What is Agentforce? A Beginner’s Guide for 2025

If you’re in the Salesforce ecosystem, you’ve undoubtedly heard the buzz around Agentforce in every big Events like Dreamforce .

This guide from Salesforcehour is designed for beginners. We’ll try to break down everything you need to know in simple terms, so you can quickly get up to speed on one of the most exciting innovations in the Salesforce platform.

What is Agentforce ?

Agentforce is Salesforce’s platform for building, managing, and deploying a workforce of AI Agents.

Think of it less as a single product and more as an AI layer that sits on top of the entire Salesforce Customer 360 platform (including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, etc.). These AI Agents are not just simple chatbots, they are updated digital workers that can understand complex requests, reason through multi-step problems, and take action to get work done.

In short, Agentforce allows you to create a team of AI assistants that work alongside your human employees, acting as a powerful AI assistant for your CRM to make your team more productive and your customer interactions more intelligent and make the work easy.

What is the Difference Between Einstein and Agentforce?

This is a common point of confusion, as both are part of Salesforce’s AI offerings.

• Einstein traditionally refers to Salesforce’s predictive AI features. Think of Einstein Opportunity Scoring, which predicts the likelihood a deal will close, or Einstein Case Classification, which predicts the right category for a support case. It’s excellent at analyzing data and making predictions.
  
• Agentforce is powered by generative AI in Salesforce. This is the newer, conversational AI (like ChatGPT, Gemini ) that can create new content, have natural conversations, and execute tasks based on those conversations.

The simplest way to think about it is: Einstein predicts, while Agentforce acts.

Real-World Use Cases for Agentforce

So, what can you actually do with Agentforce? The possibilities are vast, but here are a few common use cases for both service and sales teams.

Use Cases for Service Agents

• Example 1: An AI Agent can handle the initial interaction with a customer via chat, gather necessary information (like order number and issue type), and create a perfectly detailed case before routing it to the correct human agent.
• Example 2: A human agent can ask the AI Agent, “What are the return steps for product X?” The AI Agent can instantly find the relevant Knowledge article and summarize it for the agent, saving them from having to search manually.
• Example 3: After a call, the AI Agent can automatically generate a summary of the conversation and log it to the case, saving the agent several minutes of administrative work.

Use Cases for Sales Agents (AI Sales Coach)

• Example 1: Before a sales call, a rep can ask, “Summarize my last interaction with this contact and highlight any unresolved issues.” The AI Agent can pull data from past emails, cases, and opportunities to provide a complete brief.
• Example 2: During a call, the AI Sales Coach can listen for keywords. If a prospect mentions a competitor, the coach can discreetly push a “battle card” with key talking points to the sales rep’s screen.
  
• Example 3: After a demo, the AI Agent can draft a personalized follow-up email based on the call transcript, including the specific features the prospect was most interested in. The rep just needs to review and send it.

An Overview of Agentforce Components

Agentforce isn’t just one thing, it’s a collection of tools that work together on the Salesforce AI platform. Here are the key components you need to know.

Prompt Builder & Prompt Templates

This is where you control what the AI Agent says and does.

• Prompt Builder is one of Salesforce’s low-code AI tools where you create Prompt Templates.
  
• A Prompt Template is a set of instructions for the AI. Instead of just saying “Summarize this case,” you can create a template that says, “Summarize this case in three bullet points, focusing on the customer’s sentiment and the product mentioned. Start with a friendly greeting.” This ensures the AI’s responses are consistent, on-brand, and useful.

How to create Prompt Builder

Go To Setup –> Quick Find –> Search for Prompt builder –> New Prompt Template

Agent Actions

Agents include a library of actions, which are the tools an agent can use to do its job . An Agent Action is a specific skill you give to your AI Agent. We do have some Standard agent action and we can also create custom agent action ,

For example, “Update a Case,” “Create a Lead,” or “Check Inventory” are all Agent Actions. These actions are often powered by other Salesforce automation tools like a Flow , Apex. The AI Agent’s “brain,” the Atlas Reasoning Engine, decides which action to use based on the user’s request.

You can also create Agent action from Agentforce Asset Library –> Action Tab –> New Agent Action

Agentforce Assets

This is a general term for all the configurable pieces that make up your AI Agent, including the Prompt Templates and Agent Actions you create. These assets are managed in the Agentforce Studio.

How to Enable Agentforce

You enable Agentforce within your existing Salesforce org.

1. Licensing: First, you need the right licenses . Mentioned in below section.
2. Enablement in Setup:
   If you haven’t already, turn on Einstein Generative AI.
   From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Agent, and then select Agentforce Agents.
   If you don’t see Agents in Setup, verify that Einstein Generative AI is enabled for your org.
   To enable Agentforce, turn on the Agentforce.
   
3. Permissions: You then assign the “Agentforce User” or “Agent Builder” permission sets to the users who will be using or configuring the AI Agents.
   These user permission needed to enable Agentforce:
   Manage AI Agents AND the required permissions for your agent type
   OR
   Customize Application

After you enable Agentforce, refresh the page to see the New Agent button and use Agentforce feature.

What Licenses are Required to Use Agentforce?

Salesforce licensing can change, but the general requirements for Agentforce are:

1. Base Edition: Your Salesforce org must be on the Enterprise Edition or Unlimited Edition. Agentforce is a premium feature and is not available on lower editions like Professional.
2. AI & Agentforce Add-on: In addition to your base license, you must purchase a specific AI add-on license. This might be called the “AI Add-on” or come as part of a “Generative AI” bundle.

The key takeaway is that Agentforce is a premium offering that requires a specific license purchase. You should always confirm the exact requirements with your Salesforce Account Executive.

Summary

The most important thing to know is that Agentforce is Salesforce’s platform for creating a digital workforce of AI Agents. It’s the evolution of AI in the platform, moving from prediction (Einstein) to action. By leveraging components like Prompt Builder and Agent Actions, and grounding itself in your company’s trusted data via Data Cloud, Agentforce can automate tasks, provide real-time coaching, and make every employee more productive.