapidly evolved, progressing from simple automation to generative models, to copilots. But now, a new player—Agentic AI—has emerged, promising to redefine the AI landscape. Is Agentic AI the next logical step, or will it coexist alongside copilots, each serving distinct roles? Copilots and Agentic AI. Generative AI: Creativity with a Human Touch Since the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI has dominated tech priorities, offering businesses the ability to generate content—text, images, videos, and more—from pre-defined data. However, while revolutionary, generative AI still relies heavily on human input to guide its output, making it a powerful collaborator rather than an autonomous actor. Enter Agentic AI: Autonomy Redefined Agentic AI represents a leap forward, offering systems that possess autonomy and the ability to act independently to achieve pre-defined goals. Unlike generative AI copilots that respond to human prompts, Agentic AI makes decisions, plans actions, and learns from experience. Think of it as Siri or Alexa—enhanced with autonomy and learning capabilities. Gartner recently spotlighted Agentic AI as its top technology trend for 2025, predicting that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously, up from virtually none today. Agentforce and the Third Wave of AI Salesforce’s “Agentforce,” unveiled at Dreamforce, is a prime example of Agentic AI’s potential. These autonomous agents are designed to augment employees by handling tasks across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff described it as the “Third Wave of AI,” going beyond copilots to deliver intelligent agents deeply embedded into customer workflows. Salesforce aims to empower one billion AI agents by 2025, integrating Agentforce into every aspect of customer success. Benioff took a swipe at competitors’ bolt-on generative AI solutions, emphasizing that Agentforce is deeply embedded for maximum value. The Role of Copilots: Collaboration First While Agentic AI gains traction, copilots like Microsoft’s Copilot Studio and SAP’s Joule remain critical for businesses focused on intelligent augmentation. Copilots act as productivity boosters, working alongside humans to optimize processes, enhance creativity, and provide decision-making support. SAP’s Joule, for example, integrates seamlessly into existing systems to optimize operations while leaving strategic decision-making in human hands. This collaborative model aligns well with businesses prioritizing agility and human oversight. Agentic AI: Opportunities and Challenges Agentic AI’s autonomy offers significant potential for streamlining complex processes, reducing human intervention, and driving productivity. However, it also comes with risks. Eleanor Watson, AI ethics engineer at Singularity University, warns that Agentic AI systems require careful alignment of values and goals to avoid unintended consequences like dangerous shortcuts or boundary violations. In contrast, copilots retain human agency, making them particularly suited for creative and knowledge-based roles where human oversight remains essential. Copilots and Agentic AI The choice between Agentic AI and copilots hinges on an organization’s priorities and risk tolerance. For simpler, task-specific applications, copilots excel by providing assistance without removing human input. Agentic AI, on the other hand, shines in complex, multi-task scenarios where autonomy is key. Dom Couldwell, head of field engineering EMEA at DataStax, emphasizes the importance of understanding when to deploy each model. “Use a copilot for specific, focused tasks. Use Agentic AI for complex, goal-oriented processes involving multiple tasks. And leverage Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) in both to provide context to LLMs.” The Road Ahead: Coexistence or Dominance? As AI evolves, Agentic AI and copilots may coexist, serving complementary roles. Businesses seeking full automation and scalability may gravitate toward Agentic AI, while those prioritizing augmented intelligence and human collaboration will continue to rely on copilots. Ultimately, the future of AI will be defined not by one model overtaking the other, but by how well each aligns with the specific needs, goals, and challenges of the organizations adopting them. 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

November 13, 2024in Artificial Intelligence, Data, Generative AI, Salesforce, Technology0 Comments

16Oct

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 post 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

October 16, 2024in Data, Enterprise, Generative AI, Google, Google Analytics, Marketing Automation, Salesforce

08Oct

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

October 8, 2024in Data, Enterprise, Generative AI, Salesforce, Unified Knowledge

07Oct

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! AI All Grown Up 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: 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: 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: 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 Early Adopters and Success Stories Several companies are already benefiting from Agentforce: 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? 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 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

October 7, 2024in Agentforce Platform, AI Tools, Data, Google, Mulesoft, Salesforce, Technology

03Oct

Agentforce Unveiled

Salesforce Unveils ‘Agentforce’ to Empower a Billion AI Agents by 2025 Salesforce has introduced Agentforce, a revolutionary suite of autonomous AI agents aimed at transforming service, sales, marketing, and commerce sectors. With Agentforce, companies can rapidly scale their operations, boost efficiency, and elevate customer satisfaction by leveraging intelligent agents that handle routine tasks and complex workflows. The Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine powers these agents, autonomously analyzing data, making decisions, and completing tasks. This engine enables organizations to easily build, customize, and deploy their own agents using intuitive low-code tools. In addition, the Agentforce Partner Network allows customers to integrate pre-built agents from industry leaders like AWS, Google, IBM, and Workday, offering even more flexibility. Real-world impact Companies like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are already deploying Agentforce within their existing systems to enhance workforce capabilities and scale operations. Agentforce works autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans, and executing them without human intervention. However, when needed, it can seamlessly hand off tasks to human employees, providing an overview of interactions, customer details, and suggested next steps. For example, Wiley has reported a 40% increase in case resolution after implementing Agentforce to handle routine inquiries. During busy seasons, like back-to-school, Agentforce has helped Wiley streamline operations, freeing up employees to handle more complex cases. Saks is also leveraging Agentforce to elevate its personalized customer experiences, empowering employees with real-time insights to deliver exceptional service. A new era of AI-driven customer success Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is confident that Agentforce represents the third wave of AI, surpassing traditional chatbots and copilots with its fully autonomous capabilities. “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,” Benioff said. Unlike its predecessors, Agentforce operates independently, adapting to changing conditions using real-time data. Whether responding to a customer service inquiry, qualifying sales leads, or optimizing marketing campaigns, Agentforce makes timely, relevant decisions based on an organization’s custom settings. When more human oversight is required, the platform provides detailed summaries and recommendations to assist employees in making informed decisions. Agentforce’s scalability and future Salesforce’s ambitious goal is to empower one billion AI agents by the end of 2025. This bold vision stems from the understanding that 41% of employee time is often spent on repetitive, low-impact work, according to the Salesforce Trends in AI Report. By automating these tasks, Agentforce allows employees to focus on more strategic, high-value initiatives, creating a hybrid workforce that is more effective and adaptable. Benioff noted, “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. Our vision is bold, and this is what AI is meant to be.” As businesses worldwide continue to explore AI’s potential, Agentforce positions Salesforce as a leader in the next wave of AI innovation, where autonomous agents enhance every facet of business operations. With over 1,000 agents already active, the future of work is a dynamic blend of human expertise and AI-powered agents, enabling organizations to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape. 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

October 3, 2024in Einstein 1 Platform, Salesforce Einstein, Salesforce Optimization

21Sep

Agentforce and Thinking AI

Agentforce is how humans with AI drive customer success together, equips organizations with autonomous agents that boost scale, efficiency, and satisfaction across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and more New Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine autonomously analyzes data, makes decisions, and completes tasks, providing reliable and accurate results With Agentforce, any organization can build, customize, and deploy their own agents quickly and easily, with low-code tools New Agentforce Partner Network allows customers to deploy pre-built agents and use agent actions from partners like Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Workday, and more Customers like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are turning to Agentforce because it is integrated with their apps, works across customer channels, augments their employees, and scales capacity for business needs SAN FRANCISCO — September 12, 2024 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today unveiled Agentforce, a groundbreaking suite of autonomous AI agents that augment employees and handle tasks in service, sales, marketing, and commerce, driving unprecedented efficiency and customer satisfaction. Agentforce enables companies to scale their workforces on demand with a few clicks. Agentforce’s limitless digital workforce of AI agents can analyze data, make decisions, and take action on tasks like answering customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns. With Agentforce, any organization can easily build, customize, and deploy their own agents for any use case across any industry. The future of AI is agents, and it’s here. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” MARC BENIOFF, CHAIR, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SALESFORCE “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 struggle with 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. Industry leaders like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are already experiencing the transformative power of Agentforce. For example, Agentforce is helping organizations like Wiley provide customers with dynamic, conversational self-service. Agentforce is configured to answer questions using Wiley’s knowledge base already built into Salesforce so it can automatically resolve account access. It also triages registration and payment issues, directing customers to the appropriate resources. With Agentforce handling routine inquiries, Wiley has seen an over 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming their old chatbot and giving their human agents more time to focus on complex cases. Why it Matters An estimated 41% of employee time is spent on repetitive, low-impact work, and 65% of desk workers believe generative AI will allow them to be more strategic, according to the Salesforce Trends in AI Report. Every company has more jobs to be done than the resources available to do them. As a result, many jobs go unaddressed or uncompleted. Agentforce provides relief to overstretched teams with its ability to scale capacity on demand so humans can focus on higher-touch, higher-value, and more strategic outcomes. The future of work is a hybrid workforce composed of humans with agents, enabling companies to compete in an ever-changing world. Supporting Customer Quotes “Piloting Agentforce has made a noticeable difference during one of our busiest periods — back-to-school season. It’s been exciting to go live with our first agent thanks to the no-code builder, and we’ve seen a more than 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming our old bot. Agentforce helps to manage routine responsibilities and free up our service teams for more complex cases.” – Kevin Quigley, Senior Manager, Continuous Improvement, Wiley “Every interaction that restaurants and diners have with our support team must be accurate, fast, and reflective of the hospitality that restaurants show their guests. Agentforce has incredible potential to help us deliver that high touch attentiveness and support while significantly freeing up our team to address more complex needs.” – George Pokorny, SVP Customer Success, OpenTable “As we advance our personalization strategy, we believe Agentforce and its AI-powered capabilities have the potential to make a real impact on our approach to customer engagement, raising the bar in luxury retail. Agentforce will improve our effectiveness across customer touchpoints, empowering our employees and augmenting their ability to deliver the elevated and more individualized shopping experiences for which Saks is known.” – Mike Hite, Chief Technology Officer, Saks Global 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

September 21, 2024in Data, Enterprise, Generative AI, Google, Salesforce, Technology

19Sep

Salesforce and OpenAI Advances in AI

With investor enthusiasm for AI beginning to fade, Salesforce is shifting focus to its next AI wave, “Agentforce,” which will be showcased at the Dreamforce customer conference. This announcement comes at a time when Salesforce stock has underperformed, with revenue growth slowing and expectations building that AI-related revenue may not materialize until 2025. Salesforce and OpenAI Advances in AI. The Agentforce platform will be featured at Dreamforce, running from Sept. 17 to Sept. 19, and aims to automate routine business tasks while offering real-time insights and guidance. CEO Marc Benioff noted in a Sept. 12 briefing that Agentforce represents the third wave of AI, moving beyond conversational chatbots to more autonomous agents. Early adopters of the platform include Walt Disney, Kaiser Permanente, Fossil, Wiley, and OpenTable. Meanwhile, Salesforce faces stiff competition. Microsoft is hosting its own AI event, Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2, which focuses on business productivity features powered by generative AI. Like Salesforce, Microsoft’s AI tools have yet to demonstrate significant revenue impact, as customers are still testing the technologies. Salesforce is pushing Agentforce as an evolution of its previous Einstein copilot, which integrates conversational AI within its apps. Agentforce aims to take this further by reducing human oversight and improving efficiency in sales, marketing, and customer service roles. The product is scheduled for an October rollout, with a pricing model based on usage—potentially $2 per interaction for complex queries. Analysts have mixed opinions on Agentforce’s potential. Truist Securities sees the AI platform driving future subscription growth, while Barclays believes it could gain more traction than previous AI tools due to its fully autonomous nature. However, others, like Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., remain cautious, noting concerns about Salesforce’s slowing revenue growth in a challenging macroeconomic environment. Salesforce Agentforce PlatformIn its second-quarter earnings call, Salesforce shared promising results from an Agentforce trial, where the platform resolved 90% of patient inquiries for a large healthcare customer. Analysts like Morgan Stanley’s Keith Weiss see Agentforce as a key differentiator for Salesforce, enabling customers to leverage AI at scale with reduced complexity and cost. Despite this optimism, Salesforce still faces challenges. Competitors such as Meta’s AI Studio and ServiceNow are also advancing AI agent technologies. ServiceNow, for instance, emphasizes the need for strict human oversight of AI actions, a sentiment echoed by Salesforce’s chief ethical and humane use officer, Paula Goldman. As the tech industry races to enhance AI autonomy, concerns about the technology’s limitations—such as bias, hallucinations, and decision-making risks—remain central. Experts warn that while AI agents hold great potential, they must be carefully regulated to prevent unintended consequences. 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

September 19, 2024in Agentforce Platform, Generative AI

12Sep

Agentforce to the Team

Salesforce has introduced the Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine, a platform designed to perform tasks autonomously with minimal human intervention. Agentforce to the Team changes everything about AI. Businesses can feed the engine data, assign tasks, and step away, as the system is capable of completing work independently. This launch closely follows OpenAI’s recent advancements in artificial intelligence, highlighting the ongoing collaboration between Salesforce and Sam Altman’s firm. Agentforce to the Team-makes me hear “Honey, I’m home”, coming from the front door. The Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine is designed to analyze data, make decisions, and execute tasks with high reliability and accuracy, echoing the features of OpenAI’s latest AI model. Salesforce positions this as part of the “Third Wave of AI,” where intelligent agents go beyond assisting humans to actively driving business outcomes without frequent oversight. According to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, these agents are deeply integrated into customer workflows, anticipating needs and improving growth by taking proactive action at every touchpoint. Benioff emphasized the revolutionary nature of Agentforce, which he claims will surpass existing AI platforms by offering highly accurate, low-hallucination results. It integrates seamlessly across Salesforce’s ecosystem, benefiting users from industries such as financial services, healthcare, and government. Early adopters, such as Wiley, report a 40% increase in case resolution, with Agentforce handling routine customer service tasks more efficiently than previous chatbots. Disney also saw improved results, noting that Atlas delivered twice the accuracy of other AI tools they had benchmarked. However, the autonomous nature of these agents raises concerns about job displacement, particularly for workers involved in repetitive, low-impact tasks. While Salesforce advocates for reskilling workers to transition into higher-value roles, many organizations struggle to effectively implement such initiatives. The time required to upskill workers may not align with the rapid adoption of AI technologies like Agentforce. Agentforce aims to address common enterprise challenges by offering out-of-the-box solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service roles. The low-code platform allows businesses to customize their AI agents without extensive technical expertise, ensuring that they can scale capacity and improve efficiency. Salesforce plans to showcase Agentforce at its upcoming Dreamforce conference, aiming to onboard 1,000 customers to the platform. The launch signifies Salesforce’s strategic push to dominate the enterprise AI landscape, leveraging its vast data and platform to deliver more value to its customers. Despite its potential, Agentforce introduces new risks, especially in areas like data privacy and ethical AI deployment. Salesforce emphasizes its commitment to addressing these issues by incorporating ethical guardrails, such as toxicity filters. Industry analysts remain cautiously optimistic, noting that while the technology holds promise, the real test will come as more organizations adopt it and integrate it into their workflows. In summary, Salesforce’s Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine represents a significant leap in enterprise AI, moving beyond basic AI copilots to fully autonomous agents. While it offers substantial benefits in productivity and efficiency, its impact on the workforce and the challenges of widespread AI adoption will require ongoing attention. By Tectonic’s Shannan Hearne, Solutions Architect 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

September 12, 2024in Salesforce

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