What Does Salesforce Do?

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce is the world’s #1 AI CRM, where humans and AI agents work together on one platform to reach new levels of customer success.  
• With Salesforce, companies can use AI, data, and apps to build better relationships with customers, which opens up new opportunities and growth.
• Agentforce allows AI agents to work across critical business functions to improve customer and employee experiences.
• Salesforce offers AI-powered apps for specific business needs, including sales, marketing, service, commerce, and more.

Salesforce is the world’s #1 AI CRM, and helps businesses use their customer data and AI to work smarter, be more responsive, and build better relationships with their customers.

Imagine having a digital labor workforce that never sleeps, never takes a break, and handles millions of customer interactions simultaneously while improving with each one. Now, imagine how that helps human employees do better work, hit goals faster, and dream bigger.

This is the agentic enterprise. It’s humans and AI agents working together to reach a level of success that’s never been possible before. 

What does this mean? Consider these scenarios:

• Your customer profiles get updated in real time, with AI using web engagement and purchase history data to create highly personalized offers.
• AI agents respond to customer queries 24/7, recommending products and processing returns — and escalating tough questions to human employees.
• Agents autonomously nurture sales leads daily, coach every rep on every deal, and generate quotes in an instant.

These are real use cases taking place at businesses worldwide right now. And Salesforce’s products and services are making it possible. 

What does Salesforce do?

Salesforce is the world’s #1 AI customer relationship management (CRM) platform, and helps businesses use AI, data, and apps to learn more about customers and better connect with them. This opens up new opportunities and leads to more growth for companies of any size, across any industry, at any stage. 

Here’s how Salesforce makes it happen:

AI: Companies use Salesforce’s agentic AI platform, Agentforce, to build and deploy AI agents that can take action across every department — from responding to customers and closing deals to running campaigns and generating product descriptions. Agents also work alongside humans via Slack, the conversational interface where they can answer employee questions, resolve issues, and accelerate everyday tasks in the natural flow of work.

Data: Business moves faster when every employee is working with the latest information. Salesforce’s Data 360 platform pulls together all of your data — like customer interactions, inventory, and even images — and uses it to create secure unified profiles. You get an up-to-the-minute record of every customer interaction, and that data easily flows into all the apps, tools, and services that move business forward.

Apps: Salesforce has created a suite of applications that address the most critical business needs. Agentforce Sales focuses on (you guessed it) the sales process, helping you close deals faster. Agentforce Service resolves issues more efficiently, Agentforce Marketing helps create two-way conversations with customers, Agentforce Commerce boosts revenue with seamless buying experiences, and more.

The key is that all of the above — AI, data, and apps — work in harmony on one deeply unified platform. They grow and evolve together, making it easier for businesses to adopt agentic AI and become more efficient while unlocking new capabilities and revenue streams.

We call this the agentic enterprise: Humans and AI agents working side by side, with agents taking on work and humans focusing on creativity, relationships, and strategy. Companies of any size and industry can use this model to become faster, smarter, and more resilient. It’s not just an upgrade — it’s a fundamental shift that opens limitless opportunities and defines the future of business. (Back to top)

What is Agentforce?

Agentforce is the agentic layer of the Salesforce platform, and enables AI agents to work across critical functions in all parts of your business. Agentforce is built on top of your customer data to perform tasks without the need for human oversight. Agents are always on, and can take action any time of day or night within the guidelines you’ve established.

Agentforce makes it possible for employees to exceed customer expectations with the help of digital labor. For example, agents can identify potential customers in your pipeline and autonomously reach out with personalized emails. Then, they can follow up, answer specific questions, and schedule an intro meeting with a prepared agenda. Agents can also interact directly with customers to answer questions, resolve cases, and act as personal shoppers across ecommerce channels. 

Because agents are powered by secure data, their actions are always relevant to the needs of your company and your customers. Agents adapt in real time as new information flows in, while operating within your business guardrails. And with the Atlas Reasoning Engine providing step-by-step explanations, every action is transparent and accountable. (Back to top)

What is Slack?

Slack is Salesforce’s AI-powered workspace that centralizes communication, knowledge, and work tools into a searchable hub. It’s the go-to place for working side-by-side with both human colleagues and AI agents. 

Slack integrates with Salesforce apps and other tools, replacing scattered email chains with conversations you can organize by topic, project, department, and more. This makes it easy to keep track of current progress and find older discussions. It’s also a place for taking action via workflows that are easy to build and to use. 

Slack removes the need to switch between tools to interact with agents. Teammates can chat directly with agents, asking questions, getting help with problems, and handling routine tasks without leaving the context of their ongoing projects and discussions. (Back to top)

How does Salesforce work?

Salesforce works by unifying all of your customer data on one platform to provide a single shared view of your customer. That solid foundation clears a path for AI agents that perform across business apps, sharing insights, suggesting next steps, and even interacting with employees and customers.

Building an agentic enterprise means ensuring you have the right context and information for both humans and AI agents to do better work. Data 360 connects to the places your data already lives (lakes, warehouses, and Salesforce apps) and builds real-time, unified profiles. And since you’re connecting with your data directly, there’s zero-copy connectivity, removing the risks involved with duplicating data.

Using that data, Agentforce can automate tasks and support employees across every department. The result is digital labor that runs at scale, freeing up employees to focus on creativity, relationships, and strategy. 

Apps are how businesses use Salesforce to get work done. Our sales, service, marketing, commerce, and platform apps connect directly to unified data and agents, so humans and agents work in the same apps and workflows — facilitated by Slack.

Salesforce is more than a platform — it’s an ecosystem. Customers can extend Salesforce with thousands of solutions from the AppExchange to connect with a global network of partners and experts. Trailhead, the company’s free online learning platform, provides training so employees can build their skills, while Salesforce’s Customer Success resources help organizations succeed faster. This ecosystem ensures companies of any size can grow with Salesforce and adapt as their needs change — helping every business on the path to becoming an agentic enterprise. (Back to top)

Salesforce for sales

Sales is in our name. It’s how we got started in the CRM business, and we’ve never stopped finding ways to empower sales teams. With generative AI and autonomous agents, today’s Agentforce Sales gives sellers unified insights and recommendations to help them spend less time on busywork and more time closing deals.

And better still, by connecting sales with marketing, service, and more, your opportunities increase, and your customer experiences feel more seamless and engaged. On average, our customers see a 30% increase in sales revenue, and a 30% increase in sales productivity, after implementing Agentforce Sales.*

Our platform simplifies and manages the entire sales cycle — from prospecting to deal close to upsell and cross-sell. With Agentforce Sales, you’ve got the full sales tech stack ready to automate and scale all your manual sales processes, inspect your pipelines and forecasts with precision accuracy, and connect all customer touchpoints for the best buying experience.

That’s because sales teams can use Agentforce to autonomously conduct outreach, compose emails, and schedule meetings. It can even share deal insights, provide sales coaching, and recommend the next best interaction to improve your chances of closing deals.  Sales teams have reported that their deals close 29% faster after implementing our AI tools.* (Back to top)

Salesforce for customer service

With Agentforce Service, Salesforce customers see 33% improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) while decreasing their support costs by 26% on average.* Our leading customer service tools help you scale service while maximizing ROI and driving efficiencies from the contact center to the field — all on a single cloud platform.

Autonomous agents, powered by Agentforce, increase productivity by providing 24/7 customer service, generating responses to customer queries, and knowing when to bring in a human as needed. In fact, companies are seeing 31% of cases or customer issues being solved by Salesforce AI. Now, you can resolve cases faster, provide instant support, and have a complete and informed view of your customers at every interaction.

Today, customers expect to interact with your business through their preferred channels. We can help you manage those critical touchpoints to provide seamless customer experiences, including self-service channels, field service, and digital interactions like chat, SMS, and social messaging apps. When your teams are working together with agents, there are endless opportunities for time and cost savings. (Back to top)

Salesforce for marketing

Agentforce Marketing helps you save time, increase efficiency, and meet customers on their preferred channels — email, web, social, mobile, ads, or any combination. And with the help of marketing analytics and AI insights, rest assured you’re getting the most out of every dollar and optimizing campaign performance.

Marketing teams that use Salesforce estimate a 33% average increase in customer engagement, a 32% increase in marketing ROI, and 30% average decrease in costs to acquire new customers.* You can better understand your customers through unified data and engage them with relevant messaging, delivering hyperpersonalized interactions everywhere.

Using AI to personalize offers, campaigns and journeys, Salesforce customers see a 33% average increase in conversions. With Agentforce, you can improve lead generation and generate dynamic personalized content that engages customers and prospects on their preferred channel, boosting customer acquisition. (Back to top)

Salesforce for B2C and B2B shopping and commerce

Salesforce also has tools to build seamless business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) commerce experiences that help grow revenue, engage customers, and connect commerce to the rest of your business. Easy to implement and adapt, Agentforce Commerce can help you maximize revenue by creating personalized shopping experiences.

With Agentforce, agents can act as personal shoppers for each individual customer. Our tools remove friction from the buying experience, even if a customer starts their shopping journey on one channel and completes it on another. In fact, Commerce Cloud customers see a 29% increase in digital revenue and a 31% increase in digital conversion rates.* (Back to top)

Salesforce for IT

Salesforce gives IT teams a trusted platform to automate and secure operations across the business — with no-code, low-code, and pro-code tools that let admins and developers build together. Whether your team is tech-minded or not, the Salesforce Platform can help your entire organization automate workflows, build intelligent apps, and enforce access and compliance controls.

Integration is easy because our platform is metadata-driven and AI-first. Configuration, updates, and extensions flow naturally, so new solutions can be created quickly without disrupting existing systems. With MuleSoft and built-in APIs, Salesforce connects to legacy systems, data lakes, AI models, and services, enabling data to flow seamlessly. 

With Salesforce, teams build and iterate faster, reduce custom maintenance, and streamline support, which leads to organizations seeing a 30% decrease in IT costs.* And perhaps most important: Security, governance, and compliance are built in at every layer. (Back to top)

Salesforce for small business

Salesforce for Small Business is a scalable CRM platform with a suite of tools tailored to small business needs, including sales, customer service automation, and real-time analytics. With its flexibility and powerful automation features, Starter Suite allows small businesses to focus on what they do best — innovating and serving their customers. Plus, its seamless integration with third-party apps ensures that all business processes are aligned, making it a powerful asset for any growing enterprise. (Back to top)

See an example of Salesforce in action

We have many customer stories to share, but let’s look at just one example of how Salesforce helps deliver success. 

The Adecco Group, one of the world’s largest talent solution companies, processes 300 million job applications every year while placing 1 million people in jobs each day. They are building an agent-first recruiting system that automates candidate shortlisting and initial outreach. This intelligent assistance will help recruiters quickly find the right talent for their roles — maintaining their advantage in the competitive staffing industry, without losing the human touch.

“Looking for a job is one of the most emotional, stressful times of anyone’s life, right?” said Greg Shewmaker, senior vice president of global operations and AI for the Adecco Group. “When you never hear back, you start to question your self-worth.”

Autonomous agents will step in to unlock resume data and identify the best candidates right away. They will also keep candidates informed when they aren’t a match, suggesting other opportunities that may be a better fit. This helps build relationships with job seekers while also finding the best fit for clients’ open roles. “We can move from a one-to-one relationship with candidates to connecting with millions while maintaining the human touch,” said Denis Machuel, CEO of the Adecco Group.

Unifying their information with Data Cloud and combining 40+ Salesforce instances with other third-party systems via Mulesoft, the Adecco Group is also creating comprehensive profiles of each candidate and customer that let them gain actionable insights from around the world at scale.

By adding Salesforce AI, they’ll supercharge their Sales Cloud capabilities to automate the repetitive process of taking call notes, creating reports, and adding orders. Then Marketing Cloud will use agents to perform the order generation process. AI will also assist recruiters by pulling job posting details from phone call transcripts or emails – such as the role scope, pay range, and qualifications – to quickly create an order within Service Cloud. Together, these tools are helping the Adecco Group manage key metrics like fill rates and order intakes in real time and act quickly to optimize talent delivery globally. 

Salesforce’s ongoing innovation aligns seamlessly with their mission of providing 1:1 support for 100% of applicants and making the future work for everyone. (Back to top)

What is Salesforce best known for?

Salesforce is best known as the #1 AI CRM, and is always innovating to help companies connect with customers in new and better ways. We were the first company to put business software in the cloud, and continue to redefine what a CRM can do. That includes combining trusted data with autonomous agents to build deeper, more personalized customer relationships and help employees do more. 

As a company, we do more than build great products. Our greatest strengths are our values: trust, customer success, innovation, equality, and sustainability. We believe businesses of every size can be a platform for change, driving growth while building a better future.

And we lead by example. From the beginning, Salesforce has followed the  1-1-1 philanthropic model — donating 1% of our equity, our product, and our employees’ time to support communities around the world. To date, that commitment has resulted in more than $840 million in grants, 10 million hours of volunteer service, and product donations for over 62,000 nonprofits and educational institutions.

We also believe technology should serve a broader purpose. Salesforce has created solutions to help organizations track and reduce their environmental impact, and Trailhead modules to help employees build new skills and reskill for the future. These resources span everything from AI and data literacy to business and technical skills, ensuring people can adapt as job requirements evolve. It’s part of our ongoing effort to make innovation trusted, accessible, and intentional. (Back to top)

Humans and agents driving customer success

Success comes when employees and AI agents work together. Employees gain more time for creativity and strategy, while agents handle routine tasks at scale — from resolving service requests instantly to surfacing insights in sales and marketing. The result is stronger relationships, faster innovation, and more resilient growth.

The future of customer success is built on this collaboration between humans and agents. Explore how Salesforce can help your business unlock that potential and continue your learning journey with these free resources:

Salesforce 101 — Discover how to connect with your customers in a whole new way with Salesforce.

Discover Agentforce Agents — Learn about autonomous agents and how they can help you get more done. (Back to top)

*Source: 2025 Salesforce Customer Success Metrics Global Highlights. Data is aggregated from 3,016 customers across nine countries.