Salesforce has announced that its Agentforce platform is now generally available.
The platform allows businesses to scope, test, and deploy out-of-the-box autonomous AI Agents that augment their existing Salesforce workflows.
Moreover, with an embedded low-/no-code Agent Builder, brands can create custom AI Agents to action unique tasks and connect functions across the Salesforce ecosystem.
The CRM leader makes that process seem simple. “If you can describe the job, Agentforce can build the Agent for it,” it noted in a launch video.
Agentforce does so by taking a natural language description of the task, isolating relevant resources within the business’s Customer 360 environment, and – with this business understanding – developing an AI Agent prototype.
The AI Agent then auto-suggests knowledge, actions, and guardrails that will enable it to perform more effectively, allowing the CX team to optimize its performance.
During September’s Dreamforce 2024 event, Salesforce customers built 10,685 AI Agents, serving various industries and use cases.
In putting the platform in their hands, the CRM leader bridged the gap between the excitement of AI advancements and the practical, risk-aware application of these tools.
Additionally, it could showcase the significant shift from generation-based AI to action-based AI.
According to Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, while previous iterations of generative agents may have proven useful, those that act are transformative.
“Agentforce is redefining what’s possible in business and beyond, ushering in a new era of AI abundance and limitless workforces that augment every employee, build deeper customer relationships, and drive unprecedented growth and profitability,” he said.
Built on Salesforce’s trusted, fully customizable platform — seamlessly integrating enterprise data, metadata, AI models, workflows, security, and applications — Agentforce is what AI was meant to be.
Upon its release, Agentforce has many oven-ready AI Agents available, including over 100 sector-specific examples.
Yet, the most well-utilized will likely be industry-agnostic and geared toward service and sales teams.
For instance, its AI Service Agent is likely to be popular. This resolves incoming support cases by responding intuitively and conversationally.
Meanwhile, the AI Sales Development Agent catches the eye. It proactively engages with leads, answers their questions, and schedules meetings.
As a final example, consider the AI Sales Coach Agent. Trained on in-house best practices, this can join calls with new sales reps, provide real-time tips, and handle objections.
However, while these use cases within individual CRM apps may drive value, businesses leveraging the broad Salesforce Platform stand to benefit most from Agentforce.
Indeed, Salesforce’s complete platform includes Data Cloud, which helps to supercharge the AI Agents. It also connects Salesforce apps, enabling AI Agents to work collaboratively across functions.
Making this point during a recent episode of CX Today’s Big News Update, Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, said: “Salesforce has offered AI capabilities for a while, with varying levels of success through Einstein, but this felt more like assembling individual AI tools rather than a cohesive strategy. Now, with Agentforce, they’ve taken a more comprehensive, turnkey approach.
The platform covers everything from role definition to data integration, actions, guardrails, and channels – essentially all components needed for effective AI deployment. It reflects the maturity of the industry, and it feels like a great move.
Interestingly, Salesforce has also rewritten all its Customer 360 apps within the platform, ensuring they’re all built on a unified foundation.
That unified foundation ensures Agentforce can work seamlessly across the entire CX ecosystem without needing extensive consulting or custom solutions.
Yet, to benefit fully from Agentforce, brands will likely have to complete lots of integration work, channeling various data sources into Data Cloud.
Those that have already achieved this – including early Agentforce adopters like The Adecco Group, BACA Systems, OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley – stand to secure the greatest reward.
Secure a Free Trial of the Agentforce Service Agent on Salesforce Foundations
Organizations can try out an Agentforce AI Agent for free with Salesforce Foundations, a $0 add-on for Enterprise Edition customers and higher.
Announced in September, Salesforce Foundations is a free upgrade that makes capabilities from the broader Salesforce ecosystem available to Sales and Service Cloud customers.
Now, Foundations customers will receive credit for their first 1,000 customer conversations with Agentforce Service Agent, so they can try before they buy.
From there, pricing for the AI Agent will start at $2 per conversation, with volume discounts.
Alongside this, Salesforce highlighted several other resources to prospective Agentforce customers.
These include its new Agentblazer Community, where CX leaders can connect with product experts, learn more about the platform, and share ideas for AI Agents.
Additionally, Salesforce offers an Agentforce Partner Network to enable third-party actions when utilizing the platform for highly customized, interoperable AI Agents.
Finally, there is “Agents for Impact”, a Salesforce Accelerator initiative to support non-profits in building and customizing AI Agents. With this, the CRM giant scales the community impact of AI.
