Salesforce Unveils Agentforce: The Future of Autonomous Enterprise AI
At a press briefing today in San Francisco, Salesforce unveiled its plan to revolutionize enterprise AI with the introduction of Agentforce, an autonomous AI platform designed to augment employees across sales, service, and marketing. At today’s press conference, Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce, and Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI, unveiled the new platform, which aims to set a new standard in enterprise AI by moving beyond traditional copilots and chatbots to deliver true autonomous reasoning and decision-making capabilities.
“Agentforce is the future of AI in the workplace,” said Marc Benioff. “It is how humans and AI will drive customer success together, helping every organization boost scale, efficiency, and satisfaction. We are providing businesses with agents that are not just responsive, but capable of acting autonomously, powered by data-driven insights and decision-making.”
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What is Agentforce?
Agentforce is Salesforce’s next-generation AI platform that promises to transform how businesses operate by deploying autonomous AI agents alongside employees. Unlike older AI models like copilots or basic chatbots, Agentforce agents can retrieve data, reason through complex tasks, and independently execute decisions. With this advanced autonomy, businesses can scale their operations while maintaining a high level of customer interaction and service.
“Customers don’t want a simple chatbot anymore; they need intelligent agents that can handle tasks independently and take action without constant human prompts. Agentforce provides that, and more,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI. “Imagine a customer service scenario where an agent autonomously resolves inquiries, retrieves relevant data, and formulates a next-step plan without needing human oversight at every step. That’s where Agentforce is taking us.”
What is the Atlas Reasoning Engine?
The power behind Agentforce is the new Atlas Reasoning Engine, a proprietary AI engine designed to simulate human-like reasoning. The engine works by evaluating user inputs, refining queries for relevance, and building action plans based on the most accurate data available. Once a task plan is developed, the engine continues to refine it, ensuring precise, contextually relevant results. This level of advanced reasoning enables Agentforce to operate autonomously, delivering accurate outcomes with minimal human involvement.
“Atlas is the brain that makes Agentforce unique. It’s not just a response engine—it’s a reasoning engine. It autonomously evaluates and completes tasks while continuously improving the quality of its results,” added Clara Shih. This breakthrough enables organizations to automate complex workflows while keeping operations fluid and scalable .
Dealing with Microsoft: Salesforce Targets Copilot’s Flaws
Marc Benioff took a direct shot at Microsoft during the unveiling of Agentforce, calling traditional copilots “obsolete,” a clear jab at Microsoft’s Copilot. According to a recent Business Insider report, Microsoft customers are unhappy with Copilot’s performance compared to ChatGPT, citing slower and less comprehensive results. This dissatisfaction stems from the tool’s complexity and the need for prompt engineering, forcing Microsoft to create training videos to help users get more out of it.
Benioff frequently highlights these issues, emphasizing that customers are frustrated by the high costs of Copilot and its limited returns. As one Microsoft employee admitted, “It’s a copilot, not an autopilot,” suggesting that Copilot demands more user input than expected. This gives Salesforce a strong opening for its Agentforce platform.
Clara Shih noted during the press conference, “Customers don’t want to learn how to prompt AI—they want AI that drives results on its own.” This statement underscores Salesforce’s push for more autonomous AI tools that handle repetitive tasks without requiring constant user guidance, unlike Microsoft’s Copilot.
While Microsoft Copilot focuses on internal customer data, Salesforce positions Agentforce, powered by the Atlas Reasoning Engine, as a more intuitive and autonomous solution. By emphasizing ease of use and automation, Benioff is signaling that copilots are the past, and autonomous AI agents represent the future. Salesforce aims to capture enterprise customers who are growing frustrated with Copilot’s limitations and complexities.
The Rise of Overlay AI: Glean, GRAX, and Myko.ai
While Salesforce focuses on strengthening its embedded AI solutions with the launch of Agentforce, the company faces a growing threat from Overlay AI. Unlike embedded AI, which is deeply integrated into platforms like Salesforce and Microsoft 365, Overlay AI solutions operate independently, layering AI capabilities on top of existing systems. This allows businesses to extract value from their data without committing to a single ecosystem or facing the high costs of full-scale integration.
The most significant salvo in this battle came this week with Glean’s $260M Series E funding. Glean, alongside other startups like GRAX and Myko.ai, is proving that Overlay AI can offer the flexibility, scalability, and lower-cost solutions that enterprises crave. These companies are now penetrating Salesforce’s ecosystem, presenting a new and potent challenge to Salesforce’s embedded AI strategy.
Glean: Revolutionizing Work AI
Glean is leading the charge in Overlay AI, securing a $260M Series E funding round, valuing the company at $4.6B. Glean’s Work AI platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems like Salesforce, allowing users to harness the power of AI without the need for deep, expensive integrations. Glean’s strength lies in its ability to deliver AI-powered insights across various tools, including Salesforce Service Cloud, by layering its capabilities on top of existing data sources.
A standout feature of Glean’s platform is its next generation prompting capabilities. Glean goes “beyond the box” of traditional chat interfaces by allowing users to create complex, multi-step prompts that automate intricate workflows. This empowers employees to perform tasks that would typically require technical expertise. The ability to provide personalized recommendations tailored to each user’s role makes Glean particularly appealing for organizations looking for modular AI solutions.
By positioning itself as a flexible, overlay solution, Glean bypasses the rigidity of embedded AI, offering businesses a more adaptable and cost-effective alternative. As Overlay AI continues to gain traction, Glean’s rapid growth is a sign that companies are increasingly leaning toward best-of-breed AI tools that don’t tie them to a single platform.
GRAX: Unlocking Historical Data with AI
GRAX takes a different approach to Overlay AI, focusing on data management and protection. GRAX’s Data Lakehouse allows enterprises to continuously replicate and store their Salesforce data in their own cloud environments, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. This creates a “time machine” of digital twins, enabling businesses to access a complete historical record of their data.
GRAX positions itself as a flexible alternative to Salesforce’s embedded AI solutions by giving customers more control over their data while still benefiting from advanced AI and analytics. By offering this flexibility, GRAX helps enterprises unlock deeper insights from their historical data without relying solely on Salesforce’s infrastructure.
Myko.ai: Agile AI for Revenue Teams
Myko.ai is another startup capitalizing on the Overlay AI trend, focusing on AI-driven insights for sales and revenue teams. Myko’s platform integrates with Salesforce to provide personalized recommendations that help teams optimize decision-making and drive revenue growth. Unlike deeply integrated AI tools, Myko offers a modular approach, allowing businesses to enhance their sales strategies without the complexity of a full-scale embedded AI system.
With its agility and focus on sales optimization, Myko.ai is quickly emerging as a key player in the Overlay AI space, providing companies with the insights they need without the costs and complexity of traditional embedded AI solutions.
Agentforce vs. Overlay AI: The Battle for Enterprise AI
The launch of Agentforce is Salesforce’s boldest move yet in the fight to maintain its position as the leader in enterprise AI. With autonomous AI agents that act independently to complete tasks across sales, service, and marketing, Salesforce is betting on the power of deeply embedded AI solutions. The Atlas Reasoning Engine behind Agentforce powers these agents, offering advanced reasoning capabilities that promise to take enterprise automation to a new level.
However, the rise of Overlay AI—driven by players like Glean, GRAX, and Myko.ai—presents a serious challenge. Overlay AI offers flexibility that embedded solutions cannot match. Companies can deploy AI capabilities on top of existing systems like Salesforce, without being locked into a single vendor or platform. These startups offer faster, less costly AI deployment with the added benefit of modularity, allowing enterprises to integrate best-of-breed solutions as needed.
The question for enterprises will come down to integration versus flexibility. While Agentforce provides seamless integration and high security within the Salesforce ecosystem, it may struggle to appeal to companies that want the freedom to use multiple AI tools. Glean’s ability to tap into Salesforce data without requiring heavy integration, or GRAX’s emphasis on customer data control, highlights how Overlay AI allows businesses to remain agile and independent. Salesforce must now prove that the deep integration of embedded AI provides long-term value that outweighs the immediate benefits of a more flexible Overlay approach.
Salesforce’s Fight for AI Dominance
Since the start of Salesforce’s AI push in March 2023, they have come to lead the tradititional enterprise software industry in embedding AI into their existing platform. But the landscape is shifting. As Overlay AI startups like Glean, GRAX, and Myko.ai gain momentum, Salesforce faces a battle not just with traditional competitors like Microsoft, but with a new wave of flexible, modular solutions that can integrate across multiple platforms. The launch of Agentforce is a clear statement that Salesforce intends to maintain its dominance by delivering autonomous, embedded AI that promises to handle complex workflows in a fully integrated system.
However, the rise of Overlay AI presents a real challenge. As businesses increasingly look for solutions that allow for greater flexibility and lower costs, Salesforce will need to demonstrate that its embedded AI solutions offer long-term value and superior automation. The future of enterprise AI may not be a one-size-fits-all model, and Salesforce’s success will depend on its ability to innovate while competing against the agility of Overlay AI providers.
The battle for AI dominance is far from over, and as Overlay AI continues to evolve, Salesforce will have to fight to remain the leader in a rapidly changing market.
