Dreamforce 2025 - all the Salesforce news and updates and news we saw at the show
Dreamforce 2025 is over - here's what we saw
Good morning from San Francisco ahead of our live coverage of Dreamforce 2025!
Sadly it's a miserable day in San Francisco, lots of wind and rain - so hopefully things will cheer up tomorrow!
Good morning! After yesterday's apocalytpic rain here in California, we're all set and ready for Dreamforce 2025.
For now though...coffee time!
We've made it to the Dreamforce campground - time for some breakfast, then it's off to the keynote.
If you've never been to Dreamforce before, the scale of the event is massive - it takes over most of downton San Francisco.
We're off to the keynote now, the crowds are already massing, even though we're less than an hour out...
If you're familiar with Salesforce, you'll know they love a mascot - and the full roster is out and in force this morning - Astro, Codey, Appy (no, we haven't made those up) all present and correct.
We're in and seated - it's already busy, with Marc Benioff set to take to the stage in about half an hour...
Next it's time for the traditional Akaka Ohana welcome - another Dreamforce tradition that looks to start the event with a moment of thanks and wellness.
It's nearly showtime - after a few customer interviews to get the crowd warmed up, it's time for a quick look at Slack - but more to come on that later...
Slack CEO Denise Dresser is up next, to talk us through how OpenAI is using Slack.
There's a slightly scary robot sitting in the front row opposite us - a taste of things to come?
It's go time - after an introductory video voiced by (who else) Hollywood royalty and Salesforce VIP Matthew McConaghey, marking a year of Agentforce, the lights come up, and Marc Benioff, Salesforce co-founder and CEO, takes to the stage.
"This is going to the biggest, most exciting Dreamforce ever!" Benioff exclaims as he walks right past us.
Benioff runs us through the key values Salesforce was built on - trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability.
Benioff highlights how Salesforce still dedicates 1% equity, 1% of its time, and 1% of its product to good causes, including a new $30 million committed to education and AI literacy.
"We want to connect with our customers in a brand new way...the rate and growth of innovation has been awesome," Benioff notes.
Benioff collars Brad Lightcap from OpenAI again to ask about the company's AI plans, then outlines "the agentic divide".
"We're going to this icnredible new world...as the technology elevates us not just as individuals, but also as organizations."
"We have to be there to make it work, that's why humans and agents have to drive customer success together."
"We have to be ground zero...and customer zero," Benioff adds, marking the first year of Agentforce, launched at Dreamforce 2024.
Context is key, Benioff says, allowing companies to get the most out of their data.
Here's the classic Salesforce wheel - showing off the sheer amount of platforms the company offers - now all underpinned by Agentforce 360.
"What if everyone had the power to build agentic enteprises?" Benioff says, leaving the stage, as it's time for demos.
After Salesforce Vibes, Benioff is back, noting how AI is elevating every aspect of developer's work, and the enterprise as a whole.
We're now looking at five customer examples to see just how the agentic enterprise looks in practice.
Agentforce Voice and Agentforce Builder are among the new tools getting a big shout-out, along with Agent Script, which allows AI to be deterministic when it needs to be.
Next up, it's a deeper look at the Agentic Enterprise with jewellery store Pandora, and how it has been using Agentforce Commerce to give customers a personal shopping agent to give more of a personal touch.
Next, it's a look at Pepsico - which needs no introduction - and how it is using Agentforce Sales and Agentforce Field Service to improve marketing, sales and field services.
Next, we hear from FedEx, and how it is using Data 360 - the next generation of Data Cloud, and Agentforce IT Service - and how it is replacing tickets with instant, AI-powered support.
Finally, its time to hear from Dell Technologies, and how it is using Agentforce Supply Chain to speed up deliveries and logistics with AI.
Company founder and CEO Michael Dell is here, and Benioff pulls him up to ask about the future of agentic AI in businesses.
Benioff also asks Dell about his inspiration on pushing AI forward, and what he sees for the future of his company.
Dell says AI can help unleash the power of "dark data" that went unnoticed before, so this is a great time to look at the trajectory of change in the industry - moving from calculating and computing, to thinking and machines that are thinking for us.
All companies will have to rethink and reimagine their ways of doing business to stay relevant, Dell says.
Customer stories done - we now turn to look at exactly how you build an agentic enteprise.
And that's a wrap! Benioff thanks us all for coming and sends us out into the conference - but we'll be back shortly, with more from Mr Benioff too - so stay tuned for that.
We're back in the press lounge now, but about to be joined by a few special guests - Marc Benioff will be here shortly for a Q&A session alongside a few customers.
Benioff is joined by all of the customers from the keynotes - so it should be an interesting discussion...
"The rate of technology innovation far exceeds the rate of technology adoption," Benioff notes.
Benioff says it's about constant communication with customers to find out their needs, as well as feedback from both humans and agents - something the company didn't even really have this time next year.
"A year ago Agentforce was a product - now, it's a platform," he notes.
"It's beyond our expectation - we are all listening to customers more deeply," he adds.
Benioff says he hopes we're all having a happy and safe time at Dreamforce, and notes the company has brought in outside police to keep things secure.
"That is the number one thing that's on my mind - safety."
Next up, a question about customers not feeling like they are ready for AI - how does Benioff sell it to them?
A question about the "agentic enterprise" next - how does Salesforce help push this?
Another Agentforce adoption question - Benioff is asked if the numbers we heard earlier are strictly correct, and he hits back with what he says is the latest figures, claiming impressive, fast growth.
Another tick for the Dreamforce bingo card - a little dig at Oracle, and Benioff's great rival Larry Ellison, as Benioff notes the two companies have clashing conferences this week.
A financials question next - when will Salesforce hit $50bn revenues (Benioff told us it hit $41.3bn this year)?
Next a question about partnerships - particularly OpenAI, what's the situation there?
"For a lot of customers, they're working with us to consume that technology - but they don't have the means to deploy it," he says, noting that Salesforce can help bring OpenAI to others.
Benioff bids us farewell, as he's running late to film a segment for Good Morning America, and with that, it's time for lunch here.
Next up, we're in and seated at the Slack keynote, to hear everything new from the online collaboration platform.
Our host today - Slack CEO Denise Dresser - welcomes us in, promising a keynote full of innovation and breakthrough customers.
"Slack is already an agentic operating system - think about it, it's where your people work," Dresser emphasises.
First customer story of the day - General Motors VP and CISO Mike Hanley is up on stage to talk about its innovation story.
Dresser moves on to talk about Slack's new features and additions, and to kick this off, introduces Parker Harris, Salesforce Co-founder and Slack CTO to the stage.
After a demo of some of Agentforce working in Slack, Harris moves on to Slack's own AI features, and introduces Peter Doolan, EVP & Chief Customer Officer, Slack, on stage.
Slackbot was probably the most striking of all Slack's new launches, linking in to all of your conversations, files and workflows to get you the information you need.
"Here's how be bring the power of AI forward," Doolan notes, showing how even complex, multi-layered questions can be tackled by Slackbot.
After this, Doolan calls up Rob Seamon, chief product officer for Slack, to look at how Slack can help unify your entire enterprise into one agentic OS.
After a demo with Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, Seaman throws it back to Denise Dresser to wrap things up.
"We are reimagining the future of work together - the future is right now."
And with that, it's a wrap! We're off to get some fresh air and recharge, but will be back shortly.
Good morning from day two at Dreamforce 2025!
- Salesforce Agentforce 360 looks to take your company data to the next level
Sadly it's another grey and drizzly day in San Francisco - the perfect weather to be indoors for some tech keynotes, perhaps?
First up - a press Q&A with Slack CEO Denise Dresser, along with Salesforce chief people officer Natalie Scardino.
Scardino notes that low-skilled tasks in sales and services are easy meat for AI agents, allowing human workers to be more productive.
Moving from simply suggesting, agents are all about taking action now, she says.
The new currency for scale and growth is going to be intelligence, Dresser notes - as agents will be able to unlock new levels of potential.
There's a new vector of growth - one that will reimagine everything, she notes.
"It's bigger than anything we've ever experienced," Dresser notes.
What's new at Slack? Dresser runs us through a selection of the key announcements this week, and how Slack looked to bring in a new way of intuitive working.
"People want to work in a conversational way," she notes.
Moving to talk about people and HR - how will agents affect these incredibly personal areas?
"Our empolyees don't want to know a thousand agents - they just want one," she says.
What does an entry-level job look like at Salesforce and Slack given its AI focus?
What can agents do better? Dresser says she's very empathetic with them, but says she is looking forward to having a digital human twin soon - having a personal digital assistant with her at all times.
That's a wrap here - time for a quick break, but we'll be back soon!
Our final event of the day is a big one - Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff in conversation with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
After the usual McConaghey-fronted video about the benefits of AI, Marc Benioff welcomes Dario Amodei to the stage.
Amodei starts with a recap of his career story and upbringing, after spells at Google and OpenAI, before founding Anthropic in 2021.
Amodei notes Salesforce is a small investor in Anthropic, with Benioff replying that he's thrilled to be part of the journey.
Benioff asks what Amodei's biggest surprise since leaving OpenAI and starting Anthropic with his seven co-founders.
"A lot of the things I'm seeing happening, I just never would have expected," he says. "When you start a company, you really see...differentiation - OpenAI has gone in the consumer direction, we've gone in the enterprise direction...it's sort of a natural experiment, both exist in the ecosystem, but the approach they take is different."
Amodei says the jump to being able to truly agentic abilities in quite surprising - the ability to do tasks end to end in a way that was not possible before.
Benioff switches to talk about AGI - how far along are we?
Claude is being used to build products on top of Claude and to help the next Claude, he notes - and 90% of all code at Anthropic is being written by AI (although a human is still needed to review it).
Benioff asks if this means Anthropic needs less engineers - but Amodei says there still need to be humans in the loop.
It's hard to say when the true tipping point will come, Amodei says, and under pressing from Benioff, says there will be a lot of disruption - "a true labor disruption", within the next two to five years.
"I am concerned, particularly about people's ability to adapt as the jobs are changing so fast."
Think of the models as a second opinion, Amodei says - you don't trust it alone, as it's not always right.
It's hard to say what will happen 6 months from now, Amodei notes, especially given how often new models are released.
Where will Anthropic be in 5 years in a dream world, Benioff asks?
He names the potential to cure diseases, including cancer - "I just think AI is the right thing to cure them."
He adds that financial services and insurance could also benefit - but says "every enterprise" can benefit in some way.
"My vision of Anthropic is a company which serves the world, puts AI at the center of every enterprise," he says.
Alongside financial success, Amodei says Anthropic wants to be known as the company that is reliable and trustworthy.
Benioff asks about building data centers and chips, and the energy they use - how serious an issue will this be? And what will the next generation look like?
Anthropic is growing faster than any other company in this space, he says - and so if the demand is there, it will benefit everyone.
And that's a wrap - thanks for joining us today, we'll be back tomorrow for the final day of Dreamforce 2025!
Hello from our final day of Dreamforce 2025! The show may be nearly over, but there's still one big special guest to come - more on that shortly.
The final session is a big one - Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff will be on stage talking to Sundar Pichai, Google & Alphabet CEO.
After the usual McConaghey-fronted video, Marc Benioff is here, and introduces Sundar Pichai to the stage.
Benioff starts by inviting Pichai to delve into his upbringing a little, starting with his childhood in South India.
Giving access to technology can transform local communities - with Pichai noting Google recently invested $15bn in India.
"AI is the ultimate expression" of giving technology access to everyone in the world - it's a great equalizer, Pichai says.
Pichai remembers how when at Stamford, the sheer range of opportunities available was particularly surprising - but meeting people with the same passions was especially unique - with a desire to make the world better.
Asked when he first heard about Google - Pichai says he was an early user, impressed with the ease of use, and an instant way to give people access to technology.
The age of Web 2.0, when the internet started to evolve into a content platform, was an exciting time, Pichai says.
Benioff recalls his first meeting with Google, which resulted in the latter forming its charity arm.
Pichai recalls former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warning him off building a browser, but that once it was created, he became its biggest champion.
"Technolgoy is one of the biggest enablers we know...if anything, that journey is accelerating," Pichai says, "our job is to be good stewards of this technology, bring it in a way that really benefits society."
"I think there is no better technology to do that then AI," Pichai adds, noting that he wanted to start Google's shift towards AI back in 2017.
Benioff harks back to three years ago, when Google was really leading the AI landscape - until ChatGPT arrived on the scene.
"We saw the potential right away," he says, likening it to how YouTube came out of nowhere in 2006, and Instagram surprised Facebook and other platforms.
"I realised this was the biggest opportunity in technology, we were incredibly well-positioned - we had to carpe diem," he adds.
Time to look to the future - Benioff says he's never seen Google go faster - maybe it's good to have competition.
How do things look in 2035 at Google?
Pichai says you have to be humble when looking at the future - and mentions Waymo's self-driving cars as a good example of something that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable.
"We are definitely to have digital super-intelligence for all of us, that is going to be a reality," Pichai says.
"We are so good at adapting," Pichai adds, again noting the success of Waymo vehicles becoming part of San Francisco life.
"The technology is going to progress, we should embrace and innovative with it, the benefits are going to be profound," Pichai says.
The power of AI could even mean Google Glass could return soon, Pichai says in reply to a question about direct human/AI interfaces.
Wrapping up, Pichai praises the Salesforce relationship, and its customer focus - and hails the opportunity of the agentic enterprise.
"As enterprises, you want this to work well together," he says, "that is the real opportunity we have."
And that's a wrap - a fascinating chat, and good to hear about the backstory of Pichai. We're off to round up the last bits of Dreamforce 2025, so stay tuned!
