CRM major Salesforce, which has reported 8 percent rise in revenue to reach $9.33 billion in Q2 2024, is betting big on Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions in the coming years.
Salesforce, the third largest enterprise software company, says it expects third-quarter revenue of $9.31 billion – $9.36 billion despite its sharp focus on the commercial introduction Agentforce. Salesforce is targeting 8-9 percent rise in sale for the fiscal year 2025 to $37.7 billion – $38 billion.
Salesforce is not aiming for double-digit growth despite adding major companies such as MuleSoft, Tableau, and Slack in the recent past.
AI focus
AI remains a top priority for Salesforce, the leader in the global CRM market, as it pours hundreds of millions into deploying its own GPT and Copilot, integrating them into its business suite of products and platforms like Slack.
Agentforce is an integrated platform combining core metadata framework in Data Cloud and Einstein and extending the power of Customer 360 apps. Salesforce says Agentforce will be reducing cost, scaling workforces, and improving customer and employee experiences.
New bookings for AI products have more than doubled quarter over quarter. Salesforce signed 1,500 AI deals in Q2 alone.
Salesforce says some of the world’s largest brands are using AI solutions, including Alliant, Bombardier, and CMA CGM.
Bombardier, the maker of aircraft, is enabling sales reps to sell smarter by consolidating need-to-know information on prospects in advance of meetings and providing recommendations on how to best engage with them through the Einstein Copilot and prompt builder.
Salesforce has 35,000 employees using Einstein as a trusted AI assistant, helping them work smarter and close deals faster.
Since launching Slack AI in February, Salesforce employees have created more than 500,000 channels — channel summaries, saving nearly 3 million hours of work. Salesforce will also deploy Agentforce agents soon in different roles and tasks to augment, automate, and deliver productivity.
Salesforce will share its new AI tool kit — industry toolkit, which features more than 100 ready-to-use customizable AI-powered actions at the Dreamforce tech event.
AI innovation
Salesforce says customers like OpenTable, Wiley, ADP and RBC are deploying AI agents and running them on top of its Data Cloud and apps.
One of the very largest healthcare companies in the world with 20 million consumers in the United States is resolving more than 90 percent of patient inquiries with Agentforce. It is benchmarking Agentforce significantly higher than other AI platforms.
A large media company is resolving 90 percent of all of their employee and consumer issues with Agentforce.
Salesforce delivered 25 trillion Einstein transactions across all of the clouds during the quarter.
Wiley has seen a 50 percent increase in case resolution with the first generation of Agentforce.
Organizations like Royal Bank of Canada, ADP, and others are achieving 90 percent case resolution with the deployment of the second generation of Agentforce.
OpenTable, which is managing 60,000 restaurants and 160 million diners, is using Agentforce.
CRM customers
For the 11th year in a row, Salesforce ranked No. 1 CRM provider by the IDC Software Track. Salesforce is the No. 1 AI CRM.
The number of paid Data Cloud customers grew 130 percent. The number of customers spending more than $1 million annually has doubled. Data Cloud processed 2.3 quadrillion records with 110 percent platform consumption growth.
American Family Insurance with millions of policyholders is using Data Cloud to consolidate data from multiple sources through zero-copy partner network, creating a 360 view of the customers, enabling quick segmentation, and activating lead data, including their real-time web interactions.
Adecco Group expanded their Data Cloud to gain a unified view of its customers. More than 27,000 Adecco employees using Salesforce will have seamless access to key information, including financial metrics and job fulfillment status, to help Adecco improve their job fill rate ratio and reduce their cost to serve.
Multi-cloud deals
Salesforce says nearly 80 percent of its new business was driven by multi-cloud deals. In Q2, around 16,000 customers added a new cloud and more than 4,500 of those customers added two or more clouds.
Companies like Wyndham Hotel and Resorts are all-in on Salesforce.
Windham Hotel utilizes Data Cloud to unify profile of 165 million guest records, many of which were duplicates across many sources like Amazon Redshift and the Sabre Reservation System as well as Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud.
82 of the Fortune 100 use Slack Connect every week to better connect with their customers and their partners. The latest customers for Slack include Citadel, Converge ICT, and GEICO.
In Q2, Slack IA summarized 420 million Slack messages, and customers have built 13,000 AI apps across their organizations in the last 12 months with Slack.
Five of its top 10 deals came from international teams. Ferrari, Sekisui House, and Commonwealth of Australia are some of the international clients. Salesforce says Japan, India, and Canada were some of its strong markets.
Salesforce achieved revenue growth of 7 percent in the Americas, 11 percent in EMEA, and 9 percent in Asia Pacific that includes China and India.
Channel partners are important for Salesforce as the CRM major said three of top 10 deals closed in Q2 through the AWS marketplace.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
