8 Sources
[1]
Salesforce adds AI to everything, jacks up prices by 6%
Salesforce is raising prices for a bunch of its products and claims that increasing integration with AI justifies the increased bills, even after one of its own researchers recently said that AI agents are often underdelivered on basic CRM tasks. In an announcement on Tuesday, the CRM giant said it is raising prices by an average of 6 percent for both the Enterprise and Unlimited SKUs of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and "select Industries Clouds," on August 1. Salesforce Starter, Pro, and Foundations editions aren't getting a price bump. It's also made generally available a couple of new SKUs of Agentforce, the company's platform for building and rolling out AI agents, for those same clouds. Agents are the buzzword du jour in AI, describing little pieces of autonomous code supposedly capable of executing complicated workflows without as much user intervention. The lower-priced Agentforce "add-ons" start at $125 per user per month for Enterprise and Unlimited customers, and come with agent access for every licensed user, prebuilt templates for certain industries, analytics, and a tool to help users create useful AI prompts. Agentforce 1 Editions starts at $550 per user per month, and adds more customized features for specific clouds and greater licensing flexibility, with one million Flex credits and 2.5 million Data Services credits per company per year. Salesforce introduced Flex Credits in May, replacing its earlier $2-per-conversation model for Agentforce actions, and it claimed the move would give customers greater flexibility by allowing them to manage costs better. In June, Bill Patterson, Salesforce executive veep for CRM applications, said that AI vendors are still hammering out the right pricing model and any biz that thinks they have it "all figured out is kidding themselves." Both Agentforce SKUs replace similarly named Einstein products, "Einstein" being the old and now disfavored branding for all of Salesforce's AI tech. There are also a bunch of changes to Slack, the collaboration/chat platform that Salesforce acquired for more than $27 billion in 2021. It's adding AI features, and integrating Slack conversations into the Salesforce UI ("Salesforce Channels") for all customers, while raising prices for Business+ users from $12.50 per user per month to $15, "to reflect the significant value added through new advanced AI capabilities," it said. In addition, Salesforce is introducing a new Slack Enterprise+ plan bundled with Agentforce 1 Editions. Enterprise+ smears AI search across Slack channels, Salesforce records and a handful of connected third-party apps, all via a single pane to hunt down your org's data. Salesforce last raised its prices in August 2023, adding around 10 percent to bills across a range of products, saying the extra AI it was baking in justified the cost increases. That move wasn't popular with customers and CFO Amy Weaver cautioned price hikes "take a while to roll through our customer base," but Wall Street was very happy with the move and the stock price rose. Not quite the same for today's announcements. Its stock saw a brief bump before falling right back to where it started, and comments on some user forums have been rather negative, along with complaints that Salesforce is overly prone to mistakes hallucinations. This appears to be backed up by Salesforce's own research. On Monday, research led by one of its researchers found that LLM agents could only get a single-function task right 58 percent of the time, and that fell to 35 percent if a task needed multiple steps. ®
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Salesforce hikes Slack prices, adds AI tools for all paid users
What the Bot: Salesforce has decided to increase prices for certain paid Slack plans. The company is attempting to justify the change by stating that all customers will now have access to more AI features. And if you don't want or need AI, well, you'll likely end up paying more anyway. According to a recent announcement from Salesforce, Slack customers will now have to pay more but will receive new AI-based features in return. Paid plans for the service will cost a few dollars more per user, meaning larger organizations could face significantly higher costs if they want to continue using the cloud-based collaboration platform for the foreseeable future. The Slack Business+ plan will increase from $12.50 to $15 per user per month for companies paying annually. Meanwhile, monthly billing will rise from $15 to $18 per user. A few plans (Foundations, Starter, and Pro) should not see any price increases. Salesforce also introduced a new Enterprise+ plan offering enhanced search, admin, and control capabilities. At the core of these Slack price increases is the platform's integration of AI features. Customers on the Pro plan will gain access to conversation summaries and huddle notes, while Business+ and Enterprise+ plans will unlock more advanced AI capabilities such as AI search, recaps, translations, file summaries, and more. Salesforce is also betting big on agentic AI with its Agentforce service. Agentforce customers can develop their own AI agents, which, according to the cloud giant, should enhance employees' and users' experiences through the new "digital labor" paradigm. Agentforce now includes "add-ons" and the Agentforce 1 Editions, starting at $125 and $550 per user per month, respectively. Providing every employee in an organization with rich AI features is now a strategic imperative, Salesforce stated in its announcement. While workers are increasingly interested in using AI services, many corporations are still struggling to translate the technology into meaningful business value. Some organizations are even beginning to backtrack from fully adopting AI. Salesforce is just one of many tech companies desperately trying to turn AI into a money-printing venture rather than an aggravating cost and security nightmare for the entire IT world. In 2024, the corporation was caught abusing user data to train new AI models without asking for permission first.
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Salesforce raises prices on Slack and more, promises more AI integration as a result
Salesforce says added value from AI has led to the higher prices Salesforce has confirmed it will be raising prices by an average of 6% across a number of its core products, including Enterprise and Unlimited SKUs of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service and selected Industries Clouds. Changes are set to come into affect from August 1, 2025, giving users just a few weeks to prepare for higher bills or find alternative solutions. Foundations, Starter and Pro Editions are set to remain unchanged, with Salesforce blaming the incremental price increases on "ongoing innovation and [significant] customer value." A month after announcing consumption-based pricing for its AI models, Salesforce has launched new Agentforce add-ons, starting at $125 per user per month, offering unlimited employee agent use for licensed users. The packages include industry-specific, prebuilt AI agent templates, AI analytics (via Tableau), the company's Prompt Builder and more. Agentforce 1 Editions sits above this tier, adding to it features like one million Flex Credits per year (replacing per-conversation pricing) and 2.5 million Data Services Credits per year. It comes at the cost of $550 per user per month. Apart from the new AI models and a 6% average price hike across Enterprise and Unlimited SKUs, Salesforce has also updated its messaging platform. The company says it hasn't changed Slack's pricing since 2022, but earlier in 2025, Slack Business+ users will end up paying $15 per user per month, up from $12.50. A new Enterprise+ tier joins the mix, while Pro pricing is set to remain unchanged. Free users will also continue with access to their current features. "These updates across our portfolio are designed to help organizations buy, use, and recognize value with the latest innovations throughout their businesses," Salesforce shared, launching a dedicated page for pricing across all its products.
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Salesforce Reveals Price Raises, New Payment Packages Amid AI Investments
The change reflects 'the significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products,' Salesforce said in a statement. Salesforce plans to increase list prices for Enterprise and Unlimited editions of its Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service and select Industries Clouds by an average of 6 percent on Aug. 1 as the vendor and its artificial intelligence competitors continue to experiment with AI business models. The San Francisco-based enterprise applications vendor also took Slack Business+ plan pricing from $12.50 per user per month to $15 among other changes to Slack plans, according to Salesforce. Monthly billing Business+ customers will go from $15 per user per month to $18 per user per month. Salesforce said in an online post that the change reflects "the significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products." Salesforce Foundations, Starter and Pro editions won't change. [RELATED: Salesforce Q1 Earnings: Benioff Says Informatica Deal A Win For 'Data Transformation'] CRN has reached out to Salesforce for comment. Altaf Shaikh, CEO and founder of Framingham, Mass.-based Salesforce solution provider ListEngage, told CRN in an interview that he has been moving users onto Salesforce offers amid excitement around the vendor's AI investments and the opportunity to consolidate spending on a variety of data platform vendors. "If they've got multiple Salesforce orgs, it's a slam dunk to use AI and Agentforce and bring in Data Cloud to tie it all together," for example, Shaikh said. Microsoft, ServiceNow and other AI vendors have tinkered with different price plans and business models while bringing new products leveraging this technology to market. Microsoft, for example, offers consumption-based Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and $30 per user per license M365 Copilot among its AI products. "We started out on a per-user-per-month with copilot, then consumption and hybrids, and now back to a per-user-per-month model with unlimited usage," KeyBanc said in a report Tuesday, referring to the pricing experiments. "We'll see how long this current iteration holds." The investment firm doesn't expect an immediate boom to Salesforce's-and thus solution providers' -- revenue from the price changes. "It will be incremental to revenue this year but not a big tailwind," according to the report. "It will take some time for the full impact to roll through the model." Salesforce Enterprise plans for Sales, Service and Field Service clouds for now start at $165 per user per month. Unlimited plans start at $330. The price hike comes after Salesforce, which has about 12,000 channel partners worldwide, revealed in May an option for consumption-based Flex Credits meant to better align payment for the Agentforce AI platform with business outcomes. In May, alongside Flex Credits, Salesforce unveiled new Agentforce user licenses and add-ons with an option for payment per user, per month for unlimited agent use. On Tuesday, Salesforce also said that Agentforce add-ons and Agentforce 1 Editions are generally available for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service and Industries Clouds. These add-ons replace existing Einstein add-ons and Einstein 1 editions. Agentforce add-ons start at $125 per person, per month. They include pre-built Agentforce templates by role and industry and access to a suite of predictive, generative and agentic capabilities. Agentforce 1 Editions start at $550 per user, per month. They come with 1 million Flex Credits per "org" -- a dedicated digital workspace in the Salesforce platform-per year. Customers also receive 2.5 million Data Services Credits per org per year and Slack Enterprise+. The new add-ons "could nearly 2-3x / user / month starting Enterprise license costs," according to KeyBanc. Slack has not seen a price change since 2022, according to a Tuesday online post by the Salesforce division. "Slack has evolved into a unified work operating system and conversational interface for all your enterprise apps, data, and agents," according to the post. "Now more than ever, AI, data, and security are integral to Slack and essential for bringing AI agents successfully into the digital employee experience." All paid Slack plans are getting AI-powered summarization among other features that use the cutting-edge technology. The new $15 per user per month Business+ plan adds AI-powered capabilities including workflow generation, recaps, translation and search. The Enterprise+ plan-whose price was not broken out in the announcement-brings users enterprise search capabilities, task management capabilities, enhanced security, administration controls, governance and compliance, according to the vendor. All Salesforce users also receive Slack for free. All paid plans can also leverage Agentforce AI agents and third-party AI applications as well.
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Salesforce Raises Enterprise Software Prices 6% As Company Pushes AI-Powered Agentforce Platform - Informatica (NYSE:INFA), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)
Salesforce Inc. CRM announced Tuesday it will increase prices for its Enterprise and Unlimited Editions by an average of 6% starting August 1, as the cloud software giant promotes new artificial intelligence capabilities through its Agentforce platform. What Happened: The price hikes affect Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service and select Industries Clouds products. Salesforce said the increases "reflect the significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products," according to company documentation. The announcement coincides with the general availability of new Agentforce add-ons starting at $125 per user per month and Agentforce 1 Editions beginning at $550 monthly. These offerings replace existing Einstein add-ons and provide unlimited generative AI usage for licensed employees. See Also: Iran Says WhatsApp A Tool For Israeli Surveillance -- Meta Hits Back, Calling It 'False Reports' Why It Matters: The timing reflects Salesforce's aggressive push into enterprise AI markets. The company plans to hire 2,000 sales personnel to sell AI products, doubling its previous target amid strong demand. CEO Marc Benioff revealed the expanded hiring received "9,000 referrals for the 2,000 positions" at a San Francisco event. Salesforce recently reported first-quarter revenue of $9.83 billion, beating consensus estimates of $9.75 billion. The company raised full-year fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $41-$41.3 billion versus analyst estimates of $40.83 billion. The price increases come as Salesforce invests heavily in AI development and acquisitions. The company recently agreed to acquire data management firm Informatica Inc. INFA for approximately $8 billion, strengthening its AI capabilities through enhanced data integration and governance tools. Invest in Real Estate with as Little as $10Arrived HomesInvest in rental properties starting from $100Open to all investors -- no accreditation requiredReceive quarterly dividends and benefit from appreciationProfessionally managed properties, no landlord headaches5/5Get StartedFundriseLow minimum investment starting from $10Professionally managed, hands-off investing experienceEasy-to-use platform for investors of all experience levelsPassive income through quarterly dividends and appreciation4.5/5Get StartedYieldstreetMinimum investment starting from $2,500Invest in real estate, private credit, art, and moreAccess alternative investments previously reserved for institutionsSimple platform designed for accredited and non-accredited investors4.5/5Get StartedEquityMultipleMinimum investment starting at just $5,000Invest across diverse commercial real estate assetsTargeted returns clearly presented for informed investingProfessionally vetted deals designed for accredited investors4.5/5Get StartedRealtyMogulMinimum investment starting from $5,000Invest in professionally vetted real estate projects and REITsEarn potential passive income through dividends and appreciationOpen to accredited and select options for non-accredited investors4.5/5Get Started Price Action: Salesforce stock closed at $262.76 on June 17, down 0.42%, and dipped slightly to $262.75 after hours. The stock is down 20.53% year to date. According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, CRM shows strong growth and quality despite a weak valuation and only moderate momentum. The stock is currently trending negatively across the short, medium, and long term. Click here for the full stock breakdown. Read Next: Senate Republicans Axe $250 Annual Fee On EVs, $100 Fee On Hybrids In Tax Bill Proposal: Report Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: NYCStock / Shutterstock.com CRMSalesforce Inc$262.75-0.43%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum35.22Growth90.65Quality67.87Value8.74Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewINFAInformatica Inc$24.160.04%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
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Salesforce stock rises after announcing 6% price increase for major products By Investing.com
Investing.com -- Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) stock rose 2% after the company announced it will increase prices for many of its products by an average of 6%, joining other software makers adjusting their cost structures while integrating artificial intelligence capabilities. The price increases will affect Enterprise and Unlimited Editions for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and select Industries Clouds starting August 1, 2025, according to a company statement. Salesforce indicated that the price adjustments "reflect the significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products." Alongside the price increase announcement, Salesforce revealed that its new Agentforce add-ons and Agentforce 1 Editions are now generally available. These offerings replace existing Einstein add-ons and Einstein 1 Editions, with Agentforce add-ons starting at $125 per user per month and Agentforce 1 Editions starting at $550 per user per month. The company is positioning these changes as part of its strategy to "simplify and accelerate" customers' AI adoption by providing unlimited Agentforce usage for employees and embedding AI capabilities into daily operations within Salesforce and Slack. Salesforce also announced updates to Slack plans, including new AI features for all paid plans and the addition of Salesforce channels to all Slack plans, including the free tier. The company noted there are no planned changes to pricing for Salesforce Foundations, Starter, or Pro Editions.
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Salesforce com : Updated Product Packaging and Pricing Offer New AI Capabilities and More Ways to Scale AI Throughout Every Organization
Empowering every employee with AI isn't just an advantage - it's a strategic imperative for driving customer success. At Salesforce, we're committed to putting our customers at the forefront of innovation and making it easy to give every employee access to the best AI and agentic tools. That's why we're introducing new product packaging and pricing for Agentforce, Customer 360 Apps, and Slack, built to simplify and accelerate your AI journey through unlimited Agentforce usage for employees and AI deeply embedded into daily operations within Salesforce and Slack. Today, we're announcing: Agentforce Add-ons and Agentforce 1 Editions Now Generally Available Last month we announced new flexible Agentforce pricing - including Flex Credits, a consumption-based model that aligns cost with jobs to be done, and new Agentforce user licenses and add-ons that include unlimited employee agent usage. Today, Agentforce add-ons and Agentforce 1 Editions are generally available for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and Industries Clouds. These new offerings replace the existing Einstein add-ons and Einstein 1 Editions. New Agentforce add-ons, starting at $125 per user per month, can be added to Enterprise Editions and Unlimited Editions, giving users access to key benefits including: Agentforce 1 Editions, starting at $550 per user per month, offer the most comprehensive suite of AI capabilities with Cloud-specific point solutions, giving users access to: Price Increases for Enterprise and Unlimited Editions - Coming Soon We're also updating pricing for Enterprise Editions and Unlimited Editions for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and select Industries Clouds. On August 1, 2025, list prices will increase by an average of 6%. These increases reflect the significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products. There are no planned changes to pricing for Salesforce Foundations, Starter, or Pro Editions. New Slack Plans with More AI Features We're also updating Slack plans and pricing - including adding the latest AI features to all paid plans, like the ability to deploy multiple employee-facing AI agents directly in Slack so employees can collaborate with them right alongside their human coworkers. Slack's Business+ plan is now $15 per user per month, and we're introducing a new Enterprise+ plan that includes enterprise search capabilities and enhanced security, admin controls, governance, and compliance. And the best part? Slack is now free for all Salesforce customers. We're bringing the benefits of Slack's newly released Salesforce channels to Salesforce customers on all editions. Every Salesforce customer can have Slack-powered conversations directly on any Salesforce record, and view those conversations both in Slack and inside Salesforce. Salesforce channels seamlessly connect Salesforce records with team conversations, ensuring data and dialogue are instantly accessible whether you're in Slack or Salesforce. Purpose-built to help cross-functional teams work together around the most up-to-date customer data, Salesforce channels in Slack eliminate scattered insights and empower teams to make faster, smarter decisions. These updates across our portfolio are designed to help organizations buy, use, and recognize value with the latest innovations throughout their businesses. This commitment to innovation, fueled by significant ongoing investments into research and development, directly translates into the market-leading capabilities and value we bring to customers. All updated pricing can be found on our pricing pages. To discuss how you can best take advantage of Salesforce's portfolio of products within your organization, please reach out to your account representative or contact us for more information.
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Salesforce Raises Prices Amid AI Push
Salesforce plans to raise the prices on some of its plans as it looks to embed more artificial intelligence features in its offerings. The customer-relationship management platform said Tuesday the list prices for its Enterprise and Unlimited Editions will go up by an average of 6% on Aug. 1. The price of its Slack messaging platform will also rise. "These increases reflect the significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products," the company said, adding it does not plan to change pricing for its Foundations, Starter, or Pro Editions. The cost of Slack's Business+ plan is now $15 per user per month. The company said it is adding the latest AI features to all paid plans, including the ability to deploy multiple employee-facing AI agents directly in Slack. Salesforce is also introducing a new Enterprise+ plan for Slack that includes enterprise search capabilities and enhanced security, administrative controls, governance and compliance, it said. The updated pricing comes as Salesforce continues to focus its attention on its artificial intelligence offerings, including Agentforce, its AI product aimed at autonomously completing tasks like customer service. The company launched the product in October.
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Salesforce announces a 6% price increase for its Enterprise and Unlimited editions, along with new AI-powered products and pricing models, as the company pushes its Agentforce platform.
Salesforce, the customer relationship management (CRM) giant, has revealed significant changes to its pricing structure and product offerings, with a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) integration. The company announced a 6% average price increase for its Enterprise and Unlimited editions of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and select Industries Clouds, effective August 1, 2025 13.
Source: Benzinga
At the heart of these changes is Salesforce's push towards AI integration through its Agentforce platform. The company has introduced two new product tiers:
Agentforce add-ons: Starting at $125 per user per month, these offer unlimited AI agent use for licensed users, pre-built templates, and AI analytics 24.
Agentforce 1 Editions: Priced at $550 per user per month, this tier includes more customized features, one million Flex Credits, and 2.5 million Data Services Credits per company per year 14.
These new offerings replace the existing Einstein add-ons and editions, signaling a shift in Salesforce's AI branding and capabilities 1.
Source: TechSpot
Salesforce, which acquired Slack in 2021 for over $27 billion, is also adjusting the pricing for this collaboration platform:
The price increases and new AI offerings have received mixed reactions. While Salesforce argues that the changes reflect "significant ongoing innovation and customer value," some users have expressed concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the AI features 15.
Interestingly, recent research led by a Salesforce researcher found that AI agents could only complete single-function tasks correctly 58% of the time, dropping to 35% for multi-step tasks 1. This raises questions about the readiness and reliability of AI in CRM applications.
Source: The Register
Salesforce's moves reflect a broader trend in the tech industry of leveraging AI to justify price increases and create new revenue streams. The company is investing heavily in AI development and acquisitions, including the recent $8 billion deal to acquire data management firm Informatica 5.
However, the success of this strategy remains to be seen. While there is excitement around AI capabilities, some organizations are struggling to translate the technology into meaningful business value 2. Salesforce and its competitors continue to experiment with different pricing models and AI implementations as they navigate this rapidly evolving landscape 4.
As the changes take effect, businesses will need to carefully evaluate the cost-benefit ratio of these new AI-powered tools and decide whether the promised enhancements justify the increased investment in Salesforce's ecosystem.
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