Doesn’t time just seem to fly? It feels like only yesterday I was writing about Agentforce being unveiled at Dreamforce. Fast forward to December and we’re already delving into the world of Agentforce 2.0! But what does this mean? What’s improved and how does it impact you? In this post, I’ll break down the key announcements.
Transition from Assistive to Autonomous
Before diving into the Agentforce 2.0 announcement, let’s explore the shift from assistive to autonomous agents.
- Assistive. These require human input, guidance and approval. They support users by completing tasks, such as summarisation or providing recommendations. Examples include Einstein Copilot (before Agentforce) or Microsoft Copilot.
- Autonomous. Operating independently, autonomous agents react, reason, plan and act without human intervention. This can involve a series of tasks in a row.
In essence, assistive agents augment human efforts but rely on human insight and collaboration. Whilst there are different types of autonomous agents, they all take things further by handling work independently. When used effectively and the right type of agent is applied, this can free up capacity by resolving repetitive tasks, allowing your team to focus on higher-value and more complex activities.
Agentforce 2.0: The Digital Labour Platform
“As a CEO, I’m not just managing human beings, but I am also managing agents… there is an agentic layer … it is what is happening right now…. we’ve already crossed the bridge…to this new world of digital labour”.
Needing to do more with less is a challenge every business faces. Standing still isn’t an option, and teams are under constant pressure, juggling limited hours and context switching. Sound familiar?
In September, Salesforce introduced Agentforce, its entry into autonomous agents. These agents can independently react to events, plan and act, streamlining processes and automating repetitive tasks. This frees up capacity and allows teams to focus on higher-value work. The potential benefits are clear. Greater efficiency, improved resilience during peak workloads and more productive teams. Powerful stuff!
Now, Agentforce 2.0 is on the horizon. Dubbed the ‘Digital Labour Platform’ by Marc Benioff, it takes the concept to the next level. It establishes Salesforce as a provider of ‘digital labour’ or an ‘agentic layer’, allowing businesses to scale efficiently.
Take Salesforce’s own implementation of Agentforce. Agentforce now handles 32,000 conversations per week on the Help and Training portal, resolving 83% of cases and reducing escalations to humans by 50%. It is also used on the sales website, showing how the agentic layer can be used across a business’s value chain, in sales, service and beyond.
So, what's new?
“Data Cloud is the foundation for Agentforce…it is about unlocking the full potential, to enable Agentforce to deeply understand your business and your customer and empower agents to take more effective actions”
The Agentforce 2.0 announcement highlight’s 4 key themes:
- Expanded Prebuilt Skills and Workflow Integration. New prebuilt skills for CRM include sales development, coaching, service appointment scheduling, marketing campaign management, and more. Tableau Semantics delivers richer, context-driven insights. AppExchange partners continue to enrich their offerings.
- Agentforce in Slack. Use Agentforce agents and actions directly within Slack. Streamline processes from conversation through to action.
- Enhanced Agentic Reasoning (Atlas) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Updates to Salesforce’s Reasoning Engine (Atlas) and RAG allows agents to handle more complex, multi-step tasks. RAG updates provide deeper context (grounding), allowing for increasingly tailored and detailed responses.
- Natural Language Agent Creation. Create new agents in Agent Builder with natural language. Salesforce will automatically suggest relevant topics and skills, making the setup process faster.
Timelines
Excited by what you’ve seen? Here are the key milestones to watch. Please note that all future dates are subject to change. For the most up-to-date details or information on licensing, refer to official Salesforce release materials or consult your Salesforce Account Team.
| Feature | Date |
|---|---|
| Data Cloud AI & Governance | Beta: Now |
| Testing Centre | Generally Available |
| Skills for Sales Development and Sales Coaching** | Generally Available: Now |
| Tableau Semantic Layer | Generally Available: Now |
| Tableau Skills | Generally Available: December 18th 2024 |
| Natural Language Agent Creation in Agent Builder | Generally Available: January 2025 |
| Agentforce in Slack | Generally Available: January 2025 |
| Agentforce 2.0 | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| Slack Actions in Agent Builder | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| MuleSoft for Flow | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| MuleSoft API Catalog | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| MuleSoft Topic Center | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| Enhanced Reasoning and Retrieval Augmented Generation | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| Inline Citations | Generally Available: February 2025 |
| Slack Enterprise Search | Generally Available: March 2025 |
As you can see, there are plenty of features coming up! The majority become Generally Available in February 2025, so we will not see an immediate change.
Are we entering a new era of Digital Labour?
Salesforce’s vision for digital labour is clear, and Agentforce 2.0 marks a significant step. Powered by Atlas and Data Cloud, autonomous agents can handle increasingly complex tasks. Even handling simpler tasks with a high degree of accuracy can have a huge impact. Just take Salesforce’s use of Agentforce on the Help portal now resolving 83% of cases and reducing human escalations by 50% – these are potentially game-changing statistics for any customer-focused business.
The benefits of digital labour are clear: greater productivity, reduced burnout and more capacity for higher-value activities. Beyond this, it even has the opportunity to help innovation, define new business lines or even market expansion. Success depends on thoughtful integration. Businesses are complex systems; autonomous agents alone cannot replace an organisation’s culture or drive differentiation.
So, are we entering a new era of digital labour? Quite possibly, but it requires the right foundations. I would suggest that the Agentic layer should be viewed as:
- A layer. Working in partnership with your team to boost capacity and add resilience (e.g. helping to handle surges in demand, etc).
- A catalyst. Maximising the benefits requires the right conditions. A strong data foundation, well defined interfaces, prepared teams and harmonised business processes. This means balancing privacy, security and governance, whilst empowering teams to adapt and unlock the potential.
With the right approach, Agentforce 2.0 has the potential to help create new opportunities for growth, efficiency and innovation.
Summary
Last week’s announcement of Agentforce 2.0 marks a significant step towards autonomous agents taking on more complex tasks and enhancing business efficiency. Case studies such as Salesforce and Adecco showcase this, highlighting benefits for productivity, efficiency and freeing up capacity for higher-value activities.
As we move into 2025, these new features will become more widely available. However, it is crucial to ensure the right foundations are in place – data, governance, security, people and processes. All play a role. With the right conditions, Agentforce 2.0 offers many opportunities for businesses to explore, improving both customer and employee experiences.
Until next time, thanks for reading! 🐧
Thank you
As we approach the end of 2024, I would like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has contributed or supported SFDC Penguin over the year. Your support has been truly invaluable. I would also like to thank all our readers; your engagement means a lot and I hope you’ve found the content helpful over the year and I look forward to welcoming you back in 2025!
Bonus Penguin Fact 🐧
It’s nearly Christmas and it is only appropriate that this penguin fact has a festive touch! I recently heard that there was an event in London Fleet Street Quarter called the ‘Penguin Parade’, featuring 12 decorated sculptures. Well, how could I resist, especially given it is for a good cause?
The Penguin Parade is running from the 14th of November 2024 until the 5th of January 2025. It is in support of WWF’s conservation efforts to protect penguins and their habitats for future generations. Learn more, including how to support the Penguin Parade:
- Fleet Street Quarter: https://www.fleetstreetquarter.co.uk/fsq-penguins
- Wild in Art: https://wildinart.co.uk/events/fleet-street-penguin-parade/
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