It’s been an eventful few years for the Salesforce ecosystem. A difficult 2023-2024 saw some stabilization after the coronavirus hiring boom (and subsequent bust). In 2025, the labor market returned to something resembling normality – even if it was the ‘Year of Agentforce’, seeing Salesforce prioritize an entirely new product.
The market reset, but the ecosystem has been talking about a number of hot-button issues, ranging from what happens to junior Salesforce Administrators and Developers as AI matures, whether the job market is oversaturated, and to what degree certifications are still relevant. Not to mention the elephant in the room at every Salesforce event: How good is Agentforce, really? Bearing this context in mind, let’s take a look at what SF Ben and the ecosystem foresee shaping the 2026 job market.
What Does the Salesforce Economy Look Like in 2026?
Salesforce Architect and Administrator at Wise, and Salesforce Golden Hoodie Recipient, Evaldas Zaranka, said there was “no point sugarcoating it” – it has been a rough few years for the Salesforce ecosystem.
“We went from this crazy period where everyone was hiring, salaries were going through the roof, and Salesforce professionals could basically pick and choose their opportunities – to something much more grounded,” he said.
“Things have stabilised, though. The panic from 2023 and early 2024 has eased off. Salesforce as a company is still growing, just not at the crazy pace we got used to. So where are we? I’d say cautiously optimistic. Not the gold rush anymore, but definitely not dead either. The ecosystem is bigger than it’s ever been – it’s just maturing.”
Evaldas believes 2026 will be a bit better, but he’s “not expecting miracles”. Inflation is cooling, interest rates are coming down, and that usually means companies start loosening the purse strings on technology investments, but, Evaldas says, we’re not likely going back to the madness of 2020-2021.
“Companies are still cautious, hiring decisions take longer, and the ‘easy money’ era for Salesforce professionals is probably over for good,” he added. “My feeling is that we’ve hit bottom and we’re on the way back up – just slowly. 2026 should feel incrementally better than 2025, but temper your expectations.”
Salesforce MVP, Marketing Champion, Architect, and Certified Instructor, Vicki Moritz-Henry, says the Salesforce economy is very different from when she entered the ecosystem eight years ago.
There’s less certainty and a stronger push to build adjacent skill sets for career security, but the ecosystem is still very much alive and supported by a strong community, she said.
On the question of how 2026 looks, compared to last year, she said: “2026 looks cautiously more optimistic than 2025 – or it could be my wishful thinking. Budgets will remain tight, but we’ve seen more job openings towards the end of 2025. Customers are gradually investing in their existing tech stacks to drive value in their investments.”
MVP Hall of Famer and CEO of Groundwork Apps, Paul Battisson, thinks the Salesforce economy is in a holding pattern, driven by a combination of broader economic factors, still ongoing work rationalizing and harmonizing existing tech stacks, along with uncertainty around how to use AI productively within organizations.
On the question of whether 2026 will be better than 2025, Paul said: “The forward view I think is slightly better than 2025 as leaders have realized AI is not the people replacement panacea it was once touted as, so I expect to see some pick up in the jobs market.”
This, Paul says, will be the year to make or break Agentforce. If we see it truly bed in and companies show success with it, then it could unleash a new wave of work in the ecosystem. If not, and it continues to only slowly grow in certain areas, then Salesforce “may have to pivot to other products and tools which could again allow more growth in the market”, he added.
Leanne Botwright, Salesforce Business Analyst and Accidental Admin, thinks the Salesforce economy at the moment feels like it’s shifting “from hype to focus on real value”.
When asked whether 2026 would be better or worse than 2025, Leanne said: “I don’t like to say better or worse, it’s different. My hope for 2026 is that organizations will focus on making what they have work better rather than constantly adding more.”
Will Turner, Salesforce Application Manager and Agentforce lead at Arjo UK, said the Salesforce economy was in “exciting times”, with Agentforce coming so far since its launch, and customers starting to get real value from it.
“I expect this to continue,” said Will. “Additionally, whilst the take-up of Revenue Cloud is still slow, like Agentforce, it will continue to be developed, and I feel we should see Salesforce pushing this product later this year, and into next year.”
Will says that 2026 will be better for the Salesforce ecosystem, and we’ll likely start to see some product developments coming from previous acquisitions over the past two years.
Josh Matthews, Founder and President of Salesforce Staffing, LLC, and host of The Salesforce Career Show podcast, told SF Ben his view of the Salesforce economy at the moment was “strong”. “The view is better for 2026, but not for everyone,” he added.
Which Trends Will Affect the Salesforce Labor Market?
On the question of what trends he sees affecting the Salesforce ecosystem in 2026, Evaldas said that AI is “actually happening now” – and Agentforce is going to drive a lot of activity in the ecosystem over the next year.
“Data quality is suddenly everyone’s problem,” he said. “You can’t do AI well if your data is a mess. I’m seeing a lot of organizations realize they need to sort out their data foundations before they can do anything fancy with agents. Data Cloud is becoming central to the conversation.”
He also mentioned Revenue Cloud, saying companies are increasingly focused on subscription models, complex pricing, and revenue recognition. “I’m seeing more demand for people who understand this space,” Evaldas said.
The job market has gone through a proper reset, and a lot of people who got used to switching jobs every 18 months for a 20% pay bump have had a wake-up call, he added. It’s an employer’s market – and the power dynamic has shifted. Companies have more candidates to choose from, they’re pickier, and processes take longer. “You need to work harder to stand out now,” Evaldas said.
Entry-level is crowded too, with bootcamps training a lot of junior talent, but not enough entry-level roles to absorb them all – while experienced people who can architect solutions and lead projects are still in demand.
Data skills are also hot. If you can do data engineering, data architecture, or anything AI-related, you’re in a good spot. That’s where the demand is shifting, Evaldas says.
“Contractors are feeling it. I’m hearing from a lot of contractors who are struggling to land projects or having to drop their day rates. The market just isn’t as fluid as it was. Specialization matters more – generalists are having a harder time. If you don’t have a clear niche or differentiator, it’s tough out there.”
Will Turner also thinks we’ll see a trend towards more specialist, niche skills and roles. “Last year I started to see a few ‘Agentforce’ specialist roles for the first time,” he said. “I think this will become more prevalent.”
On the question of which trends he expects to see affecting the Salesforce economy in 2026, Will said: “AI. I don’t expect Salesforce to talk about much else!”
When asked which trends he foresees affecting the Salesforce economy in 2026, Josh Matthews said: “The usual geopolitical influence. If everyone ignored most of it, confidence would be high for many people. I hear a lot of complaints about the cost of the system and encroachment from competitors, but Salesforce has historically acquired technology and adapted early, which has helped avoid severely negative outcomes.”
When asked about the labor market, Josh said that,if anything, numbers that seemed shocking in recent times were “too conservative”.
“Currently, 92% of developers now use AI tools, and 40 to 50% of task automation, originally predicted for 2028, is now likely to arrive by the end of this year,” he said.
This means that Salesforce roles are being redesigned, with developers becoming multi-cloud orchestrators; administrators shifting from manual configuration to AI orchestration faster than predicted, and the market feeling this change, Josh says.
“The Salesforce labor market began rebounding midway through 2025, but for growth to occur, employees who did not adapt fast enough, or those new to the market, were let go or displaced by differently skilled employees,” Josh added.
“Do not expect a repeat of 2022. We are now in growth mode, but hiring managers and companies are more specific and narrow in who they believe brings value. This has created more competition due to labor market adjustments in 2023 and 2024. Salaries have increased more than expected for the top 10 to 20% of people with provable, early-adopter AI skills.”
Now, candidates will need to not only upskill but also clearly articulate their value while demonstrating a strategic, business-focused mindset. Companies are not hiring simply because they have openings. They are paying more per employee, but hiring fewer people, he added.
Vicki predicted that we’ll see a strong focus on reducing tech debt, and, as organizations explore AI and Agentforce, they’ll need to clean up data, systems, and processes to enable effective implementations.
We may also see tech debt from early AI use, as Agentforce evolves rapidly and requires ongoing iteration to take advantage of new capabilities, particularly around more deterministic responses, Vicki said.
She added: “The Salesforce job market has been tough recently, especially for juniors trying to break in. Employers are asking for broader skill sets as budgets tighten, with increasing demand for generalists who can own more of the Salesforce stack rather than narrowly specialized roles.”
Leanne stated she is seeing and feeling a shift towards “outcomes over outputs”, with strong data foundations, integration, and end-to-end thinking becoming essential, rather than optional.
“I’m very excited and happy to see that there is a growing demand for people who can connect the dots between business needs, users, data, and technology, and help teams make sense of complexity,” Leanne added.
Paul says that the two big things he can see impacting the Salesforce economy are global economic uncertainty and AI.
“There is a real possibility of multiple conflicts as well as an AI bubble bursting that could cause major economic issues and slow everything down,” Paul said. “Similarly, AI has still not yet found its place in most Salesforce customers properly.”
In terms of what trends he sees affecting the Salesforce labor market, Paul said “Agentforce/AI and the broader economy”. If we have more economic slowdown, the investment into Agentforce or new Salesforce work won’t come, he added.
Is AI Having a Positive or Negative Impact?
We’ve had the year of Agentforce, and the ecosystem has some strong opinions about Salesforce’s flagship AI product.
This year will be Agentforce’s make-or-break, coming up to two years after its launch, says Paul. “Uptake has not yet reached a critical mass level – roughly 10-15% of customers are using it based upon Salesforce’s numbers – which means we could either see huge growth in this area this year, or if we have another ‘flat’ year, a need to pivot and change tack,” he said.
AI is having an “overall negative” impact on the Salesforce labor market, driving uncertainty in whether hires are needed as well as taking up mind share in terms of delivery, whilst not having the clear scope and ROI that can help make projects successful and drive people to adopt these new tools, Paul added.
Evaldas said that, in honesty, he was slightly skeptical when Agentforce first launched. “Salesforce has hyped things before that didn’t quite deliver, and ‘AI agents’ can sound like marketing speak,” he said. But Salesforce is putting serious money behind it – hiring more than a thousand salespeople just to push Agentforce, which is not something you do for a side project, Evaldas added.
The initial customer interest seems genuine to understand if they can get business value by using Agentforce. In terms of what happens next, agents will “become part of how we work”, Evaldas believes. They’ll show up in Slack channels, in the console, triggered by Flows. People will need to learn how to build and manage them.
Flow will become even more central as the mechanism that makes agents actually do useful things, like create records, update cases, and trigger processes. “If you don’t know Flow well, you’re going to struggle,” Evaldas says. “New skills emerge. Prompt engineering, agent configuration, understanding how to ground AI in your data – these will become legitimate skill sets.”
In terms of whether AI is having a positive or negative impact on the Salesforce labor market, Evaldas thinks it’s a bit of both.
On the positive side, new roles are emerging that didn’t exist before – AI architects, prompt engineers, people who specialize in data for AI. Companies are hiring for these. AI tools are making experienced professionals more productive. If you know how to leverage them, you can do more, faster.
Salesforce investing heavily in Agentforce means more activity in the ecosystem – more projects, more implementations, more need for skilled people, Evaldas says.
But, on the concerning side, entry-level roles might get squeezed. If AI can handle basic admin tasks or generate simple code, how do juniors get their foot in the door and build experience?
The bar is rising. Employers increasingly expect you to know AI tools and be comfortable working alongside them. If you’re resistant to that, opportunities shrink.
“Some roles will probably be impacted. Anything that’s mostly repetitive configuration or basic development is at risk over time,” Evaldas says. “My overall take – positive for people who embrace it and skill up. Potentially negative for those who don’t adapt.”
Will Turner says that, following the Year of Agentforce, 2026 won’t be much different, in his opinion. “I think we will see more transparent messaging around pricing (and hopefully more tangible ROI),” he said. “I think we will see more AI developed/introduced around marketing products and messaging functionality.”
Will thinks that AI is having a positive impact on the Salesforce labor market, if you understand how to utilize it effectively to achieve your aims – which, he adds, applies to all AI interactions. From helping with improving your resume, drafting cover letters, preparing questions and answers for interviews, and helping with job searching, AI can be a real asset to you, Will says.
Vicki says that Agentforce is clearly here to stay, though adoption has been harder for smaller organizations with tight budgets and for regulated industries concerned about security and output control. As Agentforce becomes more deeply embedded across Salesforce products, clearer and more accessible use cases are emerging, which should drive broader adoption.
“AI is clearly reshaping the Salesforce labor market,” Vicki says. “On the positive side, it enables teams to work faster, performing tasks like generating code or content more efficiently. On the downside, it risks creating over-reliance on AI, discouraging deeper skill development and pushing professionals toward broader ‘do-more’ roles rather than specialist positions.”
Leanne says it’s been interesting to watch the year of Agentforce unfold. “It’s sparked some really good conversations across the community and highlighted how much focus is still needed on data, design, and getting the foundations right,” she said, adding that it feels “premature” to label AI’s impact on the labor market as positive or negative right now.
“We’re in a transition phase, and I think the impact will become clearer as organisations learn, share, and mature their adoption,” Leanne said.
When asked what the future holds for Salesforce’s flagship AI product, and what we’re going to see this year, Josh said: “Simply more Agentforce. This was not Microsoft Clippy. This is closer to iOS 1.0 of CRM beginning to figure itself out.”
On the topic of whether AI was having a positive or negative impact on the Salesforce labor market at the moment, Josh said: “AI is having a positive impact on the Salesforce labor market by ensuring the software and the ecosystem are not only relevant, but dominant. That said, it is not without complexity and tradeoffs.
“AI helps companies do more with fewer staff. While legacy roles are being sunset in favor of more hybrid and specialized positions, leaving many people insecure about employment, it is also creating new roles and making it easier to learn and adapt to the skill demands of 2026.”
Which Salesforce Products and Roles Are Becoming More/Less Relevant?
On the question of which Salesforce products are becoming more relevant, and which are becoming less relevant, Josh said that it’s not a topic he speaks on too much – but his clients are “regularly asking” for RevCloud, Health Cloud, and NPC.
When asked about what roles are becoming more relevant and which are becoming less relevant, Josh said: “I made predictions one year ago about AI’s influence on Salesforce roles, and again, those numbers were too conservative.
“Currently, 92% of developers now use AI tools, and 40 to 50% of task automation, originally predicted for 2028, is now likely to arrive by the end of this year.
“What does this mean for Salesforce roles? They are being redesigned. Developers are becoming multi-cloud orchestrators. Administrators have shifted from manual configuration to AI orchestration faster than predicted, and the market felt it.
“The Salesforce labor market began rebounding midway through 2025, but for growth to occur, employees who did not adapt fast enough, or those new to the market, suffered displacement, were let go, or were replaced by differently skilled employees.”
Evaldas thinks Agenforce, Revenue Cloud, Data 360, and Flow are all becoming more relevant, while some of the “niche” products like MuleSoft and Marketing Cloud are not seeing the same explosive demand they saw a few years ago – but stresses that does not mean that they are bad products.
When it comes to Salesforce roles, Evaldas says data engineers and data architects are “where the heat is right now”. Companies know they need good data to do AI, and they’re hiring for it.
AI/Solutions architects were also mentioned. “People who can actually design and implement AI solutions, not just talk about them,” Evaldas said.
Also mentioned were strong technical consultants who can come in, understand the business problem, and build the right solution, skills which were “always valuable – even more so now”, he says. DevOps specialists were also touted, as most of the ecosystem uses DevOps now. “If you know this stuff well, you’re useful,” Evaldas said.
In terms of what’s getting tougher, entry-level admins face a saturated market – with too many people, not enough roles, all while basic admin work is starting to get automated. Junior developers face the same story, with lots of bootcamp graduates competing for limited positions. “The bar to break in is higher than ever,” Evaldas says.
Paul agrees that Data Cloud is becoming increasingly relevant, not just for AI but also in helping deliver on a long-held promise for customer 360 connectivity. “I think we are seeing Marketing Cloud Engagement become less relevant, partially due to people struggling to understand how it fits in with Advanced, Growth, and Next, and partly due to cost vs competitors,” he added.
In terms of roles, the architect is becoming ever more relevant, Paul says, with a big limiting factor for AI adoption being technical debt in environments – with architect skills a key skill in tackling this. “Sadly, I think the core builder roles of admin and developer are being seen as less relevant despite in my mind them being the beating heart of delivery and making Salesforce work,” Paul added.
Will reiterated that niche skills and roles seem to be on the rise, but thinks core skills are “still just as important as ever”. He said: “If candidates don’t have or maintain their core skills, then there’s less long term probability of success. Core skills are called ‘core’ for a reason.” Will added that he is seeing a rise in release management type roles too, so with the uptake of products like Gearset, cross-skilling into these products could give you an advantage.
Vicki thinks that, as Agentforce is embedded across the platform, Data 360 is becoming increasingly critical as the foundational data layer powering these capabilities. Adjacent products like Tableau Next, Marketing Cloud Next, and industry clouds are also gaining relevance, as embedded Agentforce features enable faster insights and more streamlined workstreams.
“It will be interesting to see the impact of Agentforce on the Marketing Cloud ecosystem,” Vicki said. “We’re already seeing Account Engagement capabilities move into Marketing Cloud Next, which has recently been made available to Marketing Cloud Engagement customers. The big question is whether organizations will run both platforms in tandem as part of a migration strategy, or simply stick with what they already have.”
On the question of roles, Vicki said that architects are becoming increasingly relevant as the Salesforce tech stack grows in both breadth and complexity, while the roles of BAs, admins, developers, and marketers are evolving as the platform continues to expand and AI changes our ways of working.
Leanne stated that Data Cloud, along with integration and automation, is becoming increasingly central. Core clouds still matter, but they’re most powerful when designed to work together, she added.
On the issue of roles, Leanne agrees that hybrid skillsets are becoming more important; there’s a need for people who can flex between disciplines like Business Analysis, solution design, and product-minded administration. “It makes me very happy to see more positive conversations around UX and the BA skillset getting the recognition it deserves,” she added.
Final Thoughts
It’s always good to get a wide range of opinions on any topic. For one, it means exposing yourself to arguments that you might not have heard in your own bubble, but secondly, we can see trends and common talking points among people in the know.
From my discussions with ecosystem insiders, a few key themes emerge: in broad strokes, the Salesforce economy is maturing, not declining. Additionally, AI isn’t quite replacing people just yet, though it is reshaping every role, seemingly. Most agree that data is the critical bottleneck of AI implementations: bad data = bad implementation. Career success in 2026 will depend on adaptability, specialization, and business impact – the days of the generalist seem to be over.
In 2026, embrace the change, but don’t forget your core skills. As Will put it – they’re called core skills for a reason.
