in September, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff say luck that his company was making a “hard pivot” on its new Agentforce AI agent platform. Thousands of customers would attend the business software maker’s annual conference to learn how to use the technology in workshops that allow users to quickly build AI-powered agents that can make decisions and act on information, including automating customer service tasks. And by January 2025, it set a goal of tens of thousands of customers using the product in their operations.
That sounds like a big ask, but at least for now, Salesforce investors have faith. After the company reported its quarterly earnings yesterday (which included 80 mentions of Agentforce in a call with Wall Street analysts) its shares rose 11% to a record high.
The company’s fiscal third quarter revenue grew 8% year-over-year to $9.44 billion. Its net income was $1.5 billion, up 25% from $1.2 billion a year ago.
Still, investor enthusiasm will last a long time, and Wall Street wants to prove that Salesforce’s big spending on its AI efforts — the company hasn’t disclosed an exact total — will pay off in the long run. This means that Salesforce must make an effort to actually sell Agentforce to meet its goals.
The test is critical for the company as it tries to compete in what has become a major market for AI products. All major software companies, similar to Big Tech Microsoft and google to big players like SAP and Service Nowhe is racing to cash in on what is expected to be a big future payoff.
On the analyst call, Benioff said Salesforce had “delivered 200 deals” on Agentforce, which became generally available on Oct. 24, adding that “our pipeline is incredible for future transactions.” He also confirmed that the company is hiring 1,000 to 2,000 more salespeople to help spread the gospel of Agentforce. “Over the past two years we’ve not only maximized our current Salesforce productivity, we’ve only had to grow and expand to reflect this unique distribution opportunity,” he said.
But how Agentforce will fare with customers remains to be seen. Salesforce is optimistic about demand for the product, but Benioff admitted that Agentforce was not a “material developer” in cRPO in the just-ended quarter. The measure is a leading indicator of customer adoption, reflecting future contractual revenue not yet recognized. A dramatic impact from Agentforce is not expected in the current quarter. That’s because the technology is still dwarfed by Salesforce’s other products, which generate $37 billion in annual revenue. “We’re still at the beginning of this journey,” Benioff said.
However, Benioff was taking the next phase of his journey on the earnings call on Tuesday, with the Dec. 17 launch of what he called Agentforce 2.0. Presumably, all those new vendors will be, well, out in force.
