Salesforce Wants AI to Become the New Interface for Enterprise Software

Calling all agents.
Lily Morris
Contributing Writer
Salesforce robots in the clouds

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) reported record fiscal second-quarter revenue of $11.35 billion, up 11% year over year. Current remaining performance obligations rose 14% in constant currency to $33.5 billion, while free cash flow climbed 81% to $1.1 billion.

The company raised FY2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, with Agentforce, Data 360 and Slack contributing to its organic outlook increase.

Much of the call centered on what happens when AI gains access to the information already sitting inside business software.

Salesforce introduced Claudeforce with Anthropic and reported higher Agentforce usage, while describing a future where employees can reach Salesforce data and workflows through tools such as Claude or Slack. That approach could make the application itself less visible to the user while leaving its data, permissions and business logic underneath the AI experience.

Why It Matters: The Salesforce thesis puts enterprise data back at the center of the AI discussion. AI agents need access to company information, yet that access also has to respect the permissions and business rules attached to it. Salesforce is trying to make its installed software the foundation for that work, giving AI a governed path into customer records and workflows while letting users interact through the interface that fits the task.

  • Salesforce Builds AI Around Existing Enterprise Systems: Salesforce Chair, CEO and Co-Founder Marc Benioff described an architecture where company data and applications provide the foundation for agents and AI interfaces. Salesforce wants agents to use the business context, permissions and workflows already stored in customer systems when reasoning over information or taking action. “These four layers, data, apps and semantics, agents, and interface, when it’s turned on together, that is when you start to see the true enterprise transformation,” Benioff said.
  • Claudeforce Brings Claude Into Salesforce Workflows: The new product connects Anthropic’s Claude with Salesforce information, workflows and governance. Salesforce has already put the technology in the hands of company leaders, including President and COO Miguel Milano, who described using AI agents to inspect sales pipelines, identify risks and prepare customized Slack messages for account executives. Claudeforce is expected to become generally available in September around Dreamforce.
  • Agentforce Moves Further Into Production: Agentforce ARR reached $1.5 billion, while customers generated 3.2 billion agentic workload units during the quarter, up 97% quarter over quarter. Salesforce added 2,000 paying customers into production, representing a 70% sequential increase. Half of Agentforce bookings came from customers purchasing additional credits after consuming previous allocations, providing evidence of continued usage after deployment.
  • Enterprise Data Becomes Critical to Salesforce’s AI Plans:If your data’s not right, your AI is not right,” Benioff said. Salesforce is tying its AI work to investments in Data 360, MuleSoft and Informatica, which help integrate and harmonize information across company systems. Agents can also work with Salesforce metadata, sharing rules and security models, allowing AI to access company information under existing controls.
  • AI Usage Pushes Salesforce Toward New Pricing Models: Salesforce supports user-based and agent-based pricing along with consumption models, while management is exploring agreements tied to business outcomes. Customers beginning an Agentforce deployment average about twice the annual order value, according to Milano, with management seeing the potential for that figure to reach three to four times AOV. Salesforce also said only 5% of knowledge workers using its sales and service products have upgraded to higher-end editions, which are required for features such as Claudeforce and headless access.

Go Deeper -> Salesforce’s Earnings Report – MarketBeat


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