The AI Story: From Assistive to Agentic

What was once visionary is now possible — and it's because of AI. 

We've come a long way. The first wave of AI was built around predictive capabilities, but AI competencies were limited. In the next wave, the vision of delegating tasks to AI became clearer with copilots. While this was a huge step forward, copilots still struggled beyond assisting users by providing suggestions and recommendations. 

There are still challenges to overcome — 88% of IT leaders say they cannot meet AI's full potential safely or effectively due to data silos, lack of integration, and resource constraints. There's a gap between higher customer expectations and what most IT teams believe they can deliver. Worker overwhelm is on the rise and IT productivity can’t seem to keep up with the demand.

But now we're in the third wave of AI: agents. These autonomous agents can perform tasks and do work without detailed instructions for each action. Today, agents can handle a high volume of tasks, independently or alongside a person, delivering more personalized experiences 24/7, at scale. Ultimately, agents allow humans to excel at what they do best while AI handles the repetitive, data-driven processes they are built for.

Ready to launch your Agentforce? Follow these steps:

1. Connect and activate your data on one open platform. Use Data Cloud to connect and harmonize data from disparate sources and activate it all in one place.

2. Build with low-code and AI Building agents doesn't have to be complex and time-consuming. Take advantage of low-code tools and enhanced with AI to quickly create a custom Agentforce.

3. Data security and governance Data security has never been more important. As you scale your Agentforce agents and AI apps, so do security and governance demands.

Dive into each of these steps in the Salesforce Platform guide to building your custom Agentforce. To see it all in action, check out the Platform Keynote and learn how to use low-code innovations and security tools to build and govern your own Agentforce.

Additional reading

Build Your First Agent. Get hands-on with Agentforce with these Trailhead projects. Create a Service Agent to assist with recommendations and bookings.

State of Security. Understand roadblocks to secure AI implementation, AI concerns and consequences, and how to strike a balance between security and innovation.

Avoid Data Privacy Pitfalls with Compliance Best Practices. Maintain customer trust while staying compliant with the growing global regulations with these 5 steps.

Low-Code Playbook. IT teams are feeling the demands of AI — which is why they're leaning into low-code to keep up. Explore how low-code platforms are essential for building AI apps and how to get started.

Upcoming events

• October 24: How to Build an Effective ALM Process for Data Cloud
• October 29: Agentforce launch - What AI Was Meant to Be
• November 20: Agentforce World Tour - NYC