We all know that Salesforce is ever-changing, and with constant change comes new eras. 2025 is ushering in a wave of updates that mark a shift in how we work with the platform, and with Salesforce doubling down on its AI-first strategy, we’re seeing the retirement of long-standing features, the evolution of key products, and the introduction of new tools built for the next generation of users.
Winter ‘26 is coming soon, and before we dive into yet another new wave of updates, let’s take time to assess what’s going away, what’s changing, and what new tools will be worth paying attention to. This guide brings you up to speed on the biggest changes happening this year.
Feature Retirements
Some well-used features are being retired this year, with some already gone and others on their way out by the next two releases. If your org still relies on any of the following, it’s time to make a plan.
Spring ’25
Classic Knowledge and Enhanced Email Experience
Support for Enhanced Email Experience in Account Engagement ends in Summer ’25, while the Classic Knowledge data model is no longer available with Summer ’25 as well. If you haven’t yet, migrate to Lightning Knowledge and use either Classic Email Builder or Marketing Cloud Builder.
Einstein Automated Contacts
Retired in February 2025. Orgs using this must move to Automatic Contact Creation in Einstein Activity Capture.
Pipeline Inspection Close Date Predictions
No longer available. Use Einstein Opportunity Scoring to get forecasting insights instead.
Salesforce Functions (Elastic Services)
This was deprecated in January ’25. If your dev team was experimenting with Functions, make sure to deploy an alternative solution before your current order term ends. You can look into alternatives like running directly on Heroku, AWS Lambda, or other serverless services from other cloud providers.
Lightning Adoption Apps
Removed from AppExchange and officially retired in January. These tools (Lightning Experience Transition Assistant, Lightning Experience Configuration Converter, and Lightning Experience Readiness Check) were popular during early Lightning transitions but are no longer needed in most orgs.
Summer ’25
Document Generation 1.0
Salesforce is sunsetting Document Generation 1.0 on July 31, 2025. Since this may still be being used in Industries Communications, Media, Energy & Utilities (CME), Insurance (INS), Vlocity Government (PS), or Omnistudio managed packages. If you are, make sure to upgrade to the Spring ‘25 managed package versions.
API Versions 21.0 to 30.0
You can continue to use these API versions, but they’re not supported and won’t be available starting in Summer ’25. Any integration or custom code using them will break, so it is strongly recommended to start upgrading to newer supported versions now. Moving to newer versions of APIs will give you advanced capabilities with improved security and performance.
ICU Locale Formatting
This is not really a retirement, but a release update to bid Oracle’s Java Development Kit (JDK) locale formats goodbye as Salesforce is enforcing the use of ICU formatting.
What To Plan For
Legacy Chat (Live Agent, Salesforce Chat, Embedded Chat, and Service Chat)
Salesforce’s original real-time chat solution is officially retiring, and you will lose access by Valentine’s Day 2026. This impacts orgs still using embedded Live Chat windows, so if your org isn’t ready yet, start migrating to Messaging for In-App and Web or Einstein Bots + Agentforce for an AI-powered solution.
Salesforce for Outlook
Set for full retirement in December 2027, and is no longer being enhanced. If your org still uses it, plan your migration to Outlook Integration with Einstein Activity Capture as soon as possible.
Standard-Volume Platform Events
These were already deprecated back in Spring ’19 and are no longer supported, but official EOL and retirement is set to June 2027.
It’s a while away, so you can wait for the migration tool to migrate your Standard-Volume events to High-Volume events which will be available by the Summer ’26 release. If you choose not to wait, it’s highly recommended for you to start replacing your standard-volume events with high-volume events.
Instance-Based Domain Retirement
If you have old integration code that still has references to one of the old instance-based domains (like na1.salesforce.com, for example), it’s time to fix it and replace it with the My Domain URL. For sandboxes, this service stops in August 2025, and for production orgs, this service stops in Spring ’26.
Permissions on Profiles
While this is no longer being “retired” per se, Salesforce has made it clear that Permission Sets and Permission Set Groups are the future. While Profiles still exist for certain access controls, admins should start preparing for a permission set-based model where most object/field permissions live in Permission Sets or Permission Set Groups.
The End of Workflow Rules and Process Builder
This one’s been a long time coming. Salesforce has stopped building new automation in Workflow Rules and Process Builder since last year, and will no longer support them by December 31, 2025. This means all automation must already be migrated to Flow by that time.
I’ll admit, I’ve always had a soft spot for Process Builder. It was one of the first features that really made automation feel approachable. But the good news is this: Salesforce has not been holding back with improvements on Flow’s user experience, so there’s always more to love and less and less to miss.
If you haven’t made the switch yet, take this year as your deadline to take Flow seriously.
New Products, Rebrands, and Name Changes
Salesforce’s product strategy is evolving swiftly, and some of the biggest changes this year involve name changes, consolidations, and entirely new platforms.
Marketing Cloud Next
Unveiled at Connections 2025, Marketing Cloud Next is the new AI-powered platform that brings together various marketing needs with multiple agentic offerings thanks to Agentforce. Since it works with your AI agents, it’s easier than ever to take care of tasks across campaign planning, execution, and analysis.
Tableau Next
And while we’re on the topic of tying Agentforce into everything… enter Tableau Next.
Salesforce’s flagship analytics platform is now part of the broader agentic transformation. Powered by Hyperforce and deeply integrated with Data Cloud, Tableau Next introduces AI-powered features designed to go far beyond dashboards.
Data Pro, Concierge, and Inspector are out-of-the-box analytics skills and pre-built skills that come with it. Think of it as your AI-powered analyst.
Trailhead Academy
Salesforce is giving its certification system a major facelift as part of a broader and better certification experience. Starting July 21, 2025, all Salesforce and Tableau certifications will move from WebAssessor to Trailhead Academy, which means everything is moving into one platform with unified registration and prep materials. Don’t worry, as this isn’t a retake headache. Your credentials and exam history will all transfer seamlessly.
Certification Name Changes
Alongside the move from WebAssessor to Trailhead Academy comes new names for Salesforce certifications. It isn’t a big change, but it does improve clarity, with the new names that better reflect role relevance and modern terminology. Some examples:
- “Salesforce Certified Associate” becomes “Salesforce Certified Platform Foundations”
- Administrator becomes “Platform Administrator”
- Advanced Administrator becomes “Platform Administrator II”
- Platform Developer I drops the “I” and becomes Platform Developer
Check here for a complete list of the certification name changes.
Summary
Between product retirements, migration, and the arrival of agentic tools, 2025 is definitely a big year for anyone managing a Salesforce org.
I know that cleaning up config relating to legacy features, mastering, and migrating to Flow, plus testing new tools can seem like a lot, but remember that each of these changes pushes the platform forward. If you haven’t yet built your 2025 game plan, now’s the time.
