Unlock the Future of Work with AI Agents

I’m excited to share this sponsored deep dive in partnership with Salesforce. 

Now, imagine an AI colleague that doesn’t just answer questions, but actually takes action: scheduling meetings, resolving support cases, and even proactively flagging maintenance issues. In my latest conversation with Ryan Shellack, Senior Director of AI at Salesforce , we peeled back the curtain on Agentforce, the complete AI agent platform built to power “agent-first” enterprises. Keep reading for 7 key takeaways that anyone charting their own agent journey should know:

1. Industry-Specific Agents

Salesforce’s 13 industry clouds have long delivered tailored data models and workflows. Now, Agentforce layers on 100 new, sector-focused actions and agents. Anything from automotive maintenance alerts to banking application assistants and provider care schedulers. Each template covers 70–80% of your needs out of the box, and can be extended and customized in natural language to match your exact processes.

2. Customer-Driven Roadmap

Rather than guessing at priorities, Salesforce listened. When early adopters asked for better case deflection and 24/7 support, contact center and internal task agents (like streamlined IT provisioning via Slack) and other workflow assistants jumped to the front of the queue. The result? Faster time-to-value and tools that solve real problems from day one.

3. Surprising Internal Wins

In rolling out Agentforce internally, Salesforce discovered agents could index deep product roadmaps and pricing details, therefore becoming trusted “world models” for real-time decision making. Guardrails and transparent reasoning built confidence, proving agents can safely handle sensitive tasks without overstepping.

4. Cultural Transformation

Forget one-off trials. In 2025, agents are sticky: embedded in Slack, CRMs, and custom apps… they’re part of the daily workflow. “Agent builders” and “agent managers” are emerging roles, uniting subject-matter experts, low-code developers, and IT pros to design, deploy, and govern this digital workforce.

5. ROI That Matters

The metric everyone understands? Time. With mundane tasks offloaded, teams reclaim hours for high-value work and life beyond the office. Highlights include:

• 80% support deflection on 30,000 weekly tickets at Salesforce
• 100% candidate engagement from 300 million resumes at Adecco Group
• 70% chat deflection for 1-800-ACCOUNTANT during peak season

6. Observability & Optimization

You can’t improve what you can’t see. Command Center brings end-to-end visibility: uptime, latency, escalation rates, even session-level diagnostics. Coupled with CI/CD-style agent lifecycles, you get rapid feedback loops to be able to identify issues, refine prompts, and redeploy in hours, not months.

7. Your First Agent Playbook

Ready to launch your first AI Agent? Follow this recipe:

1. Anchor in a clear outcome (ex: case deflection, sales productivity, time saved)
2. Pick one pilot use case that can deliver immediate value (ex: 24/7 support deflection, IT provisioning, candidate engagement)
3. Assemble your “agent builder” team by combining business stakeholders who own the outcome, SMEs to help configure the templates, and IT/DevOps for integration and security
4. Enable observability from day one to spot gaps and guide continuous improvement (take advantage of Agentforce’s Command Center to monitor uptime, latency, deflection rates, session-level errors)
5. Celebrate and then use your initial pilot’s wins and learnings to build the next agent

For an in-depth primer, sign-up and watch the demos here.

Conclusion

AI agents are ready to join your team today. With the right vision, tools, and practices, you can transform agents into a full-blown department that reasons, acts, and scales at machine speed. Are you ready to lead the agent-first revolution? Find out more at agentforce.com