Salesforce Unveils AgentForce: A New Era of AI-Powered Enterprise Solutions

AI agents transform CRM: Salesforce Agentforce - SiliconANGLE

Agentforce leads the next evolution for Salesforce in its AI offerings Salesforce Inc. is making a major push to deploy AI agents on its CRM platform, an initiative the company views as the next step in enterprise artificial intelligence adoption. Building on its predictive Einstein platform for sales, service, marketing and commerce, Salesforce announced Agentforce this month as the latest chapter in the development of AI solutions. "Think of it as the next evolution of our AI wave," said Muralidhar Krishnaprasad (pictured), president and chief technology officer at Salesforce. "We had AI wave one, which was our Einstein predictive. The AI wave two is all our copilots with generative AI, and we're now entering the age of agents." Krishnaprasad spoke with theCUBE Research's Rob Strechay and George Gilbert at Dreamforce, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed the key elements driving its Agentforce solution. Agentforce is designed to augment work for employees by handling tasks across a multitude of platforms. As a powerhouse in the customer relationship management or CRM world, Salesforce is banking on AI agents to help its clients drive tangible business results. "It's data plus agents plus CRM plus humans," Krishnaprasad said. "Imagine if you now rely on that agent to tell you what your next quarter results are going to be. If you're going to rely on your agents to do your business, or even if you're putting agents in front of your customer and the customer is asking a question, it better respond. Data becomes a very, very important ingredient in an agent's success." To support a company's data needs in the deployment of AI agents, Salesforce leverages its Data Cloud platform to channel structured and unstructured data into Agentforce. The company has also engineered a suite of tools to enable prompt generation in the building of AI agents. "Data is fragmented, so what we did with Data Cloud was to be able to harmonize all of that data first," Krishnaprasad said. "With this structured and unstructured data, you want to ground it with your agents. That's where the data plus agents comes in, and this is where we give a lot of tools like Prompt Studio and others for administrators to customize it, because your company's brand voice may be different than say my company's brand voice." A key element for Agentforce involves the Atlas reasoning engine that Salesforce relies upon for evaluating what actions and data are available to generate automated tasks. Salesforce envisions a role for Atlas in anticipating the central topics that autonomous agents will need to address in the enterprise. "You want to have a dynamic plan because you don't know what questions the customers are going to ask; you're clearly opening up your agent to all of them," Krishnaprasad said. "The Atlas reasoning engine is where we use very interesting techniques called Ensemble and retrieval augmented generation, and other things along with hierarchical planning. There are interesting techniques that we are learning where you can create dynamic plans based on the questions that are coming in, the data that is relevant to that question and the feedback from that user." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of Dreamforce 2024:

At Dreamforce, tech leaders see adoption of AI agents as next chapter of change for enterprise computing - SiliconANGLE

At Dreamforce, tech leaders see adoption of AI agents as next chapter of change for enterprise computing Salesforce Inc. used its messaging over the past week to elaborate on plans for delivery of its artificial intelligence agents. Yet beyond the hoopla surrounding the rollout of the company's Agentforce platform can be found an ongoing conversation within the tech industry around exactly where the AI train is taking us. In presentations from leading tech luminaries and private interviews with Salesforce executives during the company's annual Dreamforce gathering in San Francisco this week, a picture emerged of fundamental changes underway for society, work and the technology industry itself. The growing use of agents, intelligent pieces of software designed to perform specific tasks, could propel the global use of AI to a new level. "Our industry has been an industry of tools, but for the very first time, this is going to be an industry of skills," Jensen Huang (pictured), chief executive of Nvidia Corp., said during an appearance at the conference on Tuesday afternoon. "We're going to have agents that are excellent at particular skills. The progress you are going to have with agents over the next year or two is going to be phenomenal and surprising." Huang's belief in the future of AI agents echoed a theme expressed by many during the Salesforce event. Since OpenAI's ChatGPT was released for general use near the end of 2022, businesses large and small have been pursuing a path toward finding a way to realize a return on their AI investments. Not all have been successful, but this is an age of experimentation according to one prominent tech executive, and it will not be the "bubble" that some have predicted. "This is not a fad," Lisa Su, chair and chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., said in conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during the conference on Wednesday. "This is actually the next wave of what you can use computing for." As demonstrated by the lines of Dreamforce attendees this week in areas of the venue set aside for building AI agents, customer relationship management practitioners have no shortage of ideas around how to employ AI. Based on conversations with attendees during the week, Salesforce users were interested in leveraging out-of-the-box solutions in low-code or no-code environments to build agents that could analyze data, comprehend customer needs and take appropriate action. After entering a small amount of information, and then defining the task using a PC-connected microphone that immediately transcribed language into text, many users needed only 30 minutes to generate their very own AI agent in prototype to take back and show colleagues at home. For Salesforce, the response from its users and comments from top semiconductor executives Huang and Su represented a validation of its strategy to overlay Agentforce as a overarching rainbow across CRM solutions such as Customer 360 and Data Cloud. Rather than offer a standalone AI product, Salesforce believes that it can differentiate itself in the marketplace by leveraging the core elements within its existing platform. "We're at this inflection point where all the technologies we've been building have prepared us for this," said Sanjna Parulekar, vice president of product marketing at Salesforce, told SiliconANGLE. "It showcases that we are a platform company, we are at our heart a platform." As it deploys Agentforce across its platform, Salesforce is also paying close attention to the startup community that is forming around AI. The company's investment arm, Salesforce Ventures, has demonstrated a series of savvy bets over the years with investments in established companies such as Snowflake Inc., Databricks Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. In a briefing for the media at Dreamforce on Wednesday, Claudine Emeott, a partner in Salesforce Ventures, spoke about the firm's recent investment in Uplimit Inc., an AI enterprise learning company, after their colleagues at Databricks saw potential in the platform to educate its own customers. "We see AI as an amazing way to catalyze change at a faster pace," Emeott said. "This shows the pull that is happening." Pull is also happening in the AI open-source world, as described by Vipul Prakash, co-founder and CEO of Together AI in the media briefing with Emeott. Salesforce Ventures led the recent financing round for Together AI, which started as an open-source platform for AI workloads and now offers its own development tools for embedding AI into business applications. Prakash told the assembled media that interest in open-source AI models will shape the market for enterprise use and adoption. "We think there is a big branch of AI that will be driven by open-source models," Prakash said. "You are seeing ecosystems growing around these models. It lets you control the cost for companies that are productizing them." The agent-based focus of Salesforce this week highlighted how the flywheel of AI is currently reshaping the computer industry narrative. Software remains a key part of the conversation. Yet, as Nvidia's Huang noted, it will be worth watching how the adoption of AI agents changes the systems and platforms that will power this next chapter of enterprise architecture. "There's this belief that AI is this giant wad of software that's pulsing and growing," Huang said. "New AIs are helping us create new computer systems... it's a system of AIs. Nobody should miss the next decade of technology advancement. You're not going to want to miss this moment."

Salesforce Introduces Agentforce Partner Network with AWS, Google, IBM, and Workday

Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, announced the launch of its Agentforce Partner Network on September 17, 2024. This global ecosystem brings together top partners, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM, and Workday, to enhance the capabilities of its AI-driven Agentforce platform. Recently, Fintech giant Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski announced that the company will end its service provider relationships with Salesforce and Workday as part of a major internal overhaul driven by AI initiatives. The new network will give businesses access to a wide array of third-party agent actions and pre-built agent templates, automating complex tasks across various systems. Agentforce is a platform that enables companies to deploy AI agents to complete intricate tasks by integrating actions across Salesforce and various third-party systems. The newly launched partner network expands the platform's scope by allowing these agents to interface seamlessly with external systems, enabling users to accomplish more in less time. "Agentforce represents a monumental shift in the industry, enabling humans with AI to redefine how businesses achieve customer success," said Brian Millham, president and chief operating officer at Salesforce. Customers can now access a catalog of trusted third-party extensions from Salesforce's AppExchange, the company's marketplace for applications and integrations. These extensions will enable users to customize out-of-the-box agents or build new ones with industry-specific or specialised skills. Partners such as AWS, Google Cloud, IBM, and Workday are building agent actions that help Salesforce's AI agents interact with third-party applications and systems. This expansion includes the creation of pre-built agent templates that cater to specialised industries and line-of-business use cases. For example, agent actions built by partners will allow businesses to integrate AI agents with external systems to handle tasks like document processing, regulatory compliance, and workflow automation. These actions, available through Salesforce's AppExchange, will let customers deploy these capabilities with minimal setup, offering a quick and scalable approach to implementing AI-driven solutions. The network also features agent templates that bring together sets of actions for specific tasks or industries. These templates can be deployed directly from AppExchange and customised without coding, providing a seamless user experience. These out-of-the-box agents come pre-configured to meet industry-specific needs, allowing businesses to streamline operations without building agents from scratch. Salesforce has partnered with global system integrators (SIs) like Accenture, Deloitte Digital, Capgemini, IBM Consulting, PwC, and Slalom to support customers in deploying Agentforce. These integrators will help businesses implement AI-driven automation across their systems, leveraging their deep expertise in Salesforce technology and the third-party platforms integrated into the network. System integrators will play a crucial role in delivering advanced AI capabilities to enterprises, helping them accelerate their adoption of Agentforce. By working closely with customers, these integrators will develop and deploy specialized AI agents that automate tasks and optimize processes, improving productivity and efficiency. According to Salesforce, businesses that partner with system integrators see faster adoption rates and better ROI for their AI implementations. Partner-built agent actions and templates will simplify processes such as customer service inquiries, sales lead qualification, and marketing optimisation. For instance, pre-built agents from Workday can be used to manage employee services like onboarding, while IBM's templates will support businesses in regulated industries, offering a compliant and secure approach to tasks like loan approvals and regulatory documentation.

Salesforce Expands AI Capabilities with New Agentforce Partner Network Featuring Global Tech Leaders

Salesforce announced the Agentforce Partner Network, a global ecosystem of leading partners building new third-party AI agents and agent actions for Agentforce. Customers can easily install these trusted third-party extensions from the Salesforce AppExchange to customize Agentforce's out-of-the-box agents, build new agents with specific skills, or deploy partner-built agents for specialized industry, line of business, or functional use cases.

Salesforce and Google Cloud expand partnership to deliver autonomous AI agents

Salesforce and Google Cloud have announced an expanded partnership to create Salesforce Agentforce Agents, who will help people collaborate securely across Salesforce Customer 360 and Google Workspace apps. The company said the launch of Agentforce extends the existing bidirectional integrations between Salesforce and Google Workspace. It allows mutual customers to deploy autonomous agents that can take action and work in the apps they use every day, backed by privacy and user data protections already in place across Salesforce and Google Workspace. These Agentforce and Google Workspace interactions will be generally available later this year, so customers can build custom agents with helpful skills across Google Workspace and the Salesforce Customer 360 platform. Agentforce agents can also take action based on data in Google BigQuery, without having to move or copy data, through integrations already available today with Zero Copy technology. For example, the Agentforce Sales Development Representative (SDR) Agent engages with prospects 24/7, answering questions, managing objections, and scheduling meetings based on CRM and external data. With these new capabilities through Agentforce, customers can use Google Workspace actions that allow their SDR Agent to generate Google Slides and Docs from templates. At the same time, context from Gmail and Docs can be brought securely into Salesforce to update records and trigger workflows. "We're creating the world's first agent ecosystem together with partners like Google Cloud," said Brian Landsman, Executive Vice President of Global Technology Partners, Salesforce. "Humans work across many systems to get work done, and to be effective, agents need to as well. Together, Salesforce and Google Cloud are delivering a fully AI-infused productivity suite." With the existing integration between Salesforce Data Cloud and Google BigQuery, customers can now ground their AI agents in Agentforce with data from across both platforms, enabling higher levels of trust and accuracy in responses. For example, e-commerce customers can ground their Merchant Agent, which assists e-commerce merchandisers, on relevant information stored in BigQuery, like data on purchasing, ad spending, and customer segmentation. Agents can also use Retrieval- Augmented Generation (RAG) to take action on accurate, real-time data from the Data Cloud. "This partnership brings together platforms where millions of people get work done daily," said Stephen Orban, Vice President of partnerships at Google Cloud. "Salesforce's Agentforce platform will help customers apply Google Cloud AI to real-world use cases, like business development, e-commerce, and much more -- with enterprise-grade trust and accuracy." SHARE Copy linkEmailFacebookTwitterTelegramLinkedInWhatsAppRedditPublished on September 18, 2024