Software Maker Puts Slack, Voice Tools At Center Of AI Strategy| Investor’s Business Daily

Aiming to enhance the adoption of AI products by enterprise customers, Sales force (CRM) will focus on its Slack Technologies acquisition for 2021 at the Dreamforce conference this week. Salesforce shares fall 27% in 2025 despite its move towards “agent” AI.

Salesforce announced Monday that it will integrate Slack’s work collaboration tools and voice technologies into its new Agentforce 360 ​​platform. Furthermore, Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021, but critics say the company overpaid and gained limited synergies from the deal.

Salesforce aims to use Slack tools as the front end of an organization’s workflow. With the new Agentforce 360 ​​platform, Salesforce customers will be able to use the conversational UI to create and deploy AI agents. For investors, the strategy could unlock more value from the Slack acquisition.

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Many software companies are focusing on helping companies update their proprietary data to customize AI applications. They are also developing autonomous, goal-directed “AI agents.”

The new Agentforce 360 ​​platform enhances the pre-existing Customer 360 platform, which unifies all Salesforce applications and company data. Users will be able to embed conversational AI agents into workflows for sales, marketing, commerce, customer support, and more. With this move, Salesforce can reposition Slack from a messaging app to a control center for enterprise AI automation.

In addition, the new Slackbots will serve as a personal AI companion, the software maker says.

Salesforce faces stiff competition from Microsoft Teams, which is also a workplace collaboration platform. OpenAI, a leading developer of artificial intelligence systems, has also released new tools for businesses to create applications within ChatGPT. OpenAI has also released coding tools for companies to write their own software.

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The Dreamforce Conference runs from October 14 to October 16 in San Francisco. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech on Tuesday.

Salesforce is hosting its Investor Day on Wednesday. At the event, the software maker is expected to update its financial forecasts and expected revenues from artificial intelligence products.

As the Dreamforce conference approached, Wall Street analysts expected an upbeat presentation by Salesforce amid struggles to monetize its AI products.

“We believe one area of ​​focus for the company will be showcasing more enterprise customers adopting Agentforce and examples of customers moving beyond Agentforce pilots and proof-of-concepts to broader enterprise adoption and documented business value,” Truist analyst Terry Tillman said in a report.

“We believe the expanded list of customers adopting Agentforce will be a major selling point along with attracting partners such as Accenture (ACN).”

Salesforce, ServiceNow on collision course?

Meanwhile, competition between Salesforce and ServiceNow is heating up.

Salesforce on October 9 announced the launch of Agentforce IT Service, an agent IT service desk, and the acquisition of Apromore, an operations intelligence vendor. Salesforce sees an opportunity to embed an ITSM tool into Slack, its workplace collaboration platform.

“The acquisitions of Agentforce IT Service and Apromore are the next steps in the growing overlap between ServiceNow and Salesforce,” Jefferies analyst Samad Samana said in a report.

ServiceNow tracks and manages the services provided by IT departments. ServiceNow has recently pushed into “front office” software (customer service, field service, and supply chain management).

Meanwhile, early Salesforce Agentforce IT service customers include UNESCO and Piedmont Healthcare.

Will the Informatica acquisition pay off?

In a move to bolster its AI strategy, Salesforce recently agreed to buy a data management software maker Informatica (INFA) in an all-cash deal valued at $8 billion.

Moreover, Salesforce stock is among the AI ​​stocks to watch.

Meanwhile, CRM stock has an Underperform Composite Rating of 67 out of a top 99, according to IBD Stock Screener.

Salesforce stock carries an Accumulation/Distribution rating of C+. This classification analyzes price and volume changes in a stock over the past 13 weeks of trading. A+ indicates heavy institutional buying; E means heavy selling. Think of C as neutral.

Follow Reinhardt Krauss on X, formerly Twitter, @reinhardtk_tech For updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and cloud computing.

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