AI agents are here, and they’re making work more efficient and personal tasks much easier. That’s the exciting part. But this shift also carries huge risk: if people are left out of AI adoption, it could make socioeconomic gaps much wider. Think about it: 59% of the world’s workers will need to relearn brand new skills just to keep up. That’s a massive challenge, but it’s also an incredible chance to get this right. We have the opportunity to now guide this change to ensure everyone benefits.
That’s the core philosophy behind Salesforce’s community initiative, “Agentforce Success for All,” an event series that came to Oakland this week. This program is a major commitment to ensure everyone has access to the cutting-edge technology defining the agentic era – critical to building successful Agentic Enterprises.
This extension of the company’s technology and impact across the bridge to the East Bay aligns with Salesforce’s commitment to Equality by actively democratizing this technological shift and preparing local communities for the future of AI.
We all have access to this opportunity. We all have access to help build businesses, bring ideas to life, but also to help our communities grow.
Robin Washington, President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer
A look back at the Oakland gathering
The event in Oakland hosted over 300 people, including Salesforce executives, local small businesses, nonprofits, founders, Trailblazer community members, and aspiring AI professionals. The day’s agenda featured everything from hands-on learning and reskilling opportunities to AI thought leadership.
- Hands-On Learning: Over 100 attendees participated in a workshop that taught NGOs, small business leaders, and aspiring AI professionals how to build a service agent with Agentforce and configure an existing tool called Agentforce for Service. Attendees raised their hands at sticking points and received 1-on-1 attention, ensuring they gained the confidence and knowledge to build an agent.
- Keynote Sessions: Salesforce Chief Equality and Engagement Officer Alexandra Siegel kicked off the day’s sessions with opening remarks about the program, and as an Oakland resident, why it was important to bring Agentforce Success for All across the bridge to the East Bay. Soon after, President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer Robin Washington spoke about leading in the agentic AI era, while SVP of Forward-Deployed Engineering, Global Growth & Engineering Leah McGowen-Hare and VP of Product Marketing Sanjna Parulekar helped to demystify AI for the crowd. But that wasn’t all, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee addressed attendees, which was followed by panels covering the future of work, the democratization of AI education, and access to agents.
- The Experience: As part of the event, attendees toured the Oakland Museum of California, grabbing lunch and small bites while checking out the displays. All vendors were local small businesses in Oakland. And as a DJ played music outside, local artist Taylor Smalls did a live painting – a portrait of Robin Washington. Other local businesses included Blk Girls Green House, which transformed the space with greenery, Teas with Meaning, which partnered to give attendees organic, handcrafted tea blends to take home, and Oaklandish, which supplied the tote bags to bring home.
By the numbers: Salesforce’s Oakland commitment
During the event, Salesforce unveiled major investments and reaffirmed long-standing partnerships to support Oakland communities:
- $150M+ Donated: The company has donated over $150 million to support Oakland and San Francisco public schools since 2013.
- $39M in New Giving: Last month, a new $39 million commitment was announced to equip Bay Area students and educators, including those in Oakland, with AI skills, and to support local children’s hospitals.
- Small Business Focus: Small businesses make up over 80% of all East Bay businesses, and next year Salesforce is launching a new pilot program designed specifically to help them adopt agentic AI. At the same time, Salesforce’s Accelerator program leverages its 1-1-1 model to help nonprofits unlock AI and Agentforce to drive even greater community impact.
Soundbites:
“We’re in an age where everyone needs to constantly re-learn … We all have access to this opportunity. We all have access to help build businesses, bring ideas to life, but also to help our communities grow … This is the time for everybody to roll up their sleeves, plant something, get in there, learn. Be a part of it. It’s never been a more important time for everyone to lean in.” – Robin Washington, President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer
“Jobs are coming online that didn’t exist even six months ago. Ethical AI architects, forward-deployed engineers. Nobody has a crystal ball when it comes to the net-new jobs of disruption, but we’re focused on identifying skills that we believe, irrespective of what the job title is or becomes, will be the skills of the next decade. You have human skills, creative thinking, and emotional intelligence. Then you have business skills, adaptability, and resilience. And last, are agent skills.” – Nathalie Scardino, President and Chief People Officer
“We need to make sure every single person understands and has the information and the tools needed to succeed in this next chapter. That is so important to us, and that’s part of our mission … I believe we have the power to make sure that this future includes everyone, because you all belong in that future of AI and Agents and deserve to have a seat at that table.” – Alexandra Siegel, Chief Equality and Engagement Officer
“We need to ensure that all Oakland residents, including myself, have the knowledge and experience to use AI tools like Agentforce that have already begun to change our lives and will continue to do so. I am committed to ensuring that technological progress reaches every single neighborhood here in Oakland through real pathways in tech centers, support for diverse entrepreneurs, and an economy where all of these new tools don’t displace people, but truly align with improving people’s lives.” – Barbara Lee, Oakland Mayor
The Bottom Line
Salesforce is treating the agentic era less as a tech upgrade and more as a necessary people transformation. The strategy is highly localized: launching the Agentforce Success for All initiative in Oakland to democratize access to critical AI skills and opportunity. This move is a calculated bet that success in the new AI paradigm requires a ground-up workforce retooling, demanding that everyone — from entry-level to executive — rapidly lean in to acquire new capabilities. As McGowen-Hare said, “This is not a moment of fear, but a movement of opportunity.”
Go deeper:
- Review a session-by-session breakdown from the Agentforce Success for All: Oakland
- Learn why 95% of AI pilots fail and what the other 5% do differently
- See how businesses use AI to meet people where (and when) they are
- Understand why CIOs must architect the agentic enterprise
- Skill up today and earn Agentblazer status on Trailhead
