In just under a month’s time, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff will take to the Dreamforce stage in his biggest Salesforce conference appearance this year. On that very stage, Benioff will have a very important task: to paint Agentforce – the CRM giant’s star artificial intelligence tool – in the best light possible, especially as questions will be asked.
Having just passed its first birthday, Salesforce faces pressure from critics, analysts, and investors alike to prove that a year on, Agentforce is a full-rounded, useful solution. What will the future of this tool look like? How will it compete against its fast-evolving competitors?
The Road So Far
Amid the seemingly endless skepticism over Agentforce, it can sometimes be difficult to see Agentforce in a positive light. LinkedIn, Reddit, and even Salesforce events themselves are now often full of people reporting on their negative experiences or opinions on the tool, and although Agentforce is certainly not without its issues, it is not a defunct solution either.
With 12,500 total deals under its belt (6,000 paid), it is clear that companies are slowly beginning to attempt adoption. Agentforce’s marketing campaign – which has seen Salesforce rename conferences, shift messaging, and pivot in a new business direction – has incited a respectable level of hype amongst not only the Salesforce community but beyond too. Now, every time a considerable Agentforce update rolls out, all eyes are laser-focused on the tool.
Salesforce also recently announced that Agentforce and Data Cloud collectively generated an ARR of $1.2B, which is up 120% YoY. Working closely together, the tools have just about escaped the hype cycle that plagued them for a while, surprising many with their less-than-feeble numbers.
This is especially interesting considering the fact that Agentforce hit $100M ARR in May. Although the apparent jump is significant, there is still some uncertainty around how these AI figures are packaged in and amongst other larger categories.
However, as I have written before – now Salesforce is at crunch time. Robert Sӧsemann, an AI enthusiast, recently told Salesforce Ben that now, Agentforce needs something big.
“The constant ‘mini-releases’ with new names feel a bit silly,” he said. “Some are substantial – like the DX release with CLI and packageability – but many features don’t actually work, as we found with agent templates. If there’s an Agentforce 4, it should ship features that really work.”
We Are at the Catalyst Moment
There are always going to be risks associated with taking on a “full steam ahead” approach with anything, and Salesforce has witnessed this first-hand with Agentforce. It is safe to say that Agentforce has largely divided the ecosystem into supporters and skeptics and has highlighted the growing issue of introducing a technology whose implementation does not generate a significant enough ROI to be worthwhile.
Salesforce’s own research concludes that the demand for agentic AI is growing, with a reported 119% growth in the first half of 2025 alone. However, research from the Preliminary Findings from AI Implementation Research from Project NANDA has revealed that despite an enterprise investment of $30-40B in GenAI, a staggering 95% of organizations are getting zero return.
This report also stated that although adoption of AI tools like ChatGPT is high, successful deployment has primarily led to the enhancement of individual productivity, rather than profit and loss (P&L) performance.
Matt Pieper, one of the Salesforce ecosystem’s most well-known voices, told Salesforce Ben that he believes Salesforce is currently experiencing a “catalyst moment” with Agentforce.
“Agentforce really had two directions, right?” he said. “[Salesforce] could lean the way they did, which is on the outside to appease activist investors. But they could have gone the other way and said, ‘Hey, the Ohana got us here, and the people got us here. They’re the ones who championed us, gave us free marketing, who joined our team, right? Who joined our partners, who implemented all these things; let’s continue that road.’
“They could have said, ‘Hey, admins and architects, we realize you have a hard job. Here are some tools for free in core to get you excited, to make your job better – to get you ready for the Agentforce future.”
He admitted that Salesforce’s Agentforce push felt “disconnected” from everything that the CRM giant had pushed before, explaining that it could have been due to the rapid explosion of AI, but also due to pressure from activist investors.
“Salesforce has a decision to make,” he said plainly. “Like, they can re-engage with the community and the customers, and show they’re an advocate for the people.”
“For the first time, you can really feel that tension in the ecosystem where there’s a lack of trust.”
What Can We Expect at Dreamforce?
Dreamforce holds a lot of weight this year – not only as a conference but as a turning point, too.
Salesforce has promised more involvement of its community this year, putting an emphasis on community-driven spaces, sessions, and feedback opportunities. It is almost certain that a new product or feature will be released, as they always are, but this time around, the community wants to see what Salesforce’s next move will be.
“I know what we’re going to see [at Dreamforce],” Matt said. “We’re going to see Agentforce, Agentforce, Agentforce – and maybe some Revenue Cloud Advanced.”
Despite this, Matt also said that he wanted to see more of the preliminary Salesforce content – the information and knowledge needed before getting started with Agentforce, much like Salesforce trainer Connie Hazendonk advocated for earlier this year.
This year’s Dreamforce will be an opportunity for Salesforce to make it clear which direction they are heading; will they steamroll forward with their “everything Agentforce” initiative, or will they bring aspects back to the basics, with the goal of training their next generation of AI-savvy admins and devs?
Final Thoughts
While some might think that Salesforce might have passed the precipice with Agentforce, it is more likely that we are currently living through the “catalyst moment,” as Matt puts it.
At Dreamforce, Salesforce’s every move will be placed under the microscope, facing opposing views and pressures from its customers and investors to make the right next move, whatever that may be.
Whatever they decide, we will be reporting from the ground.
