“Reasoning engines combine models, data, business logic, events, and workflows into unified cognitive architectures,” said Phil Mui, Ph.D., SVP of Technology, Head of Products and Engineering, Salesforce AI Research and Agentforce. “Reasoning engines are compound systems. The good ones are fast inference time System 2 reasoners. They try to understand the nuances of user queries, contexts and provide accurate, faithful, and sometimes actionable responses.”

Reasoning engines combine models, data, business logic, events, and workflows into unified cognitive architectures.

Phil Mui, Ph.D., SVP of Technology, Head of Products and Engineering for Salesforce AI Research

This is a striking shift from the AI assistants we’ve come to know, with their scripted prompts and unpredictable replies. Inspired by noted psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, reasoning engines integrate the dual-process framework of human thought — the idea that we can sometimes be quick to react in a moment because a situation calls for it. Or we can take a moment, think about things more deeply,  and come up with more intricate solutions to problems or needs. 

In AI terms, many do-it-yourself (DIY) assistants, which are essentially thin software veneers over large language models (LLMs), go down that first rapid, or “System 1” path because they’re built for basic tasks like answering frequently asked questions or taking product orders. But organizations thinking about employing agents to offload or augment human work need higher levels of reasoning. This is where “System 2” inference comes into play with its ability to understand and think through a situation, deliver relevant insights, and suggest actions.

From quick fixes to thoughtful solutions

That’s part of what makes Agentforce — the first digital labor platform for enterprises — unique. By using System 2 inference-time reasoning, its Atlas Reasoning Engine, the “brain” behind Agentforce, can retrieve the most relevant data then reason and act, greatly improving processes across customer service, sales, and operations. When faced with a request, Atlas enables Agentforce to refine the query — expanding it with additional context — then performs advanced retrieval augmented generation (RAG) that pulls in relevant data and metadata while assessing the quality of its own response. This ability to answer a question, then reflect on the answer before‌ seeking to answer again, enables more accurate responses and precise actions compared to other System 2 assistants that don’t have deep data and metadata context in Salesforce.

Open Image Modal

Image Modal

That step-by-step deliberate thinking also helps minimize one of the most pervasive and worrying pitfalls of AI: hallucinations. Indeed, 78% of workers would stop using an AI agent if it produced incorrect responses, according to a new Salesforce study. While System 1’s fast, instinctive response times can handle simple queries, it often falters in complex or ambiguous situations, leaving room for LLMs to fill in the blanks of its knowledge by delivering results that look real but are inaccurate, creating significant risks for businesses.

With hallucination rates for commercial AI chatbots ranging from 3% to as high as 27%, the value of deliberate, context-rich System 2 analysis is clear: Grounding decisions in deeper reasoning reduces errors while providing more complete and nuanced responses to complex questions. AI agents using System 2 reasoning, fueled by solutions like Salesforce Data Cloud that unify and harmonize business and customer data, further minimize hallucination risks while delivering more contextual and actionable insights — including inline citations that show the sources that Agentforce consulted to craft its response.

“We all know LLMs can hallucinate when there are requests without restraint,” said Claire Cheng, Ph.D., VP of Machine Learning and Engineering for Salesforce AI. “But by accessing the business domain and customer data, agents can reason much better and understand the context of a request to deliver more personalized and relevant responses.”

Cheng offers an example: Imagine a banking customer asking an AI agent to explain how interest rate changes might affect their portfolio. This is a complex question. A typical RAG system or simple AI assistant would probably generate a rudimentary response based on publicly available knowledge articles. However, it wouldn’t be able to evaluate other highly pertinent considerations, such as how much money the customer has in their investment accounts or the bank’s guidance on how to identify which of those funds might be sensitive to interest rate changes.

Agents able to perform deeper levels of data retrieval and reasoning, on the other hand, could provide a more comprehensive, detailed, and well-researched response to advise that banking customer’s investment strategy and even suggest a few in-house financial advisory options to guide their decision-making. 

For instance, when a reasoning engine analyzes a customer support query, it doesn’t just provide a single answer for the user’s query. It evaluates every retrieved text chunk, reranks for the most relevant chunks, then synthesizes the final response based only on those that are relevant to the user’s query. With enhanced query processing techniques, and leveraging metadata-enriched indices, Agentforce customers have been able to achieve 33% improvement over DIY AI solutions in answer accuracy as well as doubling response relevance, as seen in early pilots of Atlas, Cheng said.

Businesses find a reason

For most businesses, the choice between an AI copilot and agent should be a no-brainer, she said. If all you need is answers to common questions, like what a college intern or entry level employee would be able to provide, then traditional AI assistants or copilots are fine. But if you want a higher level of expertise, then you need agents powered by reasoning engines.

Numerous companies are already taking advantage of these reasoning abilities. For example, The Adecco Group, a global leader in talent solutions, is transforming recruiting with Agentforce, which serves as both a recruitment assistant and a candidate concierge. Working 24/7, Agentforce efficiently processes millions of resumes, matches candidates to highly curated opportunities, and proactively prequalifies them. It also helps candidates refine their resumes, streamlining the hiring process and maximizing their potential. reMarkable, a premium digital tablet company, is using Agentforce along with Salesforce’s B2B Commerce solutions to provide customer service and commerce capabilities. Agentforce will handle common inquiries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex needs and higher-impact customer interactions. And 1-800 Accountant, a leading small business accounting firm, is using Agentforce to manage common inquiries and expects to deflect 65% of its incoming service requests as a result. 

Numerous companies are already taking advantage of these reasoning abilities.

Those are just some of the possibilities agents offer when anchored in System 2 reasoning and customer data. Indeed, by combining role-based agents, data integration, and workflow automation, businesses can reap the benefits of agentic technology in every function.

What’s next for reasoning engines?

As AI continues to evolve, reasoning engines will play a critical role in advancing the capabilities of autonomous agents. Mui predicts these systems will become even more proficient with capabilities that enable AI agents to function as domain-specific experts rather than general-purpose assistants. 

Reasoning engines will evolve to address increasingly complex interactions. Agentforce 2.0, announced today, can handle a wider variety of interactions, including those with multiple layers that require deeper thought. For example, a straightforward question like “What’s my portfolio status?” will employ basic reasoning for rapid responses. Alternatively, a deeper question, such as, “What’s the right investment vehicle for my child’s college fund based on my income and risk preferences?” will employ enhanced reasoning with advanced data retrievers — improving the answer by refining the query before pulling both relevant data and context-specific metadata from Data Cloud.

“The difference between this new version of Agentforce and the previous one is that it’s now able to reason deeper, retrieve data with more advanced technology, and generate not just simple answers but actionable responses,” said Cheng.

The difference between this new version of Agentforce and the previous one is that it’s now able to reason deeper, retrieve data with more advanced technology, and generate not just simple answers but actionable responses.

Claire Cheng, VP of Machine Learning and Engineering for Salesforce AI

Future progress in multi-agent systems and collaborative AI could further expand the potential of reasoning engines. By coordinating specialized agents, businesses will be able to tackle complex challenges that require diverse expertise, from supply chain optimization to personalized healthcare. Before long, reasoning engines will also provide what’s needed for multiple agents to work together on various projects. A marketer launching a new product, for example, might employ a reasoning-powered agent to help build a campaign. The agent would collaborate with outbound agents to push out that campaign across relevant channels, engaging with customers as they have questions, then send to commerce-focused agents to complete the transaction.

For now, the leap from System 1 to System 2 reasoning represents a transformative moment in AI development. By integrating advanced reasoning engines, companies like Salesforce are paving the way for AI systems that are more accurate, reliable, and attuned to the complexities of real-world business needs.

“In the next few years, I’d expect we’ll be able to deliver more agentic experts,” Cheng said. “The reasoning engine should be one of the first factors enterprise organizations consider when comparing digital labor options.”

Go deeper:

• Learn more about the Atlas Reasoning Engine
• Read the latest Agentforce news
• Learn more about Agentforce and Data Cloud
• Check out Agentforce customer stories

Agentforce 2.0 makes autonomous AI part of every team, empowering every employee to collaborate with Agentforce in Slack

Agentforce 2.0 features enhanced reasoning and data retrieval to deliver precise answers and orchestrate actions in response to complex, multi-step questions

Customers like Accenture, The Adecco Group, Finnair, Heathrow Airport, IBM, Indeed, Saks Global, and SharkNinja are embracing Agentforce to augment their teams with digital labor — streamlining business operations and unlocking new capacity for growth

San Francisco – December 17, 2024 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today announced Agentforce 2.0: the newest version of Agentforce, the first digital labor platform for enterprises — a complete AI system for augmenting teams with trusted, autonomous AI agents in the flow of work. This release introduces a new library of pre-built skills and workflow integrations for rapid customization, the ability to deploy Agentforce in Slack, and advancements in agentic reasoning and retrieval augmented generation (RAG). These advances will enable companies to scale their workforce with customized agents capable of handling complex, multi-step tasks with even more precision and accuracy.

Why it’s relevant: Every team has more work to do than resources available, leading to poorer customer interactions and lengthy backlogs. Organizations are turning to AI to help, but have a low tolerance for inadequate solutions that provide generic responses. Existing solutions such as copilots struggle to provide accurate, trusted responses to complex requests — such as personalized guidance on a job application — and cannot take action on their own — like nurturing a lead with product recommendations. Organizations need a new type of platform designed to supply digital labor in the form of autonomous AI agents that can reason over data and tap into workflows to take action on behalf of overwhelmed teams.

Agentforce 2.0 cements our position as the leader in digital labor solutions, allowing any company to build a limitless workforce that can truly transform their business.

Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce

“Agentforce 2.0 takes our revolutionary Salesforce digital labor platform to another level, with new reasoning, integration and customization features that supercharge autonomous agents with unprecedented levels of intelligence, precision and accuracy,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “The demand for Agentforce has been amazing — no other company comes close to offering this complete AI solution for enterprises. We’re seamlessly bringing together AI, data, apps, and automation with humans to reshape how work gets done. Agentforce 2.0 cements our position as the leader in digital labor solutions, allowing any company to build a limitless workforce that can truly transform their business.”

How the Adecco Group Uses Agentforce to Scale Personalized Recruiting with Digital Labor: 

“At the Adecco Group, we are committed to creating meaningful connections between candidates and opportunities. By centralizing data across over 40 systems with Salesforce’s Data Cloud and leveraging Agentforce, we’re transforming the candidate experience. Agentforce will help prequalify candidates, enhance CVs, and ensure faster job placements. Agentforce agents also operate 24/7, freeing recruiters to focus on meaningful connections while delivering speed and personalization at scale.” – Greg Shewmaker, Senior Vice President of Global Operations and AI, The Adecco Group

New Library of Skills Brings Agentforce to Every Team and Workflow: 

Time and integration challenges make it difficult to build customized agents for individual business teams or departments. Agentforce 2.0 eliminates these barriers with a new library of pre-built agent skills‌ — ‌tasks Agentforce can perform‌ — ‌spanning CRM, Slack, Tableau, and partner-developed skills on the AppExchange. This latest release empowers customers to extend Agentforce to any system or workflow using MuleSoft. It also features an enhanced Agent Builder capable of interpreting natural language instructions, such as ‘Onboard New Product Managers,’ to auto-generate new agents. These agents seamlessly combine pre-made skills with custom logic built in Salesforce, offering unparalleled flexibility and speed.

• New CRM Skills for Agent-First Customer Experiences: New skills for sales teams such as Sales Development and Sales Coaching enable the creation of autonomous AI agents that can nurture leads based on your rules of engagement, as well as agents that can join your prospecting calls and provide instant feedback on interactions with customers, helping reps do their best work at massive scale. Additional skills include Marketing Campaign and Commerce Merchant skills, scheduling skills for service engagements, and new skills for field service workers.
• Take Action Across Any App or Workflow with MuleSoft: MuleSoft now enables Agentforce to get work done across your business. With MuleSoft for Flow, it’s easier than ever to create low-code workflows that span any system, with pre-built connectors for building multi-system workflows fast. As teams look to turn their APIs into Agentforce actions, the new MuleSoft API Catalog enables builders and Salesforce Admins to view, discover, and manage APIs across Salesforce, MuleSoft, Heroku, and any external services from one central location for rapid reuse. And the new MuleSoft Topic Center expands on this by enabling teams to infuse Agentforce metadata into every API they build, ensuring that any point of connectivity can be automatically turned into an Agentforce skill or action, making every API “agent-first” by default.
• Tableau Skills for Analytics and Insights: New Tableau Topics and Actions deliver data visualizations and predictions for deeper understanding of agent responses and accurate, business context-rich answers using Tableau Semantics. This unlocks new conversational analytics use cases, further lowering the barrier to data access for everyone.
• Slack Skills for Engaging in Channels and Conversations: With Slack Actions now available in Agent Builder, a team can enhance Agentforce with, for example, the ability to send a DM to provide a summary of what’s happening with a project, or update a Slack Canvas when a customer asks for changes to an ongoing project.
• Partner Skills Through the AppExchange: Agentforce is backed by the first-ever enterprise ecosystem of agent skills — enabling customers to extend their Agentforce with custom Topics and Actions ranging from new agent types such as the AI Employee Service Agent with Workday, to new, partner-built actions from Asymbl, Docusign, and Neuron 7.
• Agentforce Now Recommends Skills for the Work You Need Done: Create new agents in seconds using natural language descriptions. Agent Builder now uses Agentforce to compose new agents for the work you need done by auto-generating relevant topics and instructions while pulling from the library of skills and actions already available to you, ensuring teams can go live with new digital labor fast

Agentforce is here.

How an Advanced Reasoning Engine Is Powering the Next Generation of AI Agents

Marc Benioff Weighs In On The AI-Powered Future

How Agentforce Is Redefining Productivity and Customer Experience in the AI Era

Salesforce Introduces Agentforce Testing Center

How Accenture Uses Agentforce to Scale Sales Productivity with Digital Labor: 

“At Accenture, we embrace emerging technologies first so we can help our clients go fast. Our sales team within Accenture’s Salesforce Business Group and Accenture Song are starting to use Agentforce to automate contact and close plan creation, surface insights through enterprise search, and keep teams aligned with dynamic updates. It’s helping to increase time-to-effectiveness, accelerate decision-making, and is allowing them to focus on delivering innovative solutions for their clients.” – Stephanie Sadowski, Salesforce Business Group lead at Accenture 

Agentforce in Slack — Humans with Agents Working Together Where Work Happens: As organizations look to unlock value from AI agents, they need solutions that are embedded where their employees already are. Agentforce 2.0 is deployable in Slack, bringing customizable digital labor into the messages (DMs) and channels where work happens.

• Bring Agentforce to any Message or Channel: Agentforce 2.0 enables teams to easily bring Agentforce into any Slack conversation. Slack users can start a conversation directly from the Agentforce Hub, or @ mention Agentforce agents through DMs or in channels, tapping into their digital labor force directly in the flow of work.
• New Slack Actions in Agent Builder: Agent Builder now features pre-built Slack Actions such as “Create Canvas” or “Message Channel” that enable teams to rapidly enhance existing agents or create new ones that can effortlessly engage with your teams in Slack.
• Unlock conversational context with Enterprise Search: Slack contains a wealth of domain knowledge across DMs, channels, and Canvases that reflect the unique nature of your business. With Slack Enterprise Search, Agentforce can draw from conversational data — enhancing the relevancy of responses and actions by drawing from public and permissioned information in Slack.

How Indeed Uses Agentforce to Scale Personalized Job Seeker Engagement with Digital Labor: 

“Indeed is the world’s leading job site, with three people hired every second through its platform. At the heart of Indeed’s success is its ability to match the 580 million profiles created by job seekers with over 3 million hiring employers. By harnessing the power of Data Cloud, Indeed has enhanced its data architecture, creating a solid foundation for its go-to-market strategies and enhancing connections to its rich job seeker profiles,” said Indeed CIO Anthony Moisant. “By leveraging Agentforce, Indeed can stay focused on its mission to help people find jobs while advancing its goals, including reducing time-to-hire by 50% and helping 30 million individuals facing barriers to employment secure jobs by fiscal year 2030.” – Anthony Moisant, CIO, Indeed

Expert Answers to Complex Questions and Execute Actions with Agentforce 2.0: The Atlas Reasoning Engine is the brain behind Agentforce, enabling it to retrieve relevant data, then reason and act. With Agentforce 2.0, Salesforce is introducing enhanced reasoning and retrieval to handle deeply nuanced questions, powered by new capabilities in Data Cloud that fuel Agentforce with greater context — complementing structured and unstructured data with business-specific metadata for greater accuracy across the most complex, multi-faceted requests.

• Enhanced Reasoning with Advanced Retrievers: Agentforce’s Atlas Reasoning Engine can now handle a wider variety of interactions, including those with multiple layers that require deeper thought. For example, a question that is straightforward, such as “what is the status of my portfolio?” will employ basic reasoning for rapid responses. A deeper question, such as “What would be the right investment vehicle for my child’s college fund based on my current income and risk preferences?” would use enhanced reasoning with advanced data retrievers — improving the answer by refining the query before pulling both relevant data and context-specific metadata in Data Cloud. The Atlas Reasoning Engine assesses its own response and loops through a variety of tools and sources in what’s known as an ‘agentic loop,’ enabling it to provide a trusted, well-researched response or action to nuanced and more complex requests, and do so without writing custom code.
• Enhanced RAG with Enriched Indexing: RAG enables Agentforce to quickly find relevant information in unstructured content. To power enhanced reasoning in the Atlas Reasoning Engine, Data Cloud can now enrich RAG chunks — the snippets of retrieved data — with metadata from the Salesforce Platform. Enriching RAG indexes with metadata context adapts Agentforce 2.0 to the unique conventions of your business without additional work, improving accuracy and relevancy for even the most intricate requests, while increasing trust through inline citations that point to the exact sources Agentforce pulled from to answer a given question.

How Salesforce provides faster, more personalized customer support with Agentforce: The Salesforce Help page receives more than 60 million visits a year from customers who need assistance with product support and account queries. Agentforce on help.salesforce.com provides customers with personalized, 24/7 service, while seamlessly escalating to human reps with the full case history and context when needed. Since launching in October, Agentforce is now solving 83% of customer queries without a human, has halved the number of issues that require human intervention, and has nearly doubled its average number of weekly conversations.

Customer Perspectives:

“At 1-800 Accountant, we’re using Agentforce to manage service inquiries, especially during tax season. With Agentforce now managing up to 90% of incoming requests, we can automate responses to common questions like tax return statuses, freeing up our team to focus on more complex tasks. This boosts efficiency, improves customer satisfaction, and ensures fast, secure, personalized support. Plus, Agentforce adheres to strict data security standards, keeping sensitive tax information safe and accessible only to authorized personnel. It’s a game-changer, helping us scale and serve our clients better during peak times.” – Ryan Teeples, CTO, 1-800 Accountant

“Embracing autonomous agents is a game-changer for Bionic. We’re on a mission to make life radically easier for Britain’s small businesses by combining smart technology with expert human service. With agentic AI, we’re streamlining tasks like meter readings and switch tracking to deliver 24/7 support. This innovation empowers our 200,000 SME customers to save time and hassle so they can focus on growing their business.” – James Lomas, Chief Technology Officer, Bionic

“With Agentforce, we want to transform Capita’s recruitment process into a fast, seamless and autonomous experience that benefits candidates, our people, and our clients. With autonomous agents providing 24/7 support, our goal is to enable candidates to complete the entire recruitment journey within days as opposed to what has historically taken weeks. At Capita, we give time back to our clients so they can focus on what they do best – and Agentforce will improve our ability to do just that. This is just the start of our agentic journey with Salesforce, where we believe an Agentic Economy can drive big growth potential for UK businesses.” – Adolfo Hernandez. Chief Executive Officer, Capita

“At Finnair, we will use Agentforce to transform our customer service operations, enabling us to efficiently handle routine inquiries and improve response times. With Agentforce automating a significant share of standard inquiries, our team can focus on more complex issues, ensuring faster and more accurate support. This allows us to provide a seamless experience for both customers and customer service personnel, reducing onboarding times for our contact center teams with quicker access to vital information.” – Tiina Vesterinen, Vice President, Commerce & CX Solutions, Finnair

“With Salesforce’s Agentforce, SharkNinja will be able to transform customer support across more than 30 markets, empowering our agents to deliver personalized, 24/7 service. By unifying data and addressing common inquiries like ‘where is my order?’, we can streamline agent workloads, enabling them to focus on meaningful, high-impact interactions. This integration will ensure a seamless shopper experience, offering tailored product support, FAQs, and personalized responses that meet consumers’ unique needs – helping us to create extraordinary experiences at every touch point.” – Velia Carboni, CIO, SharkNinja

“The travel industry is a 24/7 business, often involving unique and urgent requests. As our website, which offers luxury travel deals, continues to grow and attract new customers, we wanted a solution that could deliver a personalized service efficiently to our 60 million European members. Agentforce uses our unified data to automate routine tasks like processing cancellations, updating booking information, or even answering common travel questions about luggage, flight information, and much more, freeing up our customer service agents to handle more complex and last-minute travel needs to better serve our members.” – Kate Donaghy, Head of Business Technology, Secret Escapes

“Unity Environmental University is leveraging Salesforce’s Agentforce to expand our support beyond routine inquiries, allowing our employees to focus on learners who need more personalized guidance. By integrating agentic AI into our workflows, we can quickly address standard questions like financial aid details or class registration while freeing our team to engage more deeply with students. This balanced approach ensures that every conversation is more meaningful, as some learners can rely solely on the AI for immediate answers, while others benefit from the combined efforts of both the AI and our dedicated staff. In doing so, we’re not only scaling from 10,000 to 50,000 students, but also enhancing the quality and impact of every interaction along the way and reducing our cost of acquisition per student.” – Dr. Melik Khoury, President & CEO, Unity Environmental University

“At Wellness Extract, we’re excited about all of the new possibilities Agentforce can bring to our business. As we continue to grow, scaling customer support is key, and Agentforce offers the potential to automate inquiries across all our channels while still delivering personalized, seamless experiences for all of our buyers. With Salesforce’s Data Cloud, we’ll gain deeper insights into our customers, helping us boost website conversions, strengthen connections, and reduce costs. It’s an opportunity to not just streamline our business operations, but to elevate our brand and set the stage for even greater innovation in health and wellness.” – Arvind Madakan, Program Manager, Wellness Extract

Availability:

• The full release of Agentforce 2.0 will be generally available in February 2025, with specific features being released in advance beginning today.
• Skills for Sales Development and Sales Coaching are generally available today. Pricing for these skills starts at $2 per conversation.
• Tableau Semantic Layer is generally available today, while skills for Tableau will be generally available December 18.
• Agentforce in Slack, Slack Actions in Agent Builder, and Slack Enterprise Search will be generally available in January 2025.
• Natural language creation of agents in Agent Builder will be generally available in January 2025.
• MuleSoft for Flow, MuleSoft API Catalog, and Topic Center will be generally available in February 2025.
• Enhanced reasoning and RAG will be generally available in February 2025.
  

Learn more:

• Get started for free with Salesforce Foundations
• Join us at TrailblazerDX in San Francisco, March 5-6, 2025
• Dive deeper inside the evolving brain of Agentforce
• Explore how Agentforce is redefining the customer experience 
• Learn more about Agentforce in Slack
• Explore Agentforce and Data Cloud customer stories
• Estimate your ROI with Agentforce
• See new AI agent statistics for 2025
• Join the new Agentblazer and Datablazer communities
• Watch Agentforce customer success videos
• Read more about the Adecco Group and Vivint customer success stories

Any unreleased services or features referenced here are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.

At Salesforce Futures, we are constantly thinking about the broader implications of autonomous AI agents for Salesforce, its customers, and society as a whole. This work requires a future-back, outside-in approach and a willingness to consider a wide range of short-term and long-term possibilities. 

By embracing this perspective, we find ourselves imagining a fast-approaching future where agents can control other agents, buy goods and services on behalf of humans, negotiate with one another, and even create new agents. 

Heading into the New Year, here are some of our thoughts and predictions about how autonomous AI agents are likely to change work — and the workplace — as we know it in 2025. 

Imagine a world where agents can control other agents, buy goods and services on behalf of humans, negotiate with one another, and even create new agents.

Mick Costigan, VP, Salesforce Futures

Prediction 1: Agents working with agents (without you!)

2025 will be the year multi-agent systems take center stage, moving beyond single-agent applications like sales or service. These orchestrations will tackle high-impact challenges, like building sales or marketing campaigns, that typically require the involvement of multiple business disciplines. Unlike simple copilots, multi-agent systems will collaborate with one another, adapt, and execute — enabling enterprises to solve complex problems with trust and scale.

Prediction 2: Meet the Agent-in-Chief

For AI agents to begin working with other agents, some system of agentic orchestration will also be necessary to keep AI labor from running amok. As such, we envision the rise of chief-of-staff agents for overseeing other agents and ensuring humans maintain control over complex networks of AI systems.

Prediction 3: New norms for a new age(nt)

With AI agents taking on increasingly human-like roles, new cultural norms will emerge, especially in the workplace. There will be a need to navigate concerns around over-reliance on AI and its impact on social connection. For example, while AI could help workers be more productive and connected, it could also replace human interactions and create unhealthy dependencies. The conversation around how AI-human relationships can benefit humans will become critical as companies pivot to AI-driven consumer-facing products.

Prediction 4: Goodbye Google, hello agents

AI agents are poised to revolutionize search, moving beyond simply finding information to completing complex tasks. Today, search engines help users discover content, products, and internal resources. But often, search is just a step in achieving larger goals, like making a purchase or completing a project.

As AI agents evolve, they’ll handle entire processes, reshaping how brands interact with consumers and how employees collaborate. This shift will require businesses to adapt with new agent-compatible communication channels to stay connected in an agent-driven world.

More information:

• Read more about these predictions in the third edition of the Futures Magazine
• Check out more insights from the Salesforce Futures team
• Learn more about Agentforce, how Agentforce is inventing the future of agents, and personal AI agents
• Peek into the future of AI-human collaboration at work
• Find more predictions from Salesforce experts

Salesforce today reported that global online sales for the 2024 holiday season (Nov. 1 – Dec 15) have reached $849 billion, a strong 4% year-over-year (YoY) increase. With just nine days left until Christmas, the data shows retailers are deploying a host of new strategies, including AI agents and Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS), to make the most of consumer spending momentum.

“As retailers work to cash in on the final spending frenzy, AI agents are a lifeline,” said Caila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights and Strategy for Salesforce. “Retailers like Saks — which have tapped Agentforce to augment their customer support teams — are showing up for shoppers without driving up their costs. By handling questions, order issues, and recommendations with a personalized touch, they are making last-minute gifting feel effortless. These retailers will win a bigger slice of the holiday pie.” 

Retailers like Saks — who have tapped Agentforce to augment their customer support teams — are showing up for shoppers without driving up their costs.

Caila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights and Strategy for Salesforce

In the final push to Christmas, Salesforce predicts that agents — powered by trusted customer data — will help drive shoppers to the buy button with personalized engagements and support. Since Cyber Week, retailers have increased their use of AI and agents by 23%, and AI is on track to influence more than $200 billion in holiday sales. Salesforce also predicts that BOPIS, where shoppers buy gifts online and pick them up either in-store or curbside, will double the week before Christmas as shoppers race to get last-minute gifts.

The Salesforce Shopping Index analyzes data from over 1.5 billion consumers on retail sites on the Salesforce Platform, including 29 of the top 30 U.S. online retailers. This data encompasses commerce, marketing, and customer service insights, providing a comprehensive view of holiday spending trends.

Early indicators: Five predictions based on 2024 holiday data

• Agents supercharge holiday sales: Retailers are leveraging AI, including agents, as a way to drive efficiency and personalization this holiday season.
  • Since Cyber Monday, retailers have increased their use of generative AI and agents by 23% week over week (WoW). 
  • Since Nov. 1, AI has influenced 19% of all global online orders through actions like customized promotions, order support, and product recommendations.
  • Businesses leveraging generative AI and agents for customer service during the holiday season saw nearly double the engagement growth compared to those without these capabilities (38% vs. 21%).
  • Salesforce Prediction: AI is on track to influence upward of $200 billion in holiday sales for the full holiday season, a 12% increase YoY. 

Businesses leveraging generative AI and agents for customer service during the holiday season saw nearly double the engagement growth compared to those without these capabilities (38% vs. 21%).

• BOPIS is a lifeline for last-minute shoppers: The BOPIS option has increased in popularity as consumers avoid long lines and shipping deadlines.
  • BOPIS accounted for 21% of online orders in the week following Cyber Monday. 
  • After the ground shipping deadline for Christmas delivery passes, retailers with BOPIS often experience 5-7 times higher online sales growth than those without it.
  • Salesforce Prediction: In the weekend before Christmas, the number of BOPIS orders will double compared to the rest of the season, accounting for nearly 40% of all online orders for retailers leveraging the in-store fulfillment feature. 

• Retailers beware, returns are on the rise: Consumers are being more judicious about their final holiday purchases and making their own price adjustments to stretch their budgets.
  • Since Nov. 1, about 8.3% of purchases have been returned, up from 6.6% in 2023.
  • The global return rate is expected to peak at 13% during Christmas and Boxing Week, up from 12% in 2023. 
  • Salesforce Prediction: Over $133 billion worth of orders purchased this holiday season will be returned, which agents can help retailers manage after the holidays. 

• Mobile wallets, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) simplify checkout for shoppers:
  • Mobile wallet payments such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal continue to see high adoption, with usage increasing 16% YoY globally the week following Cyber Monday.
  • 6% of all orders since Nov. 1 were purchased with BNPL options.
  • Salesforce Prediction: Nearly a quarter (24%) of all global holiday season orders will be purchased with mobile wallet payment options. 

• Mobile dominates holiday shopping: Mobile devices have become the primary channel for holiday shopping, and adoption continues to increase as consumer experiences improve.
  • 78% of all global digital site traffic came from mobile devices since Nov. 1.
  • Mobile also accounted for 69% of all online orders since Nov. 1.
  • Salesforce Prediction: 83% of all online traffic and 76% of all online orders will be driven by mobile from Dec. 23-25.

Data Cloud powers personalized customer interactions: Leveraging their vast customer data and the combined power of Agentforce, retailers are harmonizing customer information into a single unified customer profile that helps them drive insights and deliver intelligent, actionable, and personalized engagements to shoppers in real time.

• Data Cloud saw significant YoY growth in customer records ingested during Cyber Week (+78% YoY), showing the industry is rapidly growing the amount of data they’re using to drive business outcomes.
• Data Cloud processed over 300 trillion records (+85% YoY) in Cyber Week alone, and helped retailers action over 94 billion profiles across various platforms and channels like Marketing Cloud and Google. This enabled retailers to deliver targeted marketing, personalized recommendations, and optimized inventory management — all crucial during the busy holiday season.
• Salesforce Prediction: With more data than ever, retailers will seek out a unified data platform that allows them to more seamlessly connect, harmonize, and action against real-time customer insights, allowing for personalization across every touchpoint.

Explore further:

• Visit the Shopping Insights HQ for additional holiday data
• View Cyber Week 2024 insights
• Check out Salesforce’s earlier predictions for the holiday season 

2024 Salesforce holiday insights and predictions methodology

Powered by Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, Salesforce analyzed aggregated data to produce holiday insights from the activity of more than 1.5 billion global shoppers across more than 89 countries, with a focus on 18 key markets: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), Switzerland, Latin America (LAM), the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Eastern Europe, Belgium, and the Nordics. This battery of benchmarks provides a deep look into the last nine quarters and the current state of digital commerce. Several factors are applied to extrapolate macroeconomic figures for the broader retail industry. These results are not indicative of Salesforce performance.

The prediction data that we present are from proprietary Salesforce research. The calculations we use blend first-party and third-party data, as well as several market assumptions, to generate the data points we present.

As businesses increasingly embrace agentic AI, an advanced form of artificial intelligence (AI) capable of making decisions and taking actions autonomously, a technological transformation with vast potential is underway. For the enterprise, AI agents promise to revolutionize industries by augmenting employees, enhancing customer experiences, and unlocking a digital labor force for every vertical.

Wiley, an early adopter, is resolving cases over 40% faster with Agentforce than their previous chatbot.

Toni Morgan, Product Management Director

Agentic AI systems include Agentforce, Salesforce’s complete AI system that integrates data, AI, automation, and humans to deploy trusted AI agents for concrete business outcomes. Although it’s still early days, companies like Wiley and Unity Environmental University are seeing promising results. Wiley, an early adopter, is resolving cases over 40% faster with Agentforce than their previous chatbot. Unity Environmental University expects to save $800 in staff resource time for every request for information made via their website with Agentforce.

Yet, as agent capabilities grow, so too does our responsibility to mitigate risk. 

Addressing the ethical implications of agentic AI

Agents’ capacity to take independent action introduces important ethical questions: How do we ensure these systems are fair and equitable? How do we prevent them from perpetuating stereotypes or alienating users from diverse cultural or linguistic backgrounds? The very qualities that make agentic AI transformative — its ability to learn, adapt, and operate autonomously — also make it vulnerable to reinforcing biases, eroding user trust, and amplifying systemic inequities if left unchecked. These risks are further compounded by the non-deterministic nature of generative AI, where outputs can vary depending on context.

Without rigorous ethical frameworks for testing and deploying these systems, businesses risk not only reputational damage but also the potential to lose the trust of the very people they aim to serve. 

Without rigorous ethical frameworks for testing and deploying these systems, businesses risk not only reputational damage but also the potential to lose the trust of the very people they aim to serve.

Toni Morgan, Product Management Director

At Salesforce, with efforts led by our Office of Ethical & Humane Use, we’re committed to addressing these challenges head-on through a comprehensive strategy that includes red teaming, various adversarial testing methods, and Trust Testing — a complementary type of product testing designed to help Salesforce agentic AI products better serve globally diverse populations.

Manually testing for bias: Where traditional methods fall short

Traditional manual testing frameworks have long played a key role in AI validation, providing a human lens to complement automated methods. These approaches are essential for maintaining technical accuracy and robustness. But as agentic AI becomes more sophisticated, these frameworks reveal the significant limitation of missing the lived experiences of diverse users. They tend to follow static checklists that focus on technical correctness, rather than assessing how real users from different cultural, linguistic, or social backgrounds, and with varying disability statuses, might experience the system. Without human testers representing diverse perspectives, these frameworks miss subtle, yet impactful, forms of bias. 

Unlike traditional machine learning models, agentic AI acts autonomously in response to human input, which introduces unique challenges: responses can vary depending on context, making it harder to identify and address biases embedded in the system. For example, imagine a career advice agent unintentionally steering women away from leadership roles or a customer service agent misunderstanding regional idioms. These biases, while subtle, can erode trust and alienate users.

Traditional testing frameworks fail to account for the dynamic and context-sensitive nature of agentic AI systems. This is where Trust Testing — a methodology designed to address the complexities of agentic AI by combining manual testing with real-world interactions led by diverse users – stands apart. 

Grounding Agentforce in Trust Testing: Understanding its capacity for bias 

With the launch of Agentforce for Service, we faced a challenge: how to rigorously test for bias in a system that takes semi-autonomous action. While traditional testing methods formed the foundation of our product testing strategy, we knew that a different kind of testing was required to surface the subtle forms of bias that diverse users experience. To meet this challenge, we tapped a diverse population of employees from across Salesforce’s global workforce to evaluate the trustworthiness of prompt responses. Participants engaged with the AI in simulated real-world scenarios, creating detailed personas to represent diverse user experiences and using those personas to explore interactions that probed for biases, inconsistencies, and gaps in cultural sensitivity.

In other words, Trust Testing leverages diverse perspectives to understand how AI systems can maintain user trust even when outputs can’t be predicted. Trust Testing expands upon our existing ethical product testing efforts which prioritize diverse perspectives to uncover unintentional biases in the customer experience. This serves as a cornerstone in our trust architecture, rigorously testing and identifying potential biases and vulnerabilities to ensure our AI systems are not only robust but also align with the Salesforce’s standards of ethical responsibility. ​

In other words, Trust Testing leverages diverse perspectives to understand how AI systems can maintain user trust even when outputs can’t be predicted.

Toni Morgan, Product Management Director

Designing the right type of test: The Trust Test

This methodology goes beyond simple accuracy metrics that focus solely on finding gaps in the product experience. It examines how different users might interact with, trust, or mistrust an agentic AI system based on their lived experiences, cultural contexts, and personal knowledge — a methodology where testers develop dynamic characters with unique backgrounds, challenges, and motivations.

For example, one persona might represent a bilingual educator from India who switches between English and Hindi in conversation. Another might reflect a non-binary software engineer navigating corporate culture in Japan. By embedding these personas into the testing process, we can evaluate how AI systems handle diverse linguistic, cultural, and contextual scenarios.

To make sure the testing process captured a full spectrum of perspectives, Salesforce partnered with our Equality Groups to recruit testers from diverse cultural, linguistic, and professional backgrounds, including those with disabilities. This approach complements traditional forms of testing by centering the human experience when using AI. For instance, testers identified system inconsistencies in how the AI responded to different English dialects, cultural references, and identity disclosures, helping us refine responses to be more inclusive and contextually appropriate.

By prioritizing lived experience and diverse expertise, Trust Testing uncovered critical insights that strengthened system performance while building trust with global users.

Toni Morgan, Product Management Director

This approach also avoids the pitfalls of traditional testing, in which the individual identities of those from marginalized groups are leveraged as proxies for that entire demographic group. Instead, persona-based testing empowers testers to contribute their insights by allowing them to create dynamic, multidimensional personas that reflect their lived experiences, avoiding the reductive practice of treating individuals as demographic stand-ins. By prioritizing lived experience and diverse expertise, Trust Testing uncovered critical insights that strengthened system performance while building trust with global users.

Results: What we learned from Trust Testing

Trust Testing transformed our understanding of how AI systems handle linguistic and cultural diversity. We identified four critical focus areas for improvement:

1. Global English Variations: We moved beyond U.S.-centric language models to ensure our systems accommodate English as it is spoken across regions like India, Australia, and the U.K. This means users now experience responses that reflect their local context, vocabulary, and communication styles — whether it’s interpreting regional idioms or understanding colloquial expressions.
2. Multi-lingual Interactions: The testing showed us how to improve Agentforce to support conversations that mix languages or use non-standard English. For example, our AI can now better handle scenarios where users seamlessly switch between languages mid-conversation or use localized phrases that deviate from traditional grammar. This ensures smoother, more intuitive interactions for multilingual users.
3. Identity Handling: We improved how our systems manage identity-related disclosures, such as references to a “partner” versus a “spouse.” These adjustments allow the AI to respond more respectfully and inclusively, avoiding assumptions that might alienate or misrepresent users.
4. More than Technical Accuracy: While accuracy remains foundational, Trust Testing revealed that building trust requires more than technically correct answers. By addressing cultural sensitivity, language diversity, and inclusivity, our AI systems now deliver responses that resonate with users on both a cognitive and emotional level, bridging both reliability and approachability.

Most significantly, these learnings demonstrate how Trust Testing can systematically uncover and address subtle biases in AI systems, while building genuine user trust across diverse cultural contexts. These lessons go beyond improving individual products — they highlight how businesses can address the complexities of global AI deployment. In an era where agentic AI systems are becoming increasingly autonomous, trust is paramount. Trust Testing gives businesses a framework to ensure their AI systems are not only innovative but also equitable, adaptive, and aligned with the realities of global users. 

Leveraging non-technical skills to improve a technical product

Trust Testing has also become a platform for upskilling our own workforce. By engaging diverse testers as collaborators, the process naturally evolved into a framework for developing critical AI competencies.

Participants in Trust Testing gained hands-on experience with Agentforce while building essential skills for the AI-powered future, including:

• AI Literacy: Understanding how AI systems work, their limitations, and their ethical implications.
• Critical Analysis: Learning to evaluate AI outputs for subtle biases and inconsistencies.
• Collaborative Problem-Solving: Working in diverse teams to navigate complex challenges.
• Data Interpretation: Recognizing how data shapes AI outcomes and where improvements are needed.
• Ethical Reasoning: Applying principles of fairness and equity in testing and design.

Through this integrated approach, testers not only helped improve Agentforce but also developed practical skills that enhanced their technological readiness. The process transformed what could have been a simple testing exercise into a mutual learning opportunity, ensuring our workforce grows alongside our AI capabilities.

Looking ahead

As businesses increasingly integrate agentic AI into their workflows, the need for ethical and transparent testing frameworks has never been more urgent. Trust Testing is one part of a multi-layered approach to testing AI at Salesforce Trust Testing and is also a blueprint for how businesses everywhere can build trustworthy AI systems that equitably serve diverse user groups.

The path to ethical AI deployment lies in recognizing bias identification and AI skills development not as separate hurdles, but as interconnected opportunities to create more inclusive and effective AI systems. Trust Testing is more than a tool — it’s a call to action for the industry to lead with equity and accountability. As AI systems gain increasing autonomy, ensuring they serve all communities equitably will be critical. Together, we can build a future where AI is not only innovative but also ethical, equitable, and trustworthy.

More information:

• Learn more about Agentforce
• Read more about Salesforce’s guiding principles for responsible agentic AI
• Read about Salesforce’s progress on the White House voluntary AI commitments

Ninety-one percent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) with artificial intelligence (AI) say it boosts their revenue, according to a new Salesforce survey. The global data, gathered from 3,350 leaders of SMBs, highlights how forward-looking businesses are using AI to drive growth amid the meteoric rise of autonomous AI agents.

Why it matters: This new research follows an August 2024 study published by Slack that found SMBs can lose valuable time to technology inefficiencies, uncovering a need for AI solutions that boost productivity. 

One such example is reMarkable, a rapidly-growing Norwegian premium paper tablet scale-up that chose Salesforce’s Agentforce to scale their customer service operations. With Agentforce, reMarkable will be able to handle a soaring volume of customer inquiries, providing a white-glove experience at scale by proactively addressing common questions and seamlessly escalating complex issues to human agents. With humans and agents working together, reMarkable can quickly and cost-effectively scale customer service without compromising quality.

Their success is creating a blueprint for how small businesses can leverage AI, including Agentforce, a new layer on the Salesforce Platform that enables organizations to build and deploy autonomous AI agents, to drive growth.

Kris Billmaier, EVP, Salesforce

The Salesforce perspective: “AI and agents are reshaping what’s possible across business functions like marketing, sales, service, and commerce,” said Kris Billmaier, EVP, Salesforce. “SMBs adopting AI are seeing significant returns and doubling down on their investments. Their success is creating a blueprint for how small businesses can leverage AI, including Agentforce, a new layer on the Salesforce Platform that enables organizations to build and deploy autonomous AI agents, to drive growth.”

AI investments are a sign of growth

Today, 75% of SMBs are at least experimenting with AI, with growing businesses leading in adoption (83%). This gap appears set to widen — 78% of growing SMBs plan to increase their AI investment next year, versus 55% of their declining peers. 

The different approaches reflect broader business priorities: while stagnant and declining SMBs focus primarily on customer acquisition, growing SMBs invest in improving the customer experiences and technology capabilities that drive sustainable growth.

SMB leaders who haven’t adopted AI may have a blind spot about its prevalence: While 80% of those using AI believe the technology is commonly used among their peers, only a third of non-users agree.

Open Image Modal

Image Modal

“AI is leveling the playing field between SMBs and larger enterprises,” said Billmaier. “Small and medium-sized businesses using AI see real returns across their operations, from improved efficiency to stronger customer relationships. Those who wait too long to invest risk falling behind as early adopters build their advantage.”

SMBs call AI a ‘game-changer’

SMBs with AI have a bright outlook for the technology: 78% say it will be a game-changer for their company. Already, 87% of respondents with AI say it helps them scale operations, while 86% see improved margins. The technology is transforming both customer-facing and operational functions, with top use cases including:

1. Marketing campaign optimization 
2. Content generation 
3. Automated recommendations for customers 
4. Natural language search tools 
5. Automated service chatbots

Service teams are also reducing case resolution times, while sales teams are using AI to automatically draft personalized prospecting emails and recommend next best actions for reps. Meanwhile, marketing teams are increasing conversion rates with AI-based lead scoring, decreasing unsubscribe rates through automated email lists, and more.

How leading SMBs maximize AI success

The research also identifies clear patterns in how successful SMBs approach AI implementation.

Data Foundation First

AI systems are trained on and continuously use data, so data quality directly determines results; inaccurate data can lead to harmful flaws. Seventy-four percent of growing SMBs are increasing data management investments, compared to 47% of declining SMBs. 

“Some people don’t really understand how data is going to impact the business in the future,” said Dan Atkinson, COO & Co-Founder of Salesforce SMB customer MedLogiq. “It’s about how this data will be valuable to the company five years down the road. We want to make sure we’re not losing that information.”

Integrated Approach

When systems work together seamlessly, AI can access and act on data across the entire business, from sales and marketing to service and the back office. Compared to SMBs with declining revenue, growing SMBs are twice as likely to have an integrated tech stack (66% vs 32%), dodging the problems of siloed data and inefficiencies common to having many standalone applications. 

Security and Trust

Security ranks as the top technology challenge for SMBs, reflecting the growing stakes of managing sensitive business data as SMBs expand their AI capabilities. This shapes their purchase decisions: 81% of SMB leaders say they would spend more on technology from trusted vendors.

The next wave: AI agents

The foundations SMBs are building today — such as data management, integrated systems, security, and trusted partnerships — also position these companies for the next wave of AI: agents that can learn, adapt, and take action across the business. 

“When SMBs follow AI best practices, they’re not only optimizing their current technology. They’re also positioning themselves for the emerging era of AI agents, in which agents can execute work by searching for relevant data, analyzing this data to formulate a plan, and then actioning the plan — without human intervention,” said Billmaier. “SMBs that have built strong foundations are perfectly positioned to tap into solutions like Agentforce to augment their staff, scale their workforce, and lower costs.”

More information:

• Read the full Small & Medium Business Trends report
• Discover how small and growing businesses can get started on Salesforce Starter
• Explore the Stat Library, Salesforce’s bookmarkable database of stats for journalists

Methodology

Data in this report is from a double-anonymous survey conducted August 3 through September 16, 2024. The survey generated 3,350 responses from leaders of small, medium, and growth businesses (200 employees and under) across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. For more demographic information, please refer to the full “Small & Medium Business Trends” report.

AI and agents drive $60 billion in online sales through personalized offers and engagements

Mobile devices facilitate 70% of U.S. and worldwide online purchases 

SAN FRANCISCO — December 3, 2024 — Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the #1 AI CRM, today announced its 2024 Cyber Week results (Nov. 26 – Dec. 2), revealing a record $314.9 billion in global online sales, with U.S. consumers contributing $76 billion. 

The report also revealed mobile devices drove 70% of U.S. and global online orders this year, and Black Friday proved its staying power as a cornerstone of the shopping season by driving $74.4 billion in global digital sales. AI, including agents, also played a pivotal role, influencing $60 billion in sales and showing how this technology is reshaping the retail landscape and boosting consumer engagement. 

Based on an analysis of 1.5 billion shoppers and 1.6 trillion page views across the Salesforce Platform, the annual report found that consumers held off on spending to capitalize on Cyber Week deals.

Open Image Modal

Image Modal

“Shoppers were waiting all of 2024 for the right moment to buy the goods they wanted, and they clearly made the most of this Cyber Week,” said Caila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights at Salesforce. “Strong year-over-year (YoY) order growth indicates that even modest discounts were enough to convince consumers to open their wallets. And retailers who invested in AI and agents were able to reap even greater revenues during this critical shopping period through personalized promotions, recommendations, and support.” 

And retailers who invested in AI and agents were able to reap even greater revenues during this critical shopping period through personalized promotions, recommendations, and support.

Caila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights at Salesforce

Top Cyber Week 2024 Salesforce shopping insights from the Salesforce report include:

• Online sales and order growth reached new peaks: After months of slow sales growth, Cyber Week and the lead-up to it was the pressure release valve that drove consumers to spend more this year.
  • Growth for the first four weeks of the holiday season (Nov. 5 – Dec. 2) was strong, up 8% in the U.S. and worldwide.
    • Cyber Week: Digital sales across Cyber Week reached $76 billion in the U.S. (up 7% YoY) and $314.9 billion globally (up 6% YoY). 
    • Black Friday: Global online sales reached $74.4 billion (up 5% YoY) and $17.5 billion (up 7% YoY) in the U.S. This was the strongest shopping day of the week.
    • Cyber Monday: Global online sales reached $12.8 billion in the U.S. (up 3% YoY) and $49.7 billion globally (up 2% YoY).

• AI and agents play a big part in Cyber Week: Retailers like Saks doubled down on the use of AI, including agents, to power shopping experiences this season.
  • $60 billion of global online sales were influenced by AI and agents for product recommendations, targeted offers, and conversational customer service support.
  • Retailers using generative AI and agents to fuel service experiences saw a 2% higher conversion rate compared to retailers who didn’t use the technology.
  • Retailers used generative AI and agents 18% more during Cyber Week than the previous week, likely to drive efficiency and personalization for customers.
  • Shoppers used AI- and agent-powered chat for customer service 38% more than they did in the previous week.

Retailers using generative AI and agents to fuel service experiences saw a 2% higher conversion rate compared to retailers who didn’t use the technology.

• Mixed bag of discounts drove mixed bag of results: Despite the threat of growing consumer appeal and low prices offered Chinese marketplaces like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, Western retailers did not offer significant discounts to compete.
  • The global average discount rate was 26% and the U.S. discount rate was 28%, both down 1% YoY.
  • Verticals with the highest global average discount rates included:
    • Makeup (40%)
    • General apparel (34%)
    • Skincare (33%)
  • Verticals with the highest U.S. average discount rates included:
    • General apparel (37%)
    • Health and beauty (35%)
    • Home appliance, decor, and furniture (23%)

• Mobile conversion picks up the pace: As consumers of all ages grow increasingly comfortable with mobile shopping and the mobile buying experience gets easier, the gap between mobile traffic and mobile orders is narrowing. This trend underscores a growing consumer willingness to make significant and high-value purchases directly from their smartphones.
  • More than 80% of both U.S. and global ecommerce traffic originated from a mobile device during Cyber Week.
  • Exactly as predicted, mobile orders drove 70% of U.S. and global sales, up from 67% in 2023.
    • In total, mobile accounted for $220 billion in sales globally and $53.3 billion in the United States. 
  • Mobile wallet usage also increased 16% globally during the week.
• Social commerce plays a critical role for retailers
  • Retailers implementing social commerce strategies saw 19% of their Cyber Week sales generated through platforms like TikTok Shop and Instagram.​​

Salesforce powers Cyber Week shopping with trust, scale, and AI

This year, the Salesforce Platform helped digital retailers around the world drive profitable growth and scale, with nearly 100% uptime, to reach shoppers across all buying channels with agentic and personalized experiences. This was made possible by:

• Commerce Cloud: Commerce Cloud powered nearly 50 million orders on digital storefronts across Cyber Week with 99.999% uptime.
• Marketing Cloud: Nearly 56.5 billion marketing messages were sent via Marketing Cloud, accounting for a 5% YoY increase.
• Service Cloud: Service Cloud helped customers field and resolve more than 3.8 billion cases. 
• AI: Salesforce powered nearly 60 billion AI-powered product recommendations across Cyber Week, signaling 21% YoY growth. Salesforce also observed a 32.2% YoY increase in AI-powered chatbots during the week.
• Agentforce: Agentforce generated 1.67 million Large Language Model (LLM) replies and decisions to execute actions for retailers during Cyber Week.

Explore further:

• Compare Cyber Week to Salesforce’s 2024 holiday season forecast
• Visit the Holiday Shopping HQ for real-time Cyber Week results

2024 Salesforce holiday insights and predictions methodology

Powered by Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, Salesforce analyzed aggregated data to produce holiday insights from the activity of more than 1.5 billion global shoppers across more than 89 countries, with a focus on 18 key markets: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), Switzerland, Latin America (LAM), the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Eastern Europe, Belgium, and the Nordics. This battery of benchmarks provides a deep look into the last nine quarters and the current state of digital commerce. Several factors are applied to extrapolate macroeconomic figures for the broader retail industry. These  and these results are not indicative of Salesforce performance.

The prediction data that we present are from proprietary Salesforce research. The calculations we use blend first-party and third-party data, as well as several market assumptions, to generate the data points we present.

Leading UK businesses including Capita, Heathrow, Bionic and Secret Escapes realising productivity benefits of AI agents

London — December 2, 2024 — Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today announced findings of the Salesforce UK AI Readiness Index, highlighting that the UK is well-placed to be a world leader of the third wave of AI innovation: agentic AI. At the same time, UK businesses are reporting that they are realising productivity benefits of AI agents with Salesforce.

The report highlights the UK’s above-G7 average performance in AI adoption, while identifying key opportunities for improvement, including SME support, fostering partnerships and upskilling talent.  

Salesforce has led customers through AI’s evolution — predictive, generative and now agents. At the forefront of this transformation is Salesforce’s Agentforce, which is enabling businesses to deploy agents to act autonomously, delivering real-time, actionable results.

“Agentic AI is revolutionising enterprise software by enabling humans and agents to collaborate seamlessly and drive customer success. The UK AI Readiness Index positively highlights that the UK has both the vision and infrastructure to be a powerhouse globally in AI, and lead the current third wave of agentic AI. At Salesforce, we are enabling businesses to embrace AI-first strategies that deliver growth, resilience, and world-class customer experiences. To realise this potential, it is imperative that we continue to collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure that AI is not only a tool for economic advancement, but also a force for good.” Zahra Bahrololoumi CBE, UKI CEO, Salesforce

The UK is ready to lead the next wave of AI

The Salesforce UK AI Readiness Index finds that both public and private sectors in the UK have embraced the transformational opportunity offered by AI. A strong innovation culture, robust tech investments, and pragmatic regulations position the UK ahead of its G7 peers.

The report assesses the UK’s readiness for AI adoption and innovation across three areas:

1.      UK overall readiness for AI adoption/innovation

2.      Government readiness and how AI is being used across the public sector

3.      Business readiness and how UK industry is approaching AI and its level of readiness

The UK’s readiness score is 65.5 against the G7 average of 61.2, putting clear daylight between the UK and other advanced economies. Both government and business readiness scores are also higher than the respective G7 averages.

At government level, readiness to adopt and innovate is supported by strong citizen participation in e-services. The UK is seen as a stable, safe environment in which to invest in large-scale IT projects. 

Initiatives such as last year’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, and the new Government’s proposed risk-based AI legislation serve to highlight the UK’s global AI leadership on critical issues such as transparency, privacy and security.

On business readiness, the UK score of 52 again compares very favourably with the G7 average score of 47.8. UK industries are performing well on adoption of AI, supported by the increasing prioritisation among SMEs for AI adoption. 

Adam Evans, EVP & GM, Salesforce AI Platform, predicts that in 2025, autonomous agents will evolve into business-aware intelligence — understanding the unique context, challenges, and needs of your industry to carry out meaningful, strategic business tasks and decisions on your behalf.

Investing in the future of AI

The UK is a world class AI hub with a thriving ecosystem. Last year, Salesforce committed to invest $4 billion in its UK business in the next five years. Since opening the Salesforce UK AI Centre in London in June 2024, over 3,000 customers, thought leaders and wider community members have attended AI training and workshops. 

As part of the Index, key areas of continued investment across all stakeholders will reinforce the UK’s leadership position:

• Further development of a collaborative ecosystem to encourage greater partnership between government, business and academia.
• Developing an adaptive regulatory framework as the UK is primed to act as a bridge between the rules-based EU approach to AI regulation and a more relaxed US approach.
• Support SMEs in adopting AI as they often lack the capital to invest in training and development.
• Sustained and enhanced investment in innovation and R&D.

Among the most pressing priorities is investment in people and digital skills and defining centralised structures to support widespread training and development.

Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark, said:

“These findings are further proof the UK is in prime position to take advantage of AI, and highlight our strength in spurring innovation, investment and collaboration across the public and private sector. There is a global race for AI and we’ll be setting out plans for how the UK can use the technology to ramp-up adoption across the economy, kickstart growth and build an AI sector which can scale and compete on the global stage.”

Antony Walker, Deputy CEO at techUK, said:

“The Salesforce UK AI Readiness Index highlights the UK’s strong position to lead the next wave of AI innovation. In the year ahead, new productivity tools such as AI agents have the potential to deliver real productivity benefits to businesses. To build this progress, government and industry must collaborate to foster innovation, support SMEs, invest in skills, and ensure flexible regulation, cementing the UK’s leadership in the global AI economy.”

Unlocking productivity with autonomous agents

Businesses leveraging this third wave of AI are already seeing the power of agentic AI and Agentforce to unlock new productivity capabilities. Salesforce UK customers including Capita, Heathrow, Secret Escapes and Bionic are already realising the benefits of autonomous agents: 

“With Agentforce, we want to transform Capita’s recruitment process into a fast, seamless and autonomous experience that benefits candidates, our people and our clients. With autonomous agents providing 24/7 support, our goal is to enable candidates to complete the entire recruitment journey within days as opposed to what has historically taken weeks. At Capita, we give time back to our clients so they can focus on what they do best – and Agentforce will improve our ability to do just that. This is just the start of our Agentic journey with Salesforce, where we believe an Agentic Economy can drive big growth potential for UK businesses.” Adolfo Hernandez. Chief Executive Officer, Capita

“The travel industry is a 24/7 business, often involving unique and urgent requests. As our website which offers luxury travel deals continues to grow and attract new customers, we wanted a solution that could deliver a personalised service efficiently to our 60 million European members. Agentforce uses our unified data to automate routine tasks like processing cancellations, updating booking information, or even answering common travel questions about luggage, flight information and much more, freeing up our customer service agents to handle more complex and last-minute travel needs to better serve our members.” Kate Donaghy, Head of Business Technology, Secret Escapes 

“We’ve been really impressed with how Salesforce’s AI platform has improved our service operations, boosted customer satisfaction, and helped increase our digital revenue by over 30%. As Europe’s busiest airport, we’re committed to providing extraordinary service to the over 80 million passengers who pass through our Terminals each year. We’re excited about Salesforce’s new AI features, which will help us enhance the travel experience even further and keep Heathrow at the cutting edge.” Peter Burns, Marketing and Digital Director at Heathrow

“Embracing autonomous agents is a game-changer for Bionic. We’re on a mission to make life radically easier for Britain’s small businesses by combining smart technology with expert human service. With Agentic AI, we’re streamlining tasks like meter readings and switch tracking to deliver 24/7 support. This innovation empowers our 200,000 SME customers to save time and hassle so they can focus on growing their business.” James Lomas, Chief Technology Officer, Bionic

The Agentic Economy in 2025

The UK’s AI readiness is a testament to the combined efforts of government, businesses, and academia. Sustaining leadership requires a continued focus on collaboration, skills development, and innovation. At Salesforce we are ready and we will continue to play our part.

By 2025, autonomous agents will define how AI delivers business value at scale, helping UK businesses realise significant gains in productivity and efficiency. The UK must continue to invest in this potential to remain a global leader in the AI-powered economy.

Learn more:

• Read the full UK AI Readiness Index here
• Read about Salesforce UK’s AI Centre in London

Salesforce UK AI Readiness Index Methodology

Commissioned by Salesforce and prepared by Access Partnership, the UK AI Readiness Index 2024 (the Index) aims to help policymakers in the UK to assess business and government readiness to adopt, deploy, and integrate AI. The Index provides an assessment of UK business and government AI readiness, and its impact on socio-economic opportunities, relative to G7 countries. 

The UK AI Readiness Index is a composite index that measures different components of AI frameworks and ecosystems for the UK and G7 countries. The Index combines qualitative research and quantitative modelling to demonstrate how business and government leaders can better focus the efforts and resources they are devoting to AI. 

The Index uses 15 proxy indicators clustered into two key dimensions:

• Business readiness (7 indicators): How the private sector—start-ups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and enterprises—are equipped to adopt AI. This is important to understand businesses’ ability to drive and sustain the growth of AI. 
• Government readiness (8 indicators): How the public sector—regulators, policymakers, institutions, and organisations—are enabling AI through funds and frameworks. This is important to evaluate governments’ ability to make AI a key driver of economic growth and competitiveness.

At the same time, the two industry leaders have been aligning data and AI related initiatives to build an ecosystem for supporting AI agent delivery. In the last year, for example, the companies created zero copy functionality in Data Cloud with Amazon Redshift and integrated Salesforce’s Model Builder’s BYO LLM (bring your own LLM) capabilities with Amazon Bedrock. 

“By integrating data and AI capabilities across our platforms, Salesforce and AWS are building a strong foundation for the future of agentic systems,” said Brian Landsman, EVP of Global Business Development and Technology Partnerships at Salesforce. “With a majority of large companies planning to implement agents by 2027, it’s critical for organizations to be able to turn to trusted, innovative partners to help them build a successful agentic enterprise.” 

By integrating data and AI capabilities across our platforms, Salesforce and AWS are building a strong foundation for the future of agentic systems.

Brian Landsman, EVP of Global Business Development and Technology Partnerships at Salesforce

Unleashing AI accessibility for all  

Salesforce is ensuring that its innovations are easily available to customers by offering AI  technology through the AWS Marketplace, including Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform for deploying autonomous AI agents across any business. All Salesforce clouds are available on AWS Marketplace in 23 countries, simplifying the procurement process and helping customers easily unlock value and maximize their existing technology investments. This offering allows companies to manage their IT spending, access flexible pricing options, and take advantage of a streamlined billing process, all through a single platform.

This seamless experience empowers businesses to focus on using technology rather than navigating complex procurement processes. As Salesforce and AWS continue to build on these offerings, they’re setting the stage for a new era of enterprise that relies heavily on data and agentic capabilities‌ — ‌allowing businesses to execute complex tasks more efficiently and effectively.

“Our partnership with Salesforce empowers our mutual customers to realize the full potential of their data and AI investments. Together, we’re delivering immediate, reliable, and actionable insights with agentic AI, enabling customers to automate strategically and deliver more value from every part of their business,” said Chris Grusz, Managing Director of Technology Partnerships, AWS. “It’s a promise to fundamentally change the way enterprises operate and thrive.”

Powering tomorrow’s agentic enterprises

Companies like Buyers Edge Platform are benefitting from the Salesforce-AWS expanded partnership with more streamlined data management, increased productivity, and new AI capabilities. The integration work is helping businesses scale at unprecedented rates and is providing the structured and unstructured data agentic systems they need to perform and deliver for enterprises. 

For example, Salesforce Data Cloud, enhanced by AWS’s cloud capabilities, allows for zero-copy, bidirectional integrations. Tied to the Zero Copy Partner Network, this technology provides a comprehensive, real-time view of a company’s data without cumbersome processes like data duplication or reformatting. This has proven transformative for Buyer’s Edge, a leading software and analytics company providing data-driven insights and technology to the foodservice industry. 

Over the past five years, Buyers Edge has acquired 23 companies, creating a fragmented data landscape that had become increasingly complex to manage. But with zero copy technology, Buyers Edge has been able to streamline data from more than 30 disparate sources‌ — ‌including Amazon Redshift‌ — ‌into one unified system that helped them simplify data management and gain full visibility into all of the organization’s data.

“The Salesforce-AWS partnership is enabling rapid growth for us. By unifying allowable data from across our 20+ software offerings and leveraging zero copy technology, we’re able to leverage unified data to drive more powerful insights for our customers,” said Josh Tackett, CTO at Buyers Edge. “Without this type of technology, we were fighting an uphill battle trying to map disparate systems together, but now we have a seamless tool to combine our data which allows us to focus on building more impactful products.”

By unifying allowable data from across our 20+ software offerings and leveraging zero copy technology, we’re able to leverage unified data to drive more powerful insights for our customers.

Josh Tackett, CTO at Buyers Edge

The impact of the Salesforce-AWS partnership extends beyond individual enterprises — it’s also reshaping entire industries. By equipping organizations with data-driven, AI-powered solutions, the two companies are helping sectors like automotive unlock new levels of operational intelligence and efficiency. For example, Salesforce Connected Vehicle has data integrations with AWS IoT FleetWise, which enables automakers to easily integrate vehicle and fleet data that streamlines connected car experiences while removing complex manual integrations. These capabilities are built on a shared foundation of data that flows freely across platforms, allowing businesses to capitalize on emerging technologies without having to overhaul existing infrastructures.

As more industries move toward agentic enterprises, the Salesforce-AWS partnership will help businesses deploy customized agents that can navigate multiple systems, databases, and applications with ease. These autonomous agents have the potential to revolutionize how industries operate, creating efficiencies and improving outcomes on a monumental scale.

Looking ahead: a partnership built for tomorrow

Customers will continue to benefit from the partnership between Salesforce and AWS, with more innovations and regional support planned for 2025. With advancements laser-focused on privacy, compliance, and building trust in the agentic era, customers can expect future updates, including enhancements to the Zero Copy Partner Network and new integrations like Private Connect and Salesforce Contact Center with Amazon Connect.

As the partnership evolves, companies are positioned to harness the combined power of agentic AI and data in ways that not only drive efficiency but also open doors to new business models. For technology leaders and enterprises worldwide, the collaboration represents an opportunity to embrace the future of AI‌ — ‌a future where agents powered by trusted data can make decisions, execute tasks, and drive meaningful outcomes at scale. By enabling businesses to unify data, automate processes, and create a powerful environment for agentic innovation, Salesforce and AWS are helping organizations embrace the full potential of their digital landscapes.

More information:

• Read more about Agentforce Partner Network
• Learn more about the Salesforce and AWS expanded partnership
• Check out more Salesforce and AWS product integrations at AWS re:Invent here
• Get started with Salesforce and AWS

AI contributed to 17% of global purchases in the last seven weeks

Salesforce today reported that the upcoming Cyber Week is expected to drive $311 billion in global sales as consumers eagerly await holiday deals, with the use of AI and agents set to influence up to 19% of those orders.

The Salesforce Shopping Index — which analyzes data from 1.5 billion global shoppers, more than 1.5 trillion page views, and hundreds of millions of unique SKUs on the Salesforce Customer 360 platform — showed that since the start of October, digital retailers using generative AI and agents increased their average order value by 7% compared to those without the technology ($117 vs. $109). AI and agents were also responsible for driving 17% of global orders through personalized recommendations, targeted promotions, and smarter customer service.

Retailers using AI-powered agents during this time frame also doubled customer service engagement, addressing complex cases faster as 30% of consumers prefer agents for speedier service. 

“Agents have the potential to transform the holiday season by helping retailers provide personalized, timely, and efficient service to shoppers when they need it most,” said Michael Affronti, SVP and GM of Commerce Cloud. “There is a wide open opportunity for digital retailers to use AI for personal shopper agents that help consumers find exactly what they’re looking for and continue to make the path to purchase an easy one.” 

Agents have the potential to transform the holiday season by helping retailers provide personalized, timely, and efficient service to shoppers when they need it most.

Michael Affronti, SVP and GM of Commerce Cloud

Salesforce’s Cyber Week 2024 predictions: Reviewing real-time aggregate data stemming from Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud, Salesforce expects to see four major trends during this year’s most critical shopping week:

• AI steers the shopping cart: AI and agents will likely influence 19% of Cyber Week orders, accounting for $61 billion in global sales. 
• Cyber sales surge: Cyber Week sales are expected to reach $311 billion worldwide, accounting for 23% of all holiday purchases in 2024, and $75 billion in the United States. 
• Discount rates are expected to be attractive: Average discounts will likely peak at 28% globally and 30% for the U.S., fueling 5% YoY sales growth.
  • Top discounts rates globally are expected in:
    • Beauty & Makeup – 38%
    • Skincare –  33%
    • General Apparel – 33% 
• Mobile rules digital checkouts: Mobile orders will make up 70% of sales, driven by better on-the-go experiences in recent years, and presenting a new conversion opportunity with AI agents on mobile messaging apps. 

Driving the news: Separately, a recent Salesforce survey found that 45% of global consumers are waiting to make purchases until Cyber Week, beginning November 26, to take advantage of the best deals of the season. This points to an opportunity for retailers to capitalize on shoppers’ excitement and drive more conversions with discounts and agentic customer service experiences. 

In addition, the Salesforce Shopping Index’s early holiday findings, captured between Oct. 1 and Nov. 14, showed:

• Global sales are growing: Global online sales dipped 1% year-over-year (YoY) during the last seven weeks, but rose 8% YoY in the first week of November, suggesting that consumer interest in holiday shopping is picking up pace. 
• Highest-growing sales categories:  
  • Makeup (+10% YoY)
  • Active Footwear (+9% YoY)
  • General Handbags and Luggage (+8% YoY)
• Consumers are interested in AI agents for faster customer service: Since early October, retailers who have invested in AI-powered service agents have seen double the rate of customer service engagement compared to those who have not invested in AI-powered agents.
  • This growth is an early indicator that agents can take on a higher and more complex case load and adequately serve customer needs.
  • Customers, meantime, seem open to engaging with agents. A full 30% of consumers said they would work with an AI agent if it meant faster service.
• AI and agents augment the shopping experience: While a relatively new technology, major retailers are already employing AI agents to help improve shopping experiences, including:
  • Brands like Saks are using Agentforce to streamline routine tasks such as order tracking, enabling customer service teams to focus on delivering a highly customized shopping experience that drives conversion.
  • Nearly one-fifth (24%) of consumers also said they’re already comfortable with AI agents shopping for them.
• Discounts and consumer demand are ramping up: Discounts peaked at an average rate of 20% in the first week of November – a 17% YoY increase, indicating that retailers are gearing up for a competitive holiday season.
  • Online orders have also seen a 4% YoY increase, signaling a positive shift following a year of reduced consumer spending.
• Chinese shopping marketplaces entice consumers with low prices: Sixty-seven percent of buyers who use apps like Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop reported that they are planning to make holiday purchases on them this season.
  • The top marketplace option for shoppers is Temu, with 40% of global consumers saying they’ve made between two and five purchases on this marketplace in the last year.
• Returns present a challenge and opportunity for retailers: Returns in October and November were 33% higher than the same time frame last year, forcing retailers to take a closer look at their retention strategies and return policies to avoid losses.

Salesforce perspective: “While there was a slow start to shopping in October, November is kicking off with enthusiasm. With nearly half of shoppers waiting to make purchases during Cyber Week and nearly a quarter of all holiday sales expected to take place over these seven days, this is the time for retailers to pull out all the stops with the help of AI and agents.” – Caila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights and Strategy

Explore further:

• Visit Salesforce’s Shopping Insights HQ for real-time Cyber Week results
• Discover how to win over consumers this holiday shopping season here
• Find Salesforce’s earlier 2024 holiday forecasts here

2024 Salesforce holiday insights and predictions methodology

Powered by Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, Salesforce analyzed aggregated data to produce holiday insights from the activity of more than 1.5 billion global shoppers across more than 89 countries, with a focus on 18 key markets: the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), Switzerland, LAM (Latin America), MEA (Middle East and Africa), Eastern Europe, Belgium, and the Nordics. This battery of benchmarks provides a deep look into the last nine quarters and the current state of digital commerce. Several factors are applied to extrapolate macroeconomic figures for the broader retail industry, and these results are not indicative of Salesforce performance.

The prediction data that we present are from proprietary Salesforce research. The calculations we use blend first-party and third-party data, as well as several market assumptions, to generate the data points we present.