What you missed at Dreamforce 2024: A deep dive into AI, data, and CRM integration

Dreamforce 2024 was a whirlwind of innovation, spotlighting cutting-edge AI, data advancements, and next-level CRM integration. But what should you know and how will the impact business for years to come? We’ll dive into Horizontal Digital's tech team’s key takeaways—unpacking how Salesforce is driving the future of AI with Agentforce, harnessing the power of Data Cloud (Opens in a new tab), and strategically shaping the integration of CRM and data like never before. 

Some of our favorite moments from Dreamforce included:

• Exclusive Data Cloud Workshop: Salesforce Product Managers led an interactive session with 20 select partners, sharing the latest innovations in Data Cloud. 
  
  
• Networking & Client Connections: The happy hour and private dinners offered valuable opportunities to engage with clients, prospects, and Salesforce partners, discussing business needs and Salesforce trends. 
  
  
• Insights on Data & Trust: We got to explore data security, privacy, and building trust in CRM systems, focusing on compliance and creating a comprehensive data strategy. 

AI’s evolving role: Predictive > Generative > Agents 
A consistent theme throughout DF24 was the emphasis on AI, data, and CRM integration. Agentforce is the biggest announcement, and the underlying theme was the advances in Data Cloud to provide relevant data to support Agentforce AI.  

The most significant announcement was the introduction of Agentforce.  

Salesforce is making major strides in AI, moving from predictive AI to generative AI, with the future pointing toward assistive and autonomous agents. You might wonder, what makes Agentforce so special? While we’ve been using AI in our day-to-day work at Horizontal Digital, it still requires us to give specific instructions to get things done.  

However, what sets Agentforce apart is that the AI can now take actions independently, without needing constant human input. It can learn, reason, and act on its own. It’s almost as if AI has developed its own “brain”—an incredible leap forward!  

Perhaps the most important factor in this evolution is relevant, high-quality data. AI cannot thrive without solid data foundations (Opens in a new tab), and Salesforce is investing heavily in Data Cloud to ensure that AI tools are deeply grounded in organizations’ data and metadata. 

Data Cloud: The backbone of AI integration 

The growing importance of Data Cloud was a big takeaway, which serves as the backbone for AI. It was also evident that Salesforce is building a deep integration of Data Cloud with it’s existing platform. Key enhancements included: 

• Over 240 connectors within Data Cloud, allowing seamless integration with various 3rd party platforms. 
  
  
• Expanded support for Zero Copy integrations across platforms like Databricks, Redshift, and Azure Fabric. 
  
  
• Enhanced data security with features like customer-managed keys and sandbox environments. 
  
  

• Support for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) for unstructured data ingestion from files and semantic queries. 
  
  

The event also emphasized how Data Cloud is becoming more deeply integrated with the CRM platform. Highlights include: 

• Data Cloud One, offering deep platform integration across multiple Salesforce orgs. 
  
  
• Subsecond real-time support in Data Cloud, enabling faster, more responsive data management. 

Marketing Cloud Advanced on Core Platform 

Another highlight was Marketing Cloud Advanced, introduced in the Marketing Keynote, offering more capabilities than Marketing Cloud Growth Edition. Both are built on the Salesforce CRM platform, indicating a move towards consolidating the tech stack on Core Platform for Marketing Automation. 

Looking Forward 
As Salesforce continues to double down on AI, the focus will be on assistive and autonomous agents. However, these innovations will only be as good as the data supporting them, which is why Salesforce’s investment in Data Cloud is so crucial. The event highlighted Salesforce’s ongoing commitment to delivering a platform that integrates AI, data, and CRM to empower organizations to drive business value and build stronger customer relationships. 

Expect to see more advancements in AI-powered CRM, deeper integration of data across platforms, and stronger security features to ensure trust and privacy in the data-driven age.