What is Agentforce, and How Does It Work?

Imagine boosting your business’s productivity with automated workflows, accelerating case resolution, and analyzing data to take appropriate action without increasing headcounts and burdening your business teams. Salesforce Agentforce makes it possible. 

Agentforce is a Salesforce’s autonomous digital labor platform, that helps you create AI agents that work hand-in-hand with your human workforce to automate sales, marketing, customer service, and commerce processes. 

These AI agents are not mere chatbots but intelligent, action-oriented entities that learn from your business data, analyze it, and use it to respond to customer needs. But how does Agentforce help you create these agents? This blog will help you explore the core tools it offers, how it works, what it costs, and why it’s becoming a game-changer for businesses looking to scale smarter.

Let’s get started! 

Salesforce Agentforce Tools 

1. Agent Builder 

Agent Builder is a low-code tool that simplifies configuring and customizing agents. It helps you create agents in two ways: using pre-built agent templates such as SDR agent, sales coach, and service agent, or creating new agents from scratch. 

Once your agent is set up, you can define its functionality and tasks it will perform using natural language prompts, set up data access permissions or guardrails, and create a library of actions for agents to use.

2. Atlas Reasoning Agent 

Atlas Reasoning Agent or Engine is the core component that powers Agentforce, often described as the ‘brain’ behind AI agents. It enables agents to analyze user queries, collect relevant data, and autonomously create action plans. By leveraging natural language processing, advanced learning, and reasoning AI technologies, Atlas ensures that agents take logical and informed actions in response to the user’s needs. 

3. Guardrails 

Guardrails are instructions or rules that define what tasks an AI agent will perform and what it will avoid. These guidelines ensure the agent stays within ethical business boundaries while delivering relevant and appropriate user responses. You can set them up using natural language prompts. 

Agent Builder has built-in ‘harm and toxicity detection guardrails’ that identify harmful and inappropriate content and respond accordingly. It also recognizes and blocks attempts at reverse engineering, strictly adhering to defined rules.   

4. Model Builder 

Model Builder works with LLMs in Salesforce and allows you to integrate and leverage AI models built on external platforms through APIs and connectors. You can create your own AI models within the platform, using no-code and low-code interfaces and leveraging data from Salesforce Data Cloud.

5. Prompt Builder 

The Prompt Builder creates reusable prompts for different business workflows. You can leverage pre-built templates that use data from sources like Data Cloud, APIs, and Salesforce flows or create new prompts to activate new functionalities. It enhances your overall work processes while providing relevant and personalized results.

6. Agentforce Testing Center

Agentforce Testing Center is a platform that tests, deploys, monitors, and measures AI agents’ working accuracy and performance. It uses synthetic data that mimics real-world data and runs various tests over it to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the agent’s response.

7. AgentExchange

AgentExchange is a marketplace for pre-packaged Agentforce actions, topics, and templates. It allows users to easily discover and enable agent functionalities across various industries such as high-tech, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and life-sciences, retail, consumer goods, and more.   

This platform allows you to find solutions based on your specific business needs and goals, as well as browse and compare solutions that have already worked for other businesses. 

How Does Agentforce Work?

It starts with Agent Builder, which allows you to choose among the pre-built AI agent templates, or you can opt to create a new agent from scratch.  

Define Your Topic and Guardrails

• Enter Topic Label: Name your AI agent and describe what function it will perform – For instance, order inquiries. 
• Enter Classification Description: Explain when and in which situations this agent will be provoked by the system. For instance, handling questions related to the user’s order, its status, or order updates. 
• Enter Scope: Explain to the agent what job it does. Example: The job is to answer general questions about orders, retrieve order details, and cancel orders.

• Provide Instructions and Guardrails: Enter important prerequisites and functionality that the agent has to perform. For example, ask the customer for delivery dates, look up available time slots, ask customers for their email, convert terms like ‘yesterday,’ ‘tomorrow,’ into specific dates, etc. You can add multiple instructions in natural language, eliminating the need to use traditional if-else statements. 
  
  Set up rules and restrictions based on what job the agent will perform and what it will not. You can set up responses that the agent will give if the user’s queries go beyond context. 

Define/Implement Actions

These actions are the actual executions or responses that the agent will offer to users.

• Create Flow: Explains the flow of how the agent will work in the form of a journey. These flows are visible in the Agent Action Label. 

Note: For pre-built agents, these flows have already been created and auto-launched.

• Add Actions: These actions are created using Apex, flows, and natural language prompts. The agent leverages these actions and provides relevant responses to the user.

Use Cases of Agentforce 

Learn how AI agents help you across your key business workflows. 

Sales 

Agentforce agents can seamlessly integrate into your Sales Cloud. They help you in: 

• Scheduling sales meetings and managing appointments with sales representatives, client consultations, or financial advisors by syncing with calendar tools. 
• Lead management as they track leads from website visits, email opens, chat conversations, etc., and qualify them. They use ML/AI to prioritize and route high-quality leads and nurture low-priority leads. 
• Sales upselling, using AI to identify upselling opportunities by analyzing customer interaction data and purchase history to suggest additional products or services.
• Offering application support by integrating with backend systems like ERP and databases to fetch real-time application updates. They handle inquiries related to the status of customer enrollments or applications for services, which can indirectly support the sales pipeline.

Marketing 

You can integrate AI agents into SFDC Marketing Cloud which will help you across:   

• Agents accumulate data and details about product features, technical specifications, and availability, and further respond to users.
• Offer clear pricing, promotional offers, and discounts tailored to customer segments by leveraging customer preferences and data from Salesforce Data Cloud.  
• They offer recommendations for personalized product suggestions, comparisons, and highlight complementary products to aid purchase decisions.
• Agents inform customers about warranty coverage, scheduled maintenance, and repair services by using product IDs to retrieve terms and coverage details.
• They leverage existing knowledge bases to generate campaign materials and personalized content that can indirectly drive customer engagement.
• They efficiently handle common queries and classify them using NLP models to improve the customer experience and maintain brand consistency. 

Service 

Agentforce Service agents can be effortlessly incorporated into Service Cloud, assisting you with:

• Providing support for technical issues related to software, system errors, or log-in problems by performing diagnostics.
• Offering support related to device troubleshooting by leveraging real-time data from integrated IoT devices and resolving malfunction or performance issues. 
• Handle service and connectivity issues by managing inquiries about network outages, connectivity issues, and service disruptions.
• They guide customers through installation, initial set-up, and configuration processes.
• It seamlessly manages and transfers complex or sensitive issues to relevant human support agents who are experts in a particular field.
• Agents facilitate service and maintenance appointments by managing scheduling, rescheduling, and canceling appointments using calendars. 

Commerce 

Integrate Agentforce agents within your Commerce Cloud environments, whether B2C or B2B. These agents provide valuable assistance in:

• AI agents can track order status and handle inquiries about order progress, tracking details, and delivery schedules.
• They guide customers through return eligibility, manage customer requests for exchanges, and process refunds.
• They provide support related to order status modifications and update delivery dates. 
• They manage delivery by leveraging logistical details, managing delivery schedules, and resolving delays or lost shipment issues. 
• They address customer questions about product availability and stock details by pulling real-time data from Data Cloud. 
• They can evaluate and process warranty claims and provide related support.

How Agentforce is Helping Businesses? Real World Examples

Sweeping Corporation of America (SCA) 

SCA, a leading environmental service provider in the USA, leveraged Agentforce to deal with inefficient field operations. 

Agentforce streamlined job appointment booking for customers. They simply texted requests like “I need a sweeper for Bourbon Street after the parade,” and agents instantly retrieved data from Service Cloud to provide available time slots and book the job. In case of any changes, a quick follow-up text allowed agents to adjust timing and routes immediately. This reduced hold times and manual coordination. 

Its integration with the Salesforce Field Service mobile application allowed drivers to connect with the job’s point person across their preferred communication channel. It navigated job obstacles and streamlined resource re-routing as soon as the driver queried, “There is some construction going on in my route.”

Agentforce used truck telematics, which are sensors that track speed, location, and vehicle performance, in order to detect abnormalities like sudden slowdowns of vehicles that may signal a crash. In such an event, the AI voice assistant promptly asks the driver, “Are you hurt?” and, if there’s no response or the driver confirms an injury, Agentforce automatically alerts first responders or sends a tow truck to the location. 

SCA anticipates saving $10 million annually through boosted dispatcher productivity and optimized driver routing. Digital labor now speeds dispatching and provides timely, hands-free assistance, improving both customer satisfaction and driver safety. 

SharkNinja 

SharkNinja is a publicly traded, Massachusetts-based product design and technology company. It is known for its two flagship brands: Shark for floor care and home environment appliances and Ninja for kitchen appliances.

• Using Agentforce, they tapped into real-time product data and orders in Commerce Cloud. This help answers related to shipment dates, warranty queries, and more. 
• By integrating the knowledge bases and FAQs, agents answered step-by-step product fixes directly in the chat window. This boosted first contact resolution. 
• Agents leveraged unified customer data and suggested complementary products. For instance, when someone inquires about the Ninja CREAMi ice cream maker’s delivery, Agents suggest Ninja Test Kitchen recipes. This makes every support interaction a chance to drive extra sales and build loyalty.

Using Agentforce, SharkNinja was able to expand into new markets without increasing headcounts. As AI agents leveraged knowledge bases to handle a high volume of technical and product care queries while suggesting cross-sell opportunities to drive higher sales.

Agentforce Pricing

Salesforce Foundations offers key features and tools from sales, service, marketing, commerce, data clouds, and agents to existing users for Enterprise and above editions. You get an initial 1000 Agentforce credits and 250,000 data cloud credits 

For other users, it uses a consumption-based pricing model, charging $2 per conversation. That means $2 is charged for each interaction between an Agentforce agent and the user, whether customer or employee. Along with this, you get pre-built service agent, access to Agent Builder, and Prompt Builder.  

Conclusion 

Agentforce is transforming how businesses operate by enabling AI agents to handle tasks across sales, marketing, service, and commerce. These agents work around the clock, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.​

However, to fully leverage Agentforce’s capabilities, a skilled Salesforce developer is essential. At Smart IT Staff, we provide experienced Salesforce developers for hire. They can help you customize AI agents as per your business needs while managing integrations with Salesforce clouds and maintaining their optimal performance. ​