Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce's annual extravaganza, wrapped up last week in San Francisco with an impressive 45,000 attendees to the Moscone Center. Let's dive into the key takeaways from this year's event.

The Return of Excitement and Community

While Dreamforce has shrunk to 1/3 of the size in 5 years and was again smaller than last year, a big part of that is that you can now see most talks on Salesforce+. That said, 45k people at Moscone was still a very big event. Despite its smaller size, Dreamforce 2024 buzzed with renewed energy. Many participants remarked that "the energy is back this year," highlighting the irreplaceable value and excitement of in-person connections. The Salesforce community's dedication was on full display, with many professionals attending on their own time and dime.

The event maintained its signature carnival atmosphere, complete with furry mascots, green plastic trees, and celebrity appearances. Salesforce's commitment to giving back, exemplified by donations to Benioff Hospital, continued to resonate with attendees.

AI: The Cornerstone of Salesforce's Future

As expected, artificial intelligence dominated Dreamforce 2024. Building on last year's introduction of Einstein Copilot, Salesforce unveiled its next-generation AI solution: Agentforce.

Introducing Agentforce

Agentforce is a suite of autonomous AI agents designed to augment employees and handle complex tasks across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and other Salesforce-enabled business functions.

1. Ability to handle multi-step, complex tasks across different domains

2. Autonomous decision-making capabilities within customized guardrails

3. Integration with Salesforce Flow Actions (more on Flow Actions below)

4. Ability to perform many actions available to human support agents

Agentforce represents a significant leap forward from Einstein Copilot, which was better suited for simpler, repetitive tasks. This advancement aligns with Salesforce's vision of the "Third Wave of AI," moving beyond chatbots and copilots to more sophisticated, autonomous agents.

Potential Impact on Customer Facing Workforce

Salesforce is betting that companies, especially those serving consumer markets, will make substantial investments in AI agents over the next few years. These investments are expected to be primarily funded by reducing the size of support and call center teams.

Addressing Trust and Accuracy Concerns

While the potential of Agentforce is exciting, challenges remain, particularly around trust and accuracy. Even Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tempered expectations in his keynote, often adding caveats like "if it works" or "I hope" when discussing autonomous agents.

However, Salesforce has made significant strides in addressing trust concerns with their "Trust Layer" for AI models. This layer has largely alleviated worries about handling personal information, potentially giving Salesforce a decisive edge over competing solutions.

Marketing Cloud Reimagined

Salesforce announced a significant rebuild of Marketing Cloud, moving away from the ExactTarget platform acquired over a decade ago. Key points include:

• Marketing Cloud Growth: A new version built natively on the core Salesforce platform

• Marketing Cloud Advanced: An upcoming edition that will connect marketing journeys with sales, service, and commerce workflows

• Agentforce for Marketing: AI capabilities integrated into the new Marketing Cloud

• Unified data architecture aligning with Salesforce Core CRM schemas

• Integration of over 100 existing Salesforce products and components

This rebuild aims to provide a more integrated, data-driven, and AI-powered marketing solution that works seamlessly with other Salesforce products.

Flow Enhancements for Admins

Salesforce administrators will be excited about several new features:

• Flow Connections: Low-code integrations with pre-built connectors to Jira, Netsuite, Quickbooks, and other apps

• Reactive Screen Actions: Allows auto-launching of Flows based on input changes, without requiring button clicks

These improvements will make it easier for admins to create sophisticated automations and integrations without extensive coding.

Deeper Slack Integration

Salesforce continues to tighten its integration with Slack:

• Salesforce Channels in Slack: Connects CRM records with Slack channels for improved collaboration

• Slack Templates: Preconfigured templates for faster setup of channels, canvases, lists, and workflows

• Slack Huddle Notes: AI-powered automatic note-taking and summaries of Slack huddles

Consumption Forecasting: A Game-Changer for RevOps Teams

For companies using usage-based pricing models, Salesforce's new consumption forecasting capability could be transformative. This feature allows businesses to predict future usage and revenue based on actual consumption patterns, rather than relying solely on traditional opportunity forecasting.

Key differences from opportunity forecasting:

• Based on real-time usage data and historical consumption patterns

• Provides more accurate short-term revenue predictions

• Offers deeper insights into customer behavior and product usage

• Aligns with usage-based or pay-as-you-go pricing models

• Helps identify upsell opportunities based on increased usage

• Provides early warning signs of churn through declining usage

This tool will be invaluable for RevOps teams managing products with usage-based pricing, offering a more modern approach to revenue prediction.

Manufacturing Cloud Gains Momentum

Five years after its launch, Manufacturing Cloud is seeing significant adoption:

• Many Manufacturing Cloud customers are now using standard functionality rather than custom-built solutions

• This trend indicates the maturation and robustness of the Manufacturing Cloud offering

Valo Launches AI Solution to Empower Salesforce Administrators for Enhanced Optimization

Building on the AI-centric theme of Dreamforce 2024, Valo made a significant splash with the launch of their AI-powered platform designed specifically for Salesforce administrators. Unveiled on the eve of Dreamforce, Valo's solution aims to revolutionize how adminis manage and optimize Salesforce environments. The platform leverages advanced AI capabilities to help admins discover unwanted integrations, observe suspicious activities, and resolve misconfigurations in real-time. By automating complex tasks and providing hard to uncoverinsights, Valo's solution promises to enhance operational efficiency, mitigate risks, and free up administrators to focus on high-value initiatives. This launch aligns perfectly with the conference's focus on AI-driven innovations and underscores the growing importance of AI in streamlining Salesforce administration tasks.

Conclusion: Embracing the AI-Powered Future of Salesforce

Dreamforce 2024 made it clear that AI is not just a buzzword for Salesforce – it's the core of their strategy moving forward. As Salesforce administrators and executives, it's crucial to start planning how you'll leverage these new AI capabilities, particularly Agentforce, in your organizations.

Key action items to consider:

• Explore how Agentforce can enhance your customer service, sales, and marketing operations

• Evaluate the potential of the reimagined Marketing Cloud for your marketing strategies

• Investigate how consumption forecasting could improve your revenue predictions and business planning

• Consider the benefits of deeper Slack integration for your team's collaboration and productivity

• For manufacturing businesses, reassess the capabilities of Manufacturing Cloud and its standard functionality

As you digest these Dreamforce insights, consider how you can prepare your teams and processes for the AI-powered future of CRM. The landscape of Salesforce is evolving rapidly, and staying informed and adaptable will be key to leveraging these advancements for your organization's success.

Remember, while the promise of AI is exciting, it's essential to approach its implementation thoughtfully, keeping in mind both the potential benefits and the challenges around trust and accuracy. With careful planning and execution, these new Salesforce capabilities can drive significant improvements in efficiency, customer experience, and business outcomes.

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  Jari Salomaa