Salesforce Launches Agentforce Operations to End Back-Office Bottlenecks

I covered Salesforce Agentforce in New York this past month. This event was organized to showcase Salesforce’s Agentforce. Agentforce is DIY AI in action. Agentforce is a customer service agent built by Salesforce customers and integrated across industries and across the customer journey.

In the keynote, Patrick Stokes, President and CMO, Salesforce, announced the launch of Agentforce Operations.

Agentforce Operations uses AI to turn manual and outdated back-office processes into clear tasks so that Agents can do the work instead of humans. Agentforce Operations can automate tasks such as process coordination, data verification, ensuring compliance, obtaining approvals, and more.

Using Agentforce Operations pays big dividends with cycle times reduced by 50 to 70 percent, improved accuracy, and manual data entry cut by 80 percent. This leads to better outcomes and experiences. With Agentforce Operations, Agents complete work beyond organizing tasks for completion. 

Salesforce also announced the creation of a Slack workspace and Slackbot, which is being offered free to every new Salesforce customer. Sales and Service Teams can use AI and Apps across their tech stack, moving from Slack to Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and more, to increase their productivity. Slackbots can turn customer conversations into records, capturing updates and keeping data current. 

I saw demos for use cases across industry verticals and the customer journey in Sales, Service, and Marketing functions with Canada Goose, Engine, and Dell.

Leah McGowen-Hare, SVP at ‪Salesforce‬ , Demos How Canada Goose is an Agentic Retailer using Salesforce and Data 360

Rob Seaman, SVP & GM ‪Slack‬ shows how Engine became an Agentic Travel Company using ‪Salesforce‬

MaryAnn Patel SVP, at ‪@salesforce‬ , shares how Dell is an Agentic Enterprise W/Agentforce Operations

There were panel discussions, and leaders discussed Agentforce Operations. Panelists also shared how they would like Agentforce and DIY AI to evolve to improve productivity and outcomes.

Hayley Advokat, MPS, Head of AI Product & Executive Communications at Salesforce, led the Agentforce Operations Deep Dive with Sanjna Parulekar, SVP of Product Marketing at Salesforce.

Maha Neouchy, Director of Communications at Salesforce, moderated the panel discussion with Muddu Sudhakar, SVP and GM of Salesforce IT Service and HR Service, and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, who discussed how Salesforce is transforming front-office operations in HR and IT, improving the employee experience with Slack and Teams.

I built AI Agents with Agentforce, Vibes, and Claude Code, using them to start building Sales and Marketing analytics and strategy. 

Agentforce Tour was a great event. I learned a lot about AI Agents, DIY AI, and how it can transform the worker and customer experience.

If you want to be on the cutting edge of DIY AI, attend Agentforce in your city.

Have you used Agentforce?

Share your experience in the comments.

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram.

Key Ideas from WOBI 2024 In New York

I covered the World Business Forum in New York this past week. World Business Forum or WOBI for short is a global conference that shares the leading trends in Business. WOBI brings industry thought leaders together to share insights on business topics such as Creativity, Marketing, Innovation, being creative, Leadership, Management, and more. 

My favorite talks were from Gary Hamel, Angela Ahrendts DBE, and Jon McNeill.

Gary Hamel shared an idea called Humanocracy which is the title of his latest book. Gary shows that employees and not just executives should lead at all levels to get things done and improve outcomes. Gary states that AI will not solve organizations’ productivity issues instead he says that productivity issues need to be solved by people which is a different opinion.

Angela Ahrendts DBE shared her insights from leading at Apple and Burberry. One point that stood out is that Angela said that Profit and Loss (P & L) statements do not tell the whole story, instead, she said that leaders need to examine the People and Impact (P& I) along with the (P& L) when examining the performance of the organization and its employees. 

Jon McNeill was the former head of innovation at Tesla. He shared how he used innovation when he was tasked with increasing Tesla’s Digital Sales 20X and the steps he took to reduce customer friction in Tesla’s Online Buying Journey; reducing it from 63 clicks down to 10 clicks to achieve his 20X Digital Sales Goal. 

I enjoyed the lunch and learn by Texas Tech where Gary shared even more insights on how his management and innovation ideas improved healthcare outcomes for patients at a healthcare system.

Attendees did more than just go to talks, attendees had a chance to network, connect with event sponsors, meet the speakers, and get their purchased books signed by speakers at the Barnes & Noble station right after their talk.

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram.

I learned so much at WOBI.

WOBI, thank you for having me as your guest.

If you want to learn more about the latest business trends from industry thought leaders, attend WOBI.

Agentforce in Action at Salesforce Agentforce Tour in New York

I covered Salesforce AgentForce in New York this past week. This event was organized to showcase Salesforce’s new product Agentforce which is DIY AI in action. Agentforce is a customer service agent that can be built by Salesforce customers and integrated into all industries across the customer journey. 

Salesforce Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Slack Parker Harris kicks off the Keynote in New York!

Users of Salesforce Foundation Enterprise Edition and higher can upgrade to Agentforce for free!

Customers could build a customer service agent on-site. 

Salesforce hosted a hackathon where the winner of the Agentforce contest won $20000!

The keynote showed how service and customer success functions have evolved from chatbots to copilots to Agentforce a self-designable customer service agent that can be customized to users’ specific needs across the customer journey, increasing productivity, reducing customer friction, and maximizing the customer experience.

Patrick Stokes EVP of Product & Industries Marketing at Salesforce, shows how he exchanged his sweater for the right size using Sofie and a customer service agent Saks Fifth Avenue built using Agentforce.  

Patrick Stokes

I saw multiple demos of Agentforce across Sales, Marketing, Service and, more.

Salesforce announced the launch of the Testing Center for Agentforce; coming this December, which will allow users to develop Agentforce to answer every possible question in all forms and variations; something the current chatbots and copilots can’t do. Agentforce enables users to take proactive prescriptive action in real-time. 

AgentforceTour was a great event. I learned much about DIY AI and how it can transform the customer experience. 

I want to thank Salesforce for having me at Agentforce Tour. 

If you want to be on the cutting edge of DIY AI, attend Agentforce in your city. 

Have you used Agentforce?

Share your experience in the comments. 

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram.