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Introducing AI agents, the groundbreaking third wave of AI's integration in the workforce Agentforce: Harnessing the Agency of AI to Scale, Grow, and Lead Any Industry tells you how companies can create and control their own AI agents and build a virtual workforce. It goes behind-the-scenes on how Salesforce built a platform to drive AI agents, solving problems like hallucinations and bias through a framework that gives agents strict roles, data sources, actions, guardrails and channels to reach customers. This book draws from extensive research and exclusive access to Salesforce's leaders and their ambitious plan to dominate the race to develop and own the AI agent space.
In this book, readers will find information on:
- AI agents as a "third wave" of AI development that goes far beyond simple chatbots and "co-pilots" through harmonized data, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and Salesforce's innovative Atlas Reasoning Engine
- Steps to develop prompt guidance, topic creation (areas of work), explicit instructions, and a menu of actions allowed
- Salesforce customers, such as Saks and OpenTable, that are already using AI agents with success
- The effects of AI and automation on the job market
Agentforce: Harnessing the Agency of AI to Scale, Grow, and Lead Any Industry is an indispensable, forward-thinking resource on the subject for all leaders in business seeking to supercharge their organizations' initiatives through the latest developments in a rapidly advancing field.
List of contents
Foreword by Marc Benioff ix
The Five Attributes of an AI Agent xiii
Author's Note xv
Agentforce Kickoff, San Francisco xix
1 Call My Agent! 1
2 What Is Agentforce, Anyway? 5
3 How Does Agentforce Actually Work? 13
4 What Are Some Useful Things You Can Do with Agents? 27
5 Do You Need a Platform to Do Agents (and What's a Platform, Anyway)? 35
6 Are Agents Really Different from Chatbots and Co-pilots? 45
7 What Are the Different Parts of Agentforce? 55
8 What Is the Einstein Trust Layer, and Why Do You Need It? 63
9 Why Do You Need Data Cloud for Agentforce? 69
10 What Is RAG, and Why Should I Care? 81
11 What Is the Atlas Reasoning Engine? 89
12 How Do You Control an Agent and Give It Orders? 99
13 How Do You Test an Agent in a Sandbox? 111
14 What Are Some of the Prebuilt Agentforce Agents? 119
15 How Do You Build a Custom Agent from Scratch? 133
16 What Is the Best Way to Come Up with Ideas for Agents? 143
17 How "Human" Should Your AI Agent Be? 157
18 How Do You Make Sure AI Is Governed? 161
19 How Do You Build a Business Case for Agentforce? 169
20 So What Are We Humans Going to Do Now? 177
21 How Can I Get Started with Agentforce and Learn More? 183
22 So What Was This Book All About, Anyway? 187
Endnotes 193
About the Author 207
Index 209
About the author
MARTIN KIHN is an AI strategist at Salesforce and a former Gartner VP. He is the author of five books including
House of Lies, which was adapted into a Showtime series, and
Customer 360 (with Andrea Chen Lin). His work has been published in
Forbes, GQ, New York, US and the
New York Times.
