The world’s most popular CRM company Salesforce says that it is “redefining what’s possible in business and beyond,” after releasing its autonomous AI agent solution to the market.
Agentforce is already being used by companies such as The Adecco Group, OpenTable and Saks, and the tool is now on general availability.
The AI agents deployed by the service, Salesforce says, are easy to customize, with users able to tailor responses and tone to suit their business that will in turn “build deeper customer relationships and drive unprecedented growth and profitability.”
“Beyond Chatbots and Copilots”
Salesforce made a splash with Agentforce at the company’s Dreamforce 2024 convention and it has been used by selected companies in the interim. Today’s announcement marks its availability to the wider market.
The company describes the tool as a “proactive, autonomous application that provides specialized, always-on support to employees or customers.”
This just in! View
the top business tech deals for 2024 👨💻
Specifically, it’s an ‘out-of-the-box’ solution that gives clients access to AI customer support agents that they can customize to suit their business without the need for complex coding or integration.
“Agentforce goes beyond chatbots and copilots, using advanced reasoning abilities to make decisions and take action, like resolving customer cases, qualifying sales leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns.” – Salesforce
The announcement gives examples of pre-built agents that are adapted for specialized use cases like retail with order management topics or financial services with billing and payment support topics.
Salesforce’s customers also get access to an Agent Builder function that enable the CRM giant’s admins and developers to use natural language to create instructions and guardrails for their agents. And it will also be built into native tools such as Data Cloud and Slack.
Augmenting, Not Replacing, Employees
The Adecco Group, BACA Systems, OpenTable, Saks and Wiley are all among the companies that are already using Agentforce.
Mike Hite, Saks’ Chief Technology Officer, lauded the tool’s help to “streamline routine tasks, such as order tracking, enabling our service teams to prioritize more meaningful customer interactions.”
While George Pokorny, OpenTable’s Senior VP of Global Customer Success, said that with Agentforce it “can meet growing global demand while maintaining the exceptional service our customers expect.”
Salesforce is at pains to assert that Agentforce isn’t a case of AI replacing human jobs. It says that the early adopting clients are using it “to augment their employees, expand their workforce, and improve customer experiences”.
“What AI Was Meant to Be”
Quoting its own research that suggests U.S. consumers spend up to nine hours interacting with customer service trying to resolve a single issue and that 67% of consumers are ultimately frustrated, Salesforce says its news service presents an opportunity for its clients to improve their customer experience.
A vocal critic of other AI developers such as Microsoft, who he says is doing a “tremendous disservice” to the industry, Salesforce Chair and CEO, Marc Benioff, says that Agentforce is “what AI was meant to be.”
“Agentforce is redefining what’s possible in business and beyond, ushering in a new era of AI abundance and limitless workforces that augment every employee, build deeper customer relationships and drive unprecedented growth and profitability” – Marc Benioff, Salesforce
