Unlock the power of AI with Salesforce and PwC

Customizing and deploying Agentforce to redefine the business of customer relationships

  • Publication
  • 10 minute read
  • October 28, 2024

PwC is co-investing and co-innovating solutions to help you select, customize and deploy AI agents that work seamlessly with human talent

Organizations have a powerful new tool to help them achieve greater outcomes at lower costs. As AI becomes intrinsic to the fabric of business, autonomous AI agents help liberate human brain power to focus on strategy and innovation while trusted data is put to work delivering improved user experiences.

Agentforce, recently announced by Salesforce, drives operational efficiency with AI agents.

Featuring over 20 new pre-built agents and actions, Agentforce enables teams to become more productive by handing off business goals to AI agents. These specialized actions allow customers to deploy ready-made agents, tailor new ones with unique capabilities and leverage a network of autonomous partner agents that collaborate seamlessly across various systems and channels, within and outside of Salesforce.

Agentforce is a workforce you can unleash to help immediately improve frontline service level agreements in call centers, address heavy volume inquiries, and drive hyper-efficient low-touch sales processes.

For example, an AI service agent can help resolve customer issues with intuitive and conversational responses that go well beyond the capabilities of a traditional chatbot. Or imagine an AI sales development agent that contacts customers, answers questions and schedules meetings.

What is an Agentforce Agent?

An Agentforce Agent is a proactive, autonomous application that provides specialized, always-on support to employees or customers. They’re equipped with the necessary business knowledge to execute tasks according to their specific role.

“These are just a few of the standard agents included with Agentforce, but you can also create your own custom AI agents with a low-code building platform”, says Susan Emerson, Senior Vice President for AI, Analytics and Data at Salesforce. “You can simply describe in natural language the tasks you want your agents to perform,” Emerson says. “And then equip the agents with the workflows and actions you’ve already set up in Salesforce.”

Steve White, Program Vice President for Channels and Alliances at IDC, says organizations are already seeing results from autonomous agent deployments. “They’re faster and more efficient in getting the right answers, greatly reducing repetitive tasks,” White said.

“With the Agentforce Partner Network, Salesforce is cultivating an open ecosystem and bringing together industry-leading partners to empower Agentforce Agents with data, skills and expertise to get work done.”

Steve White, Program Vice President for Channels and Alliances at IDC

Start your Agentforce journey with PwC

PwC is already helping clients create stronger customer connections with Agentforce. Deploying AI agents across sales and service journeys helps lead to faster resolutions and more relevant responses, which drive better outcomes.

Embracing AI isn’t just an option — it’s a critical step in evolving the sales function to be more effective and efficient. Leading sales organizations are exploring:

  • a customer-facing sales agent that can be embedded in company and business line-specific web pages and assists with product selection, shares product information, and gathers customer and opportunity-specific data.
  • an agent that recognizes a customer based on prior interactions and makes dynamic product recommendations using historical and customer-provided data.
  • a marketing agent that passes marketing-qualified leads to a sales representative, including all collected data, marketing interaction data and recommended products.
  • a sales coach agent, who can then guide the sales rep with the next best actions to close the deal.

Siloed service channels result in disjointed experiences and a lack of trust in brand value. With Agentforce, there are opportunities to deploy AI agents that:

  • use natural language to ask questions and receive synthesized answers from Agentforce Service Agent.
  • boost accuracy with specific answers to customer questions from knowledge articles contextualized with CRM data, including ability to rate and intelligently maintain content.
  • provide incremental training support by leveraging built-in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
  • integrate experiences in the Agent Desktop.
  • check on system status and alert internal teams of system downtime to quickly create new incident reports.
  • monitor and enable updates to existing cases.

When sales and service are aligned and interconnected, organizations can transform service touchpoints into powerful opportunities for driving revenue and building brand loyalty by delivering contextual, personalized offers at the right moment. Instead of viewing each customer interaction as an isolated transaction, we use real-time data and AI to understand the specific needs and preferences of each individual. Whether a customer is contacting support, visiting a store, or engaging online, every touchpoint becomes a moment to offer tailored solutions that solve problems and create value, forge stronger bonds of loyalty, enhance engagement, and drive revenue.

The above examples are only some of the solutions we help our clients deploy. With deep experience in AI implementation and industry-specific knowledge, PwC is well-positioned to guide you through the process of activating AI agents to build on your success. Our extensive experience across diverse sectors enables us to identify the most impactful opportunities for AI, tailoring solutions to your specific needs. PwC’s proven approach helps make sure that AI agents are not only deployed efficiently, but also aligned with your broader business strategy, increasing ROI and driving measurable results.

Open and extensible, Agentforce allows for smooth interaction between agents built on the platform and external agents and applications. PwC can help enable this interconnectivity across different channels and platforms while integration with Salesforce Data Cloud allows agents to use real-time data for better and faster decision-making.

“AI is clearly reshaping sales and service strategies to stay relevant in a digital-first world. For business leaders, embracing AI agents is essential to building more effective and efficient approaches to supporting employees and customers wherever they are.”

Reggie Walker, Global Salesforce Alliance Leader, PwC US

AI agents aren’t just upgrades — they’re transformative forces that will redefine what’s possible. They enable organizations to go from imagining what’s possible to realizing a future of higher sales performance, streamlined operations and unmatched customer satisfaction, all driven by the power of AI.

Connect with PwC to learn about a 5-week AI Activation Path for Agentforce, where a team will:
  • complete a diagnostic and value assessment workshop.
  • prioritize a high-impact use case from PwC’s library and define desired outcomes.
  • collaborate on an implementation plan to accelerate launch of first use case.

Learn more about PwC's AI Activation Path for Agentforce.

Contact us

Deepa Iyer

Deepa Iyer

Principal, Salesforce Practice, PwC US

Timothy Watt

Timothy Watt

Principal, Salesforce Practice, PwC US

Sindhu Zachariah

Sindhu Zachariah

Principal, Salesforce Practice, PwC US

Angela Lester

Angela Lester

Principal, PwC Design and Innovation, PwC US

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