Even though we’re still early in the GenAI age, business leaders are being pushed (and sometimes pulled) into incorporating GenAI and Agentic AI into their businesses. And there are a lot of options. Cloud services providers (e.g., Google, AWS, and Microsoft) and pure-play providers (e.g., Anthropic and OpenAI) offer direct access to their models. Software vendors (e.g., Salesforce, SAP, and Workday) offer co-pilots baked into their software suites. Point solutions (e.g., Sierra, Boomi, Intercom, and Kustomer) offer specific solutions. Which are worth an investment now. Are any of them “the one” for your company so that you can invest your resources in building proficiencies in just that technology stack?

I think there’s some good reason to believe that Salesforce Agentforce might be “the one”. It might not be ready to be the one yet, but it’s not hard to imagine that it could become that. Below are some of the reasons I think that could be true.

Why Salesforce is the Right Choice

1. Agentforce Has Several Flavors of GenAI
   
   Salesforce Agentforce offers a co-pilot that can be used by your employees. It offers autonomous agents to compete with the point solutions for sales agents, service agents, ecommerce agents, marketing agents, and more. Agentforce also taps into the power of generative AI throughout the application, allowing for the dynamic creation of personalized responses, content summaries, and even proactive communication, all seamlessly woven into your existing Salesforce processes. This multi-faceted approach ensures you can strategically deploy AI where it delivers the most impact, augmenting your team and enhancing customer experiences at every touchpoint.
   
   This could eliminate the need for any other co-pilot or point solution.

2. Your Customer is the Center of Your Business
   
   Your business needs customers. Every interaction, every data point, contributes to a holistic view of your clientele. Salesforce sits at the heart of this customer-centric strategy. Salesforce is the agent that knows your customer. By building your Agentic AI solution on Salesforce, you inherently place your customer data at its core. This means your AI agents will have immediate access to a wealth of information – past interactions, purchase history, preferences, and more – enabling them to deliver more personalized, context-aware, and ultimately more effective interactions. Why build an intelligent agent siloed from your primary customer intelligence? Integrating Agentforce with your central Salesforce CRM ensures your AI understands and acts in service of your most valuable asset: your customers.

3. Salesforce is Scalable
   
   The power of any AI, especially an Agentic one, lies in the data it’s trained on and has access to. Salesforce, particularly with the advent of Data Cloud, offers a robust platform for unifying vast and disparate datasets. Imagine your Agentic AI drawing insights not just from CRM data, but also from marketing automation, service interactions, e-commerce activity, and even external sources – all harmonized within Data Cloud. This comprehensive data foundation allows your AI agents to develop a deeper understanding of your business, your customers, and their needs. By leveraging Salesforce’s data unification capabilities, you equip your Agentforce solution with the fuel it needs to operate intelligently and drive meaningful outcomes.
   
   A side benefit is that any additional data brought into Salesforce can also be used to provide insights to salespeople, provide better service context for agents, and build better journeys and segments for your marketing. So, it isn’t just Agentic interactions that benefit from the CRM in the middle, but all customer touch points.

4. Salesforce’s Commitment to Extensibility Through Declarative Configuration
   
   On one hand, niche agentic solutions might be tempting. On the other hand, what happens when you need more. Salesforce builds platforms first and applications later. Platforms can be extended. Agentforce is a platform with a few applications already built on it (and many more coming). Being on a platform that can easily be extended provides significant advantages. Not only that, but the way Salesforce is extended is using declarative configuration.
   
   One of the biggest challenges with most AI solutions is the accumulation of technical debt. As your business evolves and your needs change, maintaining and updating complex codebases can become costly and time-consuming. Salesforce’s strength lies in its declarative configuration model. Agentforce, built on this philosophy, promises a more agile and adaptable solution. You configure and customize your AI agents using Salesforce’s familiar low-code tools, reducing the need for extensive coding and minimizing future technical debt. This empowers your business users to participate in the evolution of your AI agents, making them more responsive to changing business requirements.

5. Salesforce’s Commitment to Trust/Security
   
   Security is non-negotiable. Salesforce has built its reputation on a strong commitment to trust and security. By choosing Agentforce, you inherit this security-first approach. Your sensitive customer data and AI-driven interactions will be protected by Salesforce’s enterprise-grade security infrastructure. This provides peace of mind and reduces the risk associated with deploying AI solutions on less established or less secure platforms.

6. Agentforce is Built for Business Value
   
   Ultimately, any technology investment must deliver tangible business value. Salesforce has a long track record of developing solutions that address real-world business challenges and drive measurable results. Agentforce is no different. Built with a focus on enhancing productivity, improving customer satisfaction, and streamlining operations, it’s designed to deliver a clear return on investment. Furthermore, Salesforce’s significant R&D investments in AI and automation ensure that Agentforce will continue to evolve, incorporating the latest advancements and providing your business with a future-proof Agentic AI solution.

Why Salesforce Might Not Be the Right Choice

However, Salesforce Agentforce might not be the right choice for your company. This is not an exhaustive list of reasons why, but there are a couple of reasons that stand out. 

1. You Are Not Committed to Salesforce
   
   The deep integration that makes Agentforce so compelling is also its primary limitation. If your organization has no intention of using Salesforce as its central CRM, or if you have a deeply entrenched and non-negotiable alternative, then Agentforce’s core benefits of unified data and seamless workflow integration will be significantly diminished. Building an Agentic AI solution on a platform that isn’t central to your customer strategy would likely lead to data silos and integration complexities that outweigh any potential advantages.
   
   It might be time to consider whether your best of breed approach to technology is still serving your needs. If you use Salesforce for Sales, let’s say, and not Service and Marketing, maybe it’s time for that to change. Taking advantage of the economies of scale by standardizing is beyond the scope of this post, but we’d be happy to talk it through with you and help you build a roadmap to bring systems together.

2. You’re Already All Set for AI
   
   Let’s face it, there’s a certain competitive reality at play. If your company is a direct competitor in the CRM, cloud computing, or AI space (like any of the companies listed above), adopting a strategic offering like Agentforce from a key competitor might not align with your broader business objectives or technology roadmap. In such scenarios, exploring internally developed solutions or neutral third-party platforms might be a more strategic choice.

Time to Talk?

For the vast majority of enterprises already leveraging or considering Salesforce as their core CRM, Agentforce presents a compelling and strategically sound path to adopting Agentic AI. Its deep integration, focus on data unification, low-code approach, robust security, and business-value orientation make it a strong contender in the evolving landscape of intelligent automation. However, for organizations with no Salesforce commitment or those within directly competitive ecosystems, alternative solutions may be more appropriate. As you navigate the exciting world of Agentic AI, carefully consider your existing technology stack and strategic priorities – and for many, Salesforce Agentforce could very well be the intelligent force multiplier your business needs.

If you’d like help building an Agentforce roadmap that helps you take advantage of all of the aspects of this product and start to take advantage of the business value that Agentic AI has to offer, let’s talk. Thunder is here to help our customers get the most out of Salesforce.