Latest news with #DataCloud
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce's Goes All-In on AI Internally
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is leaning heavily on AIshifting 3050% of its own workload to intelligent agentseven as its shares slide 20% this year. CEO Marc Benioff told Bloomberg that Salesforce now uses AI for everything from customer service inquiries to augmenting software engineering, freeing employees to tackle higher-value projects. The company laid off roughly 1,000 staff in February but simultaneously beefed up its AI sales force around products like Agentforce. Meanwhile, Data Cloud and Agentforce annualized recurring revenue has topped $1 billion, up 120% year-over-year, with 4,000 paying customersevidence that Benioff's internal AI playbook is resonating externally. Practicing what it preaches gives Salesforce a credibility edge as enterprises hunt proven AI use cases. With peers like ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) reporting dramatic efficiency gains16 lead-to-sale conversions and 86% task deflectionSalesforce's in-house experience could be a key differentiator in a crowded CRM market. Despite a tough stock performance, strong AI-driven revenue growth and internal efficiency wins may help Salesforce regain momentum. Investors will be watching upcoming earnings for signs that scale and cost savings translate into renewed top- and bottom-line strength. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
Business Standard
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
MaxIQ Improves Forecast Accuracy and Revenue Execution Across Global Teams for Snowflake
VMPL Pune (Maharashtra) [India], June 26: MaxIQ, the revenue intelligence platform built for the complete customer journey, today announced that Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, has selected MaxIQ as its enterprise revenue forecasting solution. Unlike traditional forecasting platforms that stop at deal closure, MaxIQ uniquely enables Snowflake to forecast across the entire revenue lifecycle--from initial pipeline through onboarding, adoption, renewal, and expansion. "We're seeing immediate impact on the ground," said Andrew Straus, SVP Global GTM Strategy and Operations at Snowflake. "MaxIQ is helping our sales managers and account reps run tighter forecast calls, identify risk earlier, and spend less time chasing down updates. It's already making our sales execution more consistent -- and helps our forecast be more reliable." MaxIQ replaces siloed tools with a unified workspace that enables frontline reps, managers, RevOps, Sales Engineers, SEM's and revenue leaders to collaborate around a shared view of opportunity health, post-sales progress, consumption, and expansion signals. Snowflake teams will use MaxIQ to run their weekly forecast calls, conduct deal reviews, and proactively manage customer adoption and growth. The MaxIQ platform is also built on Snowflake's unified platform, allowing MaxaIQ to deliver real-time performance, scalable data processing, and deep integration into the company's own Snowflake-based GTM data stack. Across the market, an estimated 80% of SaaS revenue is generated after the initial sale. The integration uniquely positions MaxIQ as the sole solution in the market that can forecast beyond the initial "land" phase, leveraging near real-time product usage data to accurately predict renewal and expansion revenue, something traditional platforms are unable to provide. "We're proud to partner with Snowflake -- a company that's setting the standard for how modern B2B teams operate in the era of data and AI," said Matt Hickey, CEO at MaxIQ. "Their decision reflects a growing shift in enterprise GTM: moving from pipeline-centric views to customer value-centric execution." Why Snowflake Chose MaxIQ * Granular forecasting across the full customer lifecycle -- from acquisition to expansion * Deal inspection and opportunity health scoring, embedded directly in rep workflows * Forecast roll-ups and call planning for global GTM leaders * Expansion and renewal visibility based on adoption and usage signals * Scalable performance leveraging Snowflake's Data Cloud infrastructure
Techday NZ
5 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
Salesforce unveils Agentforce 3 to accelerate enterprise AI adoption
Salesforce has released Agentforce 3, an upgrade to its enterprise AI agent platform designed to address key challenges faced by organisations scaling artificial intelligence implementation. The latest version introduces features that enhance visibility and control for enterprise users, moving AI agents from experimental use to full-scale deployment. More than 100 prebuilt actions, expanded interoperability options, and a centralised suite of tools for managing hybrid workforces are among the major enhancements. Agentforce Command Centre Agentforce 3 introduces the Command Centre, marketed as the first real-time observability suite specifically for hybrid workforces. It provides business leaders with a unified interface to monitor performance metrics across both AI agents and human team members. This monitoring is integrated into business key performance indicators (KPIs), aimed at supporting data-driven management and optimisation of workflow processes. The Command Centre includes dashboards detailing agent adoption, feedback, success rates, costs, and specific topic performance, enabling teams to analyse usage trends and identify areas for improvement. The system records all agent activity in a session-tracing data model leveraging Data Cloud and is compatible with monitoring tools such as Datadog, Splunk, and Wayfound through the OpenTelemetry standard. Teams and supervisors can also receive live analytics on latency, escalation frequency, and error rates with real-time alerts for anomalies, enabling prompt interventions to maintain service levels. For contact centres, agent activity can be monitored in real time, permitting quick performance escalations. Interoperability and Prebuilt Integrations Agentforce 3 expands interoperability with native support for open standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A). The platform also integrates with more than 30 partners, including services such as Stripe, Box, Atlassian, AWS, Cisco, Google Cloud, IBM, Notion, PayPal, Teradata, and WRITER via its expanded AgentExchange. Built-in interoperability is intended to allow AI agents not only to communicate with one another, but with broader enterprise applications, creating a more connected digital workplace. Deployment and Usability The update aims to reduce deployment times, with over 100 new prebuilt industry actions and flexible pricing designed to enable companies to deploy agents within days rather than months. The new architecture underlying Agentforce 3 promises improvements in accuracy, latency, resiliency, and model control, the latter of which addresses the requirements of regulated industries. Agentforce Studio is a central space for building, testing, and optimising agents with the assistance of real-time analytics. It provides tools to simulate agent behaviour at scale and generate topics or test cases using natural language, with the goal of assisting teams in developing and deploying agents more efficiently. Customer Adoption Several organisations have already adopted Agentforce, including New Zealand-based companies such as Fisher & Paykel, Urban Rest, and Farm Focus, which cite benefits including task automation, enhanced customer engagement, and the ability for staff to focus on complex, people-centred work. According to Salesforce, Engine, Grupo Globo, PepsiCo, UChicago Medicine, and 1-800Accountant have reported measurable improvements: Engine reduced its average customer case handling time by 15%, 1-800Accountant autonomously resolved 70% of administrative chat engagements during the peak tax season, and Grupo Globo saw a 22% increase in subscriber retention. Adam Evans, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Salesforce AI, commented on the platform's development trajectory: "With Agentforce, we've unified agents, data, apps, and metadata to create a digital labour platform, helping thousands of companies realise the promise of agentic AI today," said Adam Evans, EVP & GM of Salesforce AI. Evans added: "Over the past several months we've listened deeply to our customers and continued our rapid pace of technology innovation. The result is Agentforce 3, a major leap forward for our platform that brings greater intelligence, higher performance, and more trust and accountability to every Agentforce deployment. Agentforce 3 will redefine how humans and AI agents work together — driving breakthrough levels of productivity, efficiency, and business transformation." Ryan Teeples, Chief Technology Officer at 1-800Accountant, described their experience with the system: "Agentforce autonomously resolved 70% of 1-800Accountant's administrative chat engagements during the peak this past tax season, an incredible lift during one of our busiest periods. But that early success was just the beginning. We've established a strong deployment foundation and weekly are focused on launching new agentic experiences and AI automations through Agentforce's newest capabilities. With a high level of observability, we can see what's working, optimize in real time, and scale support with confidence," said Ryan Teeples, Chief Technology Officer at 1-800Accountant. AI Agent Adoption Trends Salesforce cited a soon-to-be-released Slack Workflow Index showing a 233% increase in AI agent usage in six months, with 8,000 customers signing up for Agentforce deployment during the same period. The platform is presented as a response to enterprise demands for improved governance, tooling, and observability in large-scale AI agent operations. Agentforce 3 is now available globally, with tools and integrations focused on supporting enterprise clients as they expand AI adoption within their organisations.
Techday NZ
5 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
NTT DATA launches EPAS service to boost Salesforce Agentforce AI
NTT DATA has introduced a new service for Salesforce's Agentforce, aimed at supporting client adoption of autonomous AI agents to work alongside human teams. The newly announced service follows the earlier launch of NTT DATA's Smart AI Agent Ecosystem, which provides a framework for deploying agentic solutions at enterprise scale. This service for Agentforce will be offered through an "EPAS" model—Evangelize, Pilot, Adopt, and Scale—designed to assist clients in every stage of agentic AI implementation and integration. Four-stage approach The "EPAS" approach begins with Evangelize, in which NTT DATA helps organisations identify relevant use cases for Agentforce and develops return on investment proposals tailored to individual client needs. The company relies on its industry-specific experience and a repository of use cases to align with the client's operational environment and strategic objectives. During the Pilot phase, NTT DATA supports the client's initial implementation of Agentforce, including building the first proof-of-concept use case. The company also advises on the potential benefits of incorporating additional AI agent ecosystem components. As clients transition to the Adopt and Scale phases, NTT DATA moves to a product-oriented delivery model to facilitate the widespread deployment of Agentforce solutions. The company's extensive library of use cases further streamlines this process, providing clients with pre-developed scenarios for rapid integration. Integration options The service enables integration with tools such as MuleSoft and Data Cloud, taking advantage of NTT DATA's expertise in integration and data unification. The company highlights the importance of offering a robust architecture and service delivery capabilities to support the requirements of global enterprises. "With our new service for Agentforce, our partnership with Salesforce underscores the transformative potential of agentic AI. Central to this innovation is the coordination and orchestration of multiple intelligent agents, which are essential for achieving comprehensive end-to-end automation across various platforms. Our Smart AI Agent Ecosystem, expert advisory services, depth of AI, data, and cloud talent, position NTT DATA as unique in this space with Salesforce. NTT DATA has been part of Salesforce's Agentforce Partner Network since its inception, and we are committed to deliver client success leveraging Agentforce," said Megan Piccininni, SVP and Global Salesforce Practice Leader at NTT DATA. Agentforce platform and use cases Salesforce's Agentforce is described as a digital labour platform that enables enterprises to augment their teams with autonomous AI agents directly integrated into their work processes. Through AgentExchange, organisations can access hundreds of pre-built actions, topics, and templates. The platform also offers pre-validated Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that have met stringent security standards for rapid deployment of digital AI workforces. NTT DATA's Agentforce service is positioned as adaptable to various industry requirements and aims to provide business outcomes in sectors ranging from customer service to health and life sciences. Key use cases include Customer Service and Experience, management of observability and service operations, agentic business process outsourcing in domains such as Life Insurance and Contact Centres, patient management in healthcare, and task automation in real estate and vendor management. The company outlines additional applications, such as Seller Community platforms to reduce deal approval times, Marketing Community tools for automating marketing communications, and tools to speed up recruitment processes, among others. Centralised governance and security controls are highlighted as features to ensure consistency and management across AI agents deployed within an organisation. Scaling digital labour NTT DATA notes that digital labour is already providing a competitive advantage for organisations embedding the technology across their operations. Effective scaling, the company suggests, requires insight into agent deployment, productivity enhancements, and secure management of AI tools. According to Salesforce, Agentforce's latest release offers an enterprise platform for managing human-AI collaboration, connecting agents via open standards, and enabling rapid deployment of industry-ready agents with a focus on security and scalability. Salesforce has designed Agentforce to enable ready-to-use, industry-specific actions, aiming to provide measurable value for enterprise users. NTT DATA, with its industry reach and technical scale, plays a role in supporting clients' adoption of agentic models and guiding organisations in their evolution towards broader AI agent use while focusing on responsible innovation and governance. "In our role as an Outsourcing Service Provider (OSP), our competence to deploy the new service for Agentforce across industries differentiates us from the rest. By merging our competencies in Salesforce, Application Management Services, Business Process Services, Data and AI Services, Cloud and Security Services, and next-generation technologies, we deliver multi-faceted benefits to our clients. This integrated approach allows us to take ownership, manage, and operate within a business outcome-focused framework," added Megan Piccininni. "Organizations need a new labor model that unlocks the full potential of humans with AI at work. NTT DATA is a critical partner for identifying and developing specific use cases with our joint customers across industries, helping to ensure tailored and effective AI solutions for scaling digital labor. With Agentforce constantly evolving and expanding, NTT DATA's new service demonstrates the company's commitment to empowering customers to deliver success with Agentforce," said Phil Samenuk, SVP of Global Alliances & Channels and Outsourcing Service Providers, Salesforce.
Business Wire
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
NTT DATA Announces New Industry-Ready Service for Salesforce's Agentforce
TOKYO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following the unveiling of NTT DATA's Smart AI Agent™ Ecosystem, a transformative enterprise-grade framework for agentic solutions, NTT DATA today announced a new service offering for Salesforce's Agentforce that will help clients accelerate the adoption of autonomous AI agents to work alongside humans. The service will be delivered through an ' EPAS' model – Evangelize, Pilot, Adopt and Scale – and will work in harmony with NTT DATA's existing data and cloud offerings, including Agentic AI Services for Hyperscaler AI Technologies. Evangelize: NTT DATA will help evangelize the use of Agentforce, identify use cases and build return on investment proposals for adopting Agentforce. NTT DATA will leverage its domain-specific leadership, digital workforce expertise, and repository of hundreds of agentic AI use cases and roadmap, classified by industry, to align with what works best in each client ecosystem. Pilot: NTT DATA will support a client's initial deployment and build the first use case as a proof-of-concept implementation of Agentforce. NTT DATA will advise on opportunities to add the power of complementary end-to-end AI agent ecosystem capabilities. Adopt and Scale: Once the value of Agentforce is realized, NTT DATA will build a product-oriented delivery model to support scaling and adoption of Agentforce. NTT DATA will also reuse its extensive repository of Agentforce use cases to help its client get a head start on adoption. With the NTT DATA offering for Agentforce, clients can experience the benefits of robust solution architecture and services delivery capabilities, along with the opportunity to integrate with MuleSoft and Data Cloud. This multi-faceted advantage is rooted in NTT DATA's award-winning expertise in both integration and data unification platforms, providing clients with the comprehensive and tested scale required for global enterprises. Megan Piccininni, SVP and Global Salesforce Practice Leader, NTT DATA, commented, 'With our new service for Agentforce, our partnership with Salesforce underscores the transformative potential of agentic AI. Central to this innovation is the coordination and orchestration of multiple intelligent agents, which are essential for achieving comprehensive end-to-end automation across various platforms. Our Smart AI Agent Ecosystem, expert advisory services, depth of AI, data, and cloud talent, position NTT DATA as unique in this space with Salesforce. NTT DATA has been part of Salesforce's Agentforce Partner Network since its inception, and we are committed to deliver client success leveraging Agentforce.' Agentforce is a digital labor platform for enterprises to augment teams with trusted autonomous AI agents in the flow of work. With Salesforce's AgentExchange, a leading AI agent ecosystem for enterprises, clients have access to hundreds of ready-to-use actions, topics, and templates built by partners, and will have access to pre-validated Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, that have passed rigorous security reviews to quickly create and deploy their digital workforce of AI agents. NTT DATA's new service for Agentforce is adaptable to different use cases. Clients will be able to benefit from agentic AI and see tangible outcomes across industries. The top use case for NTT DATA's service for Agentforce is focused on Customer Service and Experience. Application Management Services Agentification includes deployment of utility agents that interact seamlessly with various observability and service management ecosystems. The service for Agentforce enables Agentic Business Process as a Service across different domains such as Life Insurance-as-a-Service and Contact Center-as-a-Service. In Health and Life Sciences, AI agents can help transform patient management and improve patient outcomes. Real Estate and Vendor Management task automation, such as technical support, helps address changes and vendor management operations, reducing support tickets and manual process time. Seller Community applications streamline deal validation and sales intake, reducing deal approval time. Marketing Community use cases include automating email credit management and accelerating marketing email delivery, achieving faster email processing. Faster Time-to-Hire outcomes from optimized recruitment processes with Agentforce. Governance and Security Control offer centralized management of security and reuse, ensuring consistency and control across all deployed agents. Digital labor is already here, delivering a meaningful competitive advantage for organizations that embed it effectively across departments. To truly scale this potential, businesses need clear insight into agent deployment, how agents enhance human productivity, and secure tool usage. Salesforce's latest Agentforce release provides an enterprise-grade platform to manage human-AI collaboration, connect agents to tools via open standards, and rapidly deploy industry-ready agents with the trust, scale, and performance enterprises demand. Agentforce expands digital labor across the enterprise with new industry-specific actions to provide industry readiness out of the box that delivers a fast path to value from AI agents. NTT DATA plays a crucial role in driving an agent economy with leadership scale and expertise and guiding clients in their agentic maturity, from task automations to interoperable agents, while helping to ensure responsible innovation and global governance. Megan Piccininni further added, 'In our role as an Outsourcing Service Provider (OSP), our competence to deploy the new service for Agentforce across industries differentiates us from the rest. By merging our competencies in Salesforce, Application Management Services, Business Process Services, Data and AI Services, Cloud and Security Services, and next-generation technologies, we deliver multi-faceted benefits to our clients. This integrated approach allows us to take ownership, manage, and operate within a business outcome-focused framework.' 'Organizations need a new labor model that unlocks the full potential of humans with AI at work. NTT DATA is a critical partner for identifying and developing specific use cases with our joint customers across industries, helping to ensure tailored and effective AI solutions for scaling digital labor,' said Phil Samenuk, SVP of Global Alliances & Channels and Outsourcing Service Providers, Salesforce. 'With Agentforce constantly evolving and expanding, NTT DATA's new service demonstrates the company's commitment to empowering customers to deliver success with Agentforce.' Additional Resources Salesforce, Agentforce and others are among the trademarks of Salesforce, Inc. About NTT DATA NTT DATA is a $30+ billion trusted global innovator of business and technology services. We serve 75% of the Fortune Global 100 and are committed to helping clients innovate, optimize and transform for long-term success. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 50 countries and a robust partner ecosystem of established and start-up companies. Our services include business and technology consulting, data and artificial intelligence, industry solutions, as well as the development, implementation and management of applications, infrastructure and connectivity. We are also one of the leading providers of digital and AI infrastructure in the world. NTT DATA is part of NTT Group, which invests over $3.6 billion each year in R&D to help organizations and society move confidently and sustainably into the digital future. Visit us at
