Agents are here and ready to help

The focus of Agentforce World Tour was, unsurprisingly, the rollout of Salesforce Agents. Agents are the next step in AI evolution, going beyond co-pilots by adding authority to undertake actions by themselves. They bridge the gap between bots and people, sharing elements of each: Agents can follow instructions and execute simple tasks like bots, but also converse in natural language and make judgements like people. This additional autonomy allows them to function more like an additional member of your team, integrating seamlessly with the existing human members, who are freed up to focus on more high-value tasks.

The five attributes of an Agent are:

• Role – What job should they do?
• Data – What knowledge can they access?
• Actions – What capabilities do they have?
• Guardrails – What shouldn’t they do?
• Channel – Where do they work?

Since they connect into your existing data and processes, they have context that external AI models lack, and they run entirely within the safety of your own environment. Most importantly, Agents are quick and easy to configure and deploy using existing Salesforce tools. This was demonstrated during the event, where attendees were invited to one-on-one sessions to build their own Agent in just 20 minutes.

The rest of the Salesforce ecosystem is getting an upgrade

To enable customers to make the most out of their Agents, upgrades are being rolled out to the wider platform ecosystem, as well as the underlying data capabilities.

Firstly, Salesforce Foundations is a new product package that includes foundational features from Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Data Cloud all in a refreshed UI. Rather than a paid add-on, all these features (usually only available via separate clouds) are included as a free upgrade to Sales and/or Service Cloud customers. This allows organisations to build out a strong foundation of cross-departmental functionality for no additional license cost, giving more tools to both their existing teams and any Agents they deploy.

Underpinning everything in these platforms, customer data continues to grow in volume and complexity, and Salesforce Data Cloud continues to grow with it. Since the majority of Salesforce AI features, including Agents, require Data Cloud to power them, it’s great to see the available connection options expanding rapidly. Salesforce shared details on over 200 new out-of-the-box connectors including SAP, Oracle, Meta and Snapchat. In addition, they are working to expand the network of Zero Copy partners, including Google Cloud, AWS and Snowflake. This allows data stored in these trusted platforms to be accessed and queried without first being copied into Data Cloud, improving efficiency, security and control.

The impact on New Zealand marketers

It is no secret that times are tough for many organisations right now, and teams across the country are continually being tasked with achieving more with less resources. A key statistic that was presented during the event was that an average of 41% of workforce time is lost on low value and repetitive tasks, adding to the strain on already stretched teams.

This is where Agents can help to pick up the Slack. Unlike copilots that offer advice for a human to take action on, Agents can be given authority to handle the tasks themselves, directly contributing to the team’s output. We saw examples of Agents taking campaign briefs, selecting audiences and even building the content of the communication, all while drawing upon existing data and assets from within the organisation.

The critical dependency here is the structure and quality of those existing assets and data, which is where the focus will be for most New Zealand Marketers.

How Together can get you up to speed

While the vision of the future on the cutting edge of technology that Agentforce World Tour presented was game-changing, the reality is that only a handful of New Zealand organisations are ready for it today. Clean, well-organised data remains the crucial foundation for all AI deployment, and Agents also require defined and integrated business processes, guardrails and monitoring, and access to assets and channels.

While it may be tempting to wait until the dust has settled before adopting new technology, a key message from the local Salesforce customers sharing their stories at the events was that there is no substitute for experience: with the pace of evolution in this space, nobody will write you a how-to guide, the only way to learn what truly works for you is to jump in and test it out for yourself.

If you’re reading this and feeling daunted, we’re here to help. Together is a certified Salesforce partner, and we specialise in helping our clients extract maximum value from their technology. Unlike the traditional, IT-focused approach to technology platforms, we are marketers first and foremost and believe in putting your relationship with your customers at the heart of every technology decision.

Remember, while AI Agents can now take over more and more repetitive tasks, the human elements involved in structuring data, creating content and establishing process are more important than ever. Reach out to our team today, and we’ll be at your side the whole way as you blaze your own trail.