Artificial intelligence has redefined the way we work and for workforces, it has resulted in considerable spike in productivity. Enterprises can free their teams from manual tasks so that they can focus on high-value deliverables by leveraging AI automation. Meanwhile, customers’ expectations are at an all-time high—they want seamless, personalized experiences, instant support, and efficient interactions every time.
Imagine a world where your team is not constrained by capacity or time. What if your workforce could handle more, deliver better service, and never feel overwhelmed? That’s where Agentforce comes in.
Agentforce combines the power of human expertise with AI-driven agents on the Salesforce platform to create a seamless, scalable workforce. It’s not just about automating tasks; it’s about empowering your team to focus on what matters most—building meaningful connections and driving success for your business.
With Agentforce, there are no limits.
At the Dreamforce 2024 event, Salesforce introduced Agentforce, a set of tools, as part of the “Third Wave of AI.” Salesforce developed Agentforce, via Agent Studio to empower the creation, management, deployment, and measurement of AI agents for various business operations.
There are 2 types of Agentforce AI agents:
- Autonomous: They will do the job for you
- Assistive: They will help you do the job
Salesforce Agentforce allows you to build, activate, and manage AI agents across customer service, sales operations, marketing, commerce and more. You can deploy these Salesforce AI agents across industries, including healthcare, banking, retail, manufacturing, IT, analytics, and more. As they operate autonomously, Agentforce AI agents do not require human input, thereby empowering your workforce to focus on ROI and innovation-driven tasks.
Here we explore what Salesforce Agentforce is, its features, use cases across industries, and how it can revolutionize business operations.
Before we dive into Salesforce Agentforce, let’s understand what AI agents are.
An AI Agent is an intelligence system that understands human queries and responds to it just like a human would. It works on machine learning and natural language processing capabilities to handle complex tasks autonomously.
Salesforce AI agents leverage the data model to learn about its surroundings, process information, and take action without any human input. As they are self-learning, they can improve their performance. This is also how they differ from traditional AI agents, which require human input for complex or unique tasks.
Salesforce AI agents can be leveraged across several business cases , like responding to customer inquiries, suggesting product recommendations, or managing complex tasks based on what they have learned over time.
How is Salesforce Agentforce different?
Many companies, from startups to large enterprises, offer agent solutions that promise better customer service, more efficient sales, and assisted marketing. But what sets Salesforce Agentforce apart is how it combines the power of the Salesforce Platform to empower humans and AI agents to work together and drive success. Here’s what makes us different:
#1: The power of the Salesforce Platform
For over 20 years, customers have used the Salesforce Platform to tailor and extend core applications. Enterprises have created workflows with Flow, used Apex code for complex logic, and recently started leveraging generative AI. These tools form the building blocks of Salesforce AI agents. For instance, if your service team needs to process returns and update an ERP system, chances are you already have automation in place with Flow and MuleSoft. Agentforce lets you seamlessly integrate these as “Actions,” enabling AI agents to handle tasks autonomously when needed—improving efficiency without reinventing the wheel.
#3 Humans and AI working together to achieve higher productivity
Many solutions claim to replace the entire breadth of human workforce with their AI agents. While this seems promising, Salesforce believes that rather than replacement, higher growth and better ROI can be achieved with human + AI collaboration. And this is exactly what Salesforce Agentforce is all about, humans and AI agents working together to drive higher customer success.
For example, while onboarding a new sales rep or business development representative is a tedious and sloe process, it also requires dedicated assistance from a personal sales coach. With Agentforce AI agents, you can give all your sales rep a digital coach that guides them throughout the training process, provides feedback, and offers real-time support, ensuring that they excel. Not only does it save time of your sales team, but provides the best training to your new sales reps and achieve better output.
#3: The right data is paramount here
For AI agents to perform actions, they need access to the right data. This is where Salesforce Data Cloud comes into play. With its data model, Salesforce Data Cloud accesses the right data to deliver hyper-personalized experiences to each customer at the right time across the right device. And since all of it is built on a secure and enterprise-grade platform, enterprises can scale these Salesforce AI agents without worrying about data security.
Unlike the traditional AI tools that do not possess this level of autonomy and control, Salesforce Agentforce is leaps ahead ensuring that your AI agents within trusted and secure environment.
How can enterprises leverage Salesforce Agentforce?
Salesforce Agentforce empowers enterprises to create as many AI agents as required per your business cases. Regardless of departments, you can easily create AI agents to fulfill the manual requirements of your specific business requirements. These are just some use cases and areas where you can employ Agentforce AI agents:
#1: 24/7 support with Agentforce Service Agents
How about having a service representative that can assist with your customer queries? With Salesforce Agentforce Service Agents, you will have round-the-clock support assistants for your customers. These AI agents can handle common queries so that your customers can get the help you need. Also, you they can handle complex queries as well or route them to a human service representative. This puts less stress in your support staff.
#2: Maximizing pipeline with Salesforce Agentforce Sales Agents
Salesforce Agentforce Sales Agents work as extra hands in your sales team. They can reach out to potential customers, qualify leads based on attributes specified, and build a better sales pipeline. This means your sales team can now focus on closing deals while AI agents can handle the initial outreach. This makes your sales process even more efficient.
#3: Optimizing campaigns with Agentforce Marketing Agents
Salesforce Agentforce Marketing Agents can help make your campaigns more targeted and personalized. Based on data analysis, customer preferences, behavior, and other details, Salesforce AI agents can suggest the best strategies to ensure you send the right message to the right customer at the right time and across the right channel. This improves the ROI of your marketing campaigns and also the engagement.
#4: Giving shoppers a concierge experience with Commerce Agents
In the world of eCommerce, making customers feel special and providing them with an engaging shopping experience is key. Salesforce Agentforce Commerce Agents can act as your shopper’s personal assistants, providing personalized product recommendations, tracking orders on their behalf, and even handling returns. Such personalization improves customer experience, loyalty, and trust. And most importantly, it encourages customers to return.
#5: Launching custom agents with Agentforce Platform agents
Apart from creating AI agents for Service, Commerce, Sales, and Marketing, you can also create custom agents for specific business needs with Agentforce Platform Agents. Just like with other Salesforce Clouds, enterprises can build AI agents to perform specific tasks related to unique business needs. From automating workflows to helping with insights for particular processes, these AI agents can support your business goals and make operations smoother.
Technologies used in Salesforce Agentforce
#1: Atlas Reasoning Engine
Atlas Reasoning Engine is the core intelligence engine behind the Salesforce Agentforce. It equips AI agents with the ability to understand and respond to user queries in a human-like manner. It also empowers these AI agents to self-learn and improve their responses for better assistance. You can even elevate the accuracy of these agents by defining topics, classifying them to specific categories, and detailing them with well-defined scopes and rules.
Key Features:
- Analyzes large datasets to find correlations for human queries
- Can interpret complex datasets to deliver more human-like reasoning
- Can be scaled for all industry use cases
- Provides accurate insights to improve decision-making
#2: Agent Builder
Agent Builder is where you create these intelligent AI agents. As you build these agents via low-code, your team doesn’t have to spend extensive time in coding these agents. Agent Builder leverages Flow, Apex, MuleSoft APIs and prompt templates to streamline the agent creation process.
Salesforce Agentforce Agent Builder lets you define the specific tasks or actions you want your agent to perform in a natural language. You can extend the ability of your AI agents by adding new topics and giving actions to those topics. Agent Builder also allows you to build a library of actions so that your AI agent can equip all tasks efficiently and effectively.
Key Features:
- Pre-configured templates to create different types of agents
- Customize agents in just a few clicks to extend to the existing Salesforce Platform
- Seamless integration with APIs, databases, and other software
- Easy configuration of agents for service, commerce, sales, and other teams to complete tasks in the workflows
#3: Prompt Builder
Salesforce Agentforce Prompt Builder, the first low-code prompt management tool, lets you create, maintain, test, and optimize your prompts. With Prompt Builder, you can simply pull relevant data fields into a prompt and then adapt data dynamically based on a customer’s unique context. Agentforce Prompt Builder retrieves data from CRM and Data Clouds via Flows, Apex, MuleSoft, and more. Then, AI experts can test the output of the prompt before sending it to LLM.
Other capabilities of Prompt Builder includes:
#1: Building, testing, and optimizing AI prompts within the Agentforce Trust Layer. This masks all sensitive information.
#2: Grounded AI prompts with dynamic CRM data via Merge fields and Flow for dynamic data input, even for complex logic
#3: Unlock prompted actions across Customer 360 for several unique use cases for both desktop and mobile
#4: Model Builder
Model Builder is a tool in Salesforce that makes it easy to create and use AI. With Model Builder, you can build custom AI models that work with your Salesforce data to help automate tasks or make predictions. It connects with other AI tools to help you build, train, and set up these models, so you can take advantage of powerful AI capabilities right within Salesforce.
Key Features:
- Drag-and-drop interfaces for easy model configuration.
- Pre-built algorithms and model types (e.g., classification, regression, clustering).
- Tools for data preprocessing, feature selection, and scaling.
- Automatic hyperparameter tuning and cross-validation.
- Performance metrics and visualizations for model evaluation.
#5: Trust & Guardrails
Trust & Guardrails guarantees that AgentForce operates as a secure and ethical AI system. Trust is built upon reliability, openness, and accountability, while guardians, conversely, avert detrimental choices, guaranteeing that these agents adhere to industry standards. This encompasses data privacy protocols, bias identification algorithms, and human oversight, creating a balanced framework for AI to thrive while protecting users’ interests.
Key Features:
- Builds user trust by providing a transparent understanding of the decision-making process.
Stops discriminatory results by identifying and addressing any biases present in the algorithm. - The natural adherence to industry regulations and ethical norms guarantees legal usage.
- Builds user trust by providing a transparent understanding of the decision-making process.
Transforming Industries with Use Cases
Salesforce Agentforce, equipped with AI-driven capabilities, can be utilized in various industries to streamline operations, improve customer service, and increase sales. Here’s how it can be implemented across different sectors:
#1: Retail and eCommerce
In Retail and e-commerce industry, AI agents can be used for managing product availability, shipping, returns, and order management regarding customer inquiries. These AI agents also provide customized product recommendations based on the customer shopping history and preference to drive sales and enhance customer satisfaction.
#2: Health Care
In the health care sector AgentForce may be utilized in scheduling meetings, clarification of frequently asked questions, updating patient records, analyzing patient data and predicting issues that will arise with health and appropriate treatment plans, thus saving medical staff more time for focusing on critical tasks.
#3: Financial Services
Agentforce may be applied by banks and financial institutions for account inquiries, verifying the transaction history, or simply to keep the customer updated on the detection of fraud. Through security protocols from Salesforce, customers get ensured access while maintaining privacy. Agentforce AI Agents could examine the financial data of the customer and give prudent advice on investment opportunities, savings plans, and credit options.
#4: Manufacturing
AI agents can oversee the entire supply chain, including tracking and managing orders, handling cancellations or returns, communicating with suppliers, and ensuring seamless operations. These AI agents can also predict equipment breakdowns through data analysis, enhancing the efficiency of the manufacturing process and conserving time.
#5: Telecommunication
Network Monitoring: AgentForce AI agents can aid in quicker resolution of technical problems and can also assist in observing network performance.
Customer Support: AI Agents can address customer inquiries, handle billing concerns, detect and fix technical issues, and recommend the most appropriate plans to customers according to their usage patterns.
#6: Travel and Hospitality
Reservations and Bookings: AgentForce AI agents can provide personalized travel suggestions to users by considering their previous bookings and preferences when arranging flights, accommodations, and tours.
Customer Support: AI assistants can help customers with their travel questions, and handle cancellations, or any other changes while ensuring they enjoy a smooth travel experience.
#7: Education
Administrative Automation: Agentforce can optimize administrative tasks, such as student enrollment, exam planning, and course administration.
Student Assistance: AI agents can aid educational establishments such as schools, coaching centers, and colleges in handling admissions, as well as offering personalized support to each student in addressing their questions about courses.
#8: Real Estate
Property Recommendations: AI agents can help real estate companies provide property suggestions based on customer preferences and answer questions related to pricing, property features, and scheduling viewings.
Lead Generation and Nurturing: AI agents can qualify leads based on customer interactions and follow up with potential buyers, improving conversion rates.
How Salesforce Agentforce is different from Einstein AI?
Here is the table with the differences between Salesforce Agentforce and Salesforce Einstein AI.
| Features | Salesforce Agentforce | Einstein AI |
| Intelligence | Uses advanced AI with the Atlas Reasoning Engine to tackle complex problems | Relies on standard AI models for pattern matching and programmed responses. |
| Natural Language Processing | Advanced NLP that understands purpose and context in multiple languages | Basic NLP focused on intent recognition and keyword matching |
| Autonomy | Highly autonomous, making decisions and taking actions independently | Needs human input and follows set routines for complex tasks |
| Integration | Deeply integrated with the Salesforce ecosystem and third-party systems through the Agentforce Partner Network | Primarily integrates with Salesforce but has limited third-party connections |
| Customization | Offers extensive customization with low-code options via the Agent Builder | Customizable with a bot-building interface, but with narrower use cases |
| Data Handling | Quickly accesses and analyzes data in real time from multiple sources | Limited to predefined connectors and data sets |
| Scalability | Highly scalable, managing complex, multi-step tasks simultaneously | Scalable enough to handle multiple conversations efficiently |
| Task Complexity | Handles intricate, multi-step activities across various fields | Best suited for simple, repetitive tasks in specific areas |
| Learning Capability | Adapts and improves over time with each interaction and results | Has limited learning capability and requires manual updates |
| Use Cases | Designed for complex processes across multiple departments | Primarily used for customer support and basic information retrieval |
We can help set up Agentforce for you
As a 2X award-winning Salesforce Summit Partner, we understand the specific complexities in leveraging Salesforce Agentforce across industries. However, we can help deploy these AI agents across the Salesforce ecosystem, helping your business run smarter and more efficiently. From Sales and Service to Marketing and Commerce, enterprises can integrate the Salesforce AI agents across operations. Let’s discuss how Salesforce Agentforce can transform business processes and deliver tangible results.
