- Marc Benioff opens Dreamforce 2025, hailing 'agency enterprise'
- CEO Says Salesforce Should Be Zero Customer When Trying These New Products
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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has ushered in the era of the “agency enterprise,” where AI plays a more important role than ever before for firms of all sizes.
The company's co-founder and CEO kicked off Dreamforce 2025 with a typically boisterous keynote, highlighting the latest updates and releases, culminating in the new Agentforce 360 platform.
But above all, of course, there was the growing role Artificial Intelligence Tools for enterprises, as workers and agents will have to work together in this mix, which Salesforce calls the “agency enterprise.”
AI is everywhere
Welcoming attendees at “the biggest, most exciting Dreamforce event ever,” Benioff was in a typically charismatic mood, quickly getting to grips with the vast array of new additions to Salesforce's platforms.
Benioff noted that there is a “very real” gap in the use of agent-based AI, adding that simply deploying enterprise AI models is not enough unless the solutions are integrated and based on good governance.
“This agency gap is divided—it’s a bifurcation. Your customers have grown, but what about your business now?”
“We want to connect with our customers in a whole new way… the pace and growth of innovation has been amazing,” Benioff said.
However, he emphasized that when he's at home on his phone, “using amazing AI and LLM,” the experience is “much worse” when he gets to the office and logs into the AI tools there.
Salesforce wants to play a key role in advancing artificial intelligence technologies, especially when it comes to Agentforce, Benioff added, saying: “At Salesforce, we realized that we have to be zero customer… we have to be able to go from one, to two, to three, to four, to five and show you what we do.”
“At Salesforce, we send 11 trillion emails a year, but every one of those emails is a one-way conversation. What if each of these letters was a two-way conversation?
“AI alone is not enough. It is not enough to just have an LLM degree. It needs (Agentforce) capabilities to connect it, give it context, give it guardrails and all the critical pieces.”
“You need to get the data right. You need to move to more integrated solutions. You need to get the priorities right. You need to get the governance right.”
“We've all seen that simply making our own models, rolling them ourselves, or DIY them is not enough. We need to do our work in Salesforce for you, and we all need to be on this journey together to get to that Sweet spot. In our vision, that's what the Agency Enterprise is all about.”
“This is the next revolution,” Benioff said, “we have gone through predictive AI and are now entering the new revolution of agent AI.”
Benioff emphasized that the company continues to deliver on its 1% pledge, in which it donates 1% of its capital, 1% of its time and 1% of its product to good causes, including a new $30 million dedicated to education and artificial intelligence literacy. That means Salesforce has now committed $841 million to 10 million hours for nonprofits, $300 million for retraining, and $150 million for local schools in San Francisco and Oakland.
