Salesforce revamps Agentforce to try to pull customers across the gap between AI capabilities and AI adoption

Core Insights - Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff faced backlash for his comments regarding the National Guard, which overshadowed the announcements made at the Dreamforce conference [1] - Salesforce introduced new AI tools, particularly "Agentforce," which has seen rapid adoption but still has a relatively small customer base [1][3] - The company provided optimistic revenue guidance, forecasting $60 billion in annual sales by 2030, which positively impacted its stock price [1] Company Developments - Salesforce's "Agentforce" features are experiencing the fastest adoption rate of any product the company has released, yet only about 12,500 customers have adopted it, with 6,000 being paid engagements [1] - The company acknowledged a gap between rapid consumer adoption of AI and slower enterprise adoption, emphasizing the need to assist customers in transitioning to AI [3][5] - New features introduced at Dreamforce include an Agent Builder, a voice interface for AI agents, and a tool for establishing rule-based processes [6] Industry Trends - The integration of Slack as a conversational gateway for Salesforce's software aims to simplify user interactions with AI agents [7] - Slack has developed "knowledge agents" to enhance user experience by surfacing information and performing actions directly within the platform [8] - The vision of AI agents potentially creating bespoke software on the fly is being explored, but traditional SaaS products may continue to coexist with AI enhancements [9]