Dreamforce 2024 Reflections: Agentforce and More
Dreamforce is now in the rearview mirror, so I’d like to give a few of my own reflections on the event. The one term that took center stage in Salesforce’s ecosystem: Agentforce. Introduced only weeks ago, Agentforce is now integrated across multiple platforms like Slack and Tableau, positioning itself as a key player in Salesforce’s vision for the future. This article explores how Agentforce, Data Cloud, and new trends like consumption-based pricing are reshaping Salesforce, and what it all means for the future of CRM.
Agentforce is everything
In a meeting with Salesforce right before Dreamforce, I heard Salesforce experts answer the ultimate question about Agentforce: What is Agentforce? Is it the new Copilot or Einstein bot? The answer was “Everything is an agent.” When I heard that, I should have known what was coming in Dreamforce. Almost every session had Agentforce in it. We just heard the term for the first time a few weeks back, and Salesforce said Agentforce is GA (generally available) in Slack, GA in Tableau, etc. That’s because all existing Copilot solutions got relabeled to Agentforce. What sets Agentforce apart from Salesforce’s previous pitches in this area? Salesforce emphasizes that Agentforce can take actions. And Salesforce will provide you with a bunch of out of the box actions. If you want to learn more about Agentforce head over to our dedicated blog post HERE.
Data Cloud is still important
When I reviewed the schedule for Dreamforce, I saw that Data Cloud still had a keynote, but I was skeptical. Will we forget about Data Cloud’s notoriety in a few years? I am still not sure. However, after watching the sessions, I see that Data Cloud is required to deploy Agentforce. Whether that will remain so in the future, I am uncertain. I can tell you for now that Data Cloud is here and still holds a good share of the center stage.
Consumption-based pricing is the way forward
There is a general trend among the clients: They are tired of fixed per-seat subscription pricing. This is not isolated to Salesforce, by the way. I heard that the list price for Agentforce is $2 per interaction. Most of you know that Data Cloud is also sold based on consumption-based pricing models. There is a general trend in Salesforce’s approach, which is expected to continue: We are heading to a consumption-based pricing future.
Conversational Interface is where it’s at
When we watched these Dreamforce sessions, many of us did not realize that Salesforce is setting a vision for how users are expected to interact with their CRM in the future. The future is conversational. Clicking buttons, turning sliders on and off, or dragging items from one box to another will be a thing of the past. Instead, you’ll converse with your CRM. Typing may be necessary for now, but soon, you’ll be able to talk and listen.
ROI takes center stage instead of Trust
When AI came along, Salesforce sold very hard: It is the only provider that can provide the secure Trust layer you need. Salesforce was the Sheriff in the Wild West. After more than a year, it is evident that the Trust pitch did not work. Do we not have the Trust Layer anymore? We do. But the focus has changed. All demos focus on the ROI of the implementation rather than the Trust Layer aspect.
Slack’s Salesforce Channels: The first attempt to dethrone Chatter
Let’s face it: Until now, Slack has not done that much to integrate with Salesforce. AI capabilities have also been somehow slow as well. At Dreamforce, Salesforce announced Salesforce Channels in Slack. Now you can create a channel in Slack for your Salesforce object records. Your record field values now appear in Slack, and the Slack conversations are displayed on the Salesforce page layout. Sounds very promising, does it not? We will see how well it is implemented when it is GA. For the Slack and Salesforce clients this could be the start of the end of Chatter.
Salesforce Foundations comes bearing gifts
Salesforce announced Foundations, a free upgrade that brings key cross-department features to every Salesforce customer at no additional cost. Foundations includes Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Data Cloud features, all in a new, enhanced UI. This makes it easier for businesses to get a unified view of their customers and build connected, AI-powered experiences across every customer touchpoint. Salesforce has been making worthwhile attempts to bring various cloud capabilities into core under the same umbrella making it easy for smaller clients to adopt new features.
Admin Role is changing
I watched the admin keynote, and the content did not seem to be geared toward admins. What is the reason for that? There are two possibilities:
- Salesforce is pushing hard to sell Data Cloud and Agentforce, and the content was shaped this way due to that motive.
- Salesforce sees that the admin role needs to change and, therefore, is pushing the discussion in this direction.
In the admin demos, we saw user management, Data Cloud, Agentforce, integrations, flow, and invocables. The content was a mashup of pretty advanced capabilities. Are the admins expected to upskill to this scope? Will the new admin job posts include all these capabilities? I don’t know. What I know for sure is that the change is coming. Prepare for the inevitable by getting AI certified for FREE for a limited time.
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