Aiming to boost the adoption of artificial intelligence products by enterprise customers, Salesforce will lean into the 2021 acquisition of Slack Technologies at its Dreamforce conference this week. Salesforce stock has retreated 27% in 2025 despite its push into "agentic" AI.
Salesforce on Monday announced that it will integrate Slack's work collaboration tools and voice technologies into a new Agentforce 360 platform. Further, Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021 but critics say the company overpaid and has garnered limited synergies from the deal.
Salesforce aimed to use Slack's tools as a front-end interface for enterprise workflows. With the new Agentforce 360 platform, Salesforce customers will be able to use a conversational user interface to build and deploy AI agents. For investors, the strategy could unlock more value from the Slack acquisition.
On the stock market today, Salesforce stock climbed 1.5% to 245.29 in morning trading.
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Many software companies are focused on helping companies modernize their proprietary data to customize artificial intelligence applications. They're also developing autonomous, goal-driven "AI agents."
The new Agentforce 360 platform improves upon the pre-existing Customer 360 platform, which unifies all Salesforce apps and company data. Users will be able to embed conversational AI agents into workflow for sales, marketing, commerce, customer support and more. With the move, Salesforce could reposition Slack from a messaging app to a control hub for enterprise AI automation.
In addition, new Slackbots will act as a personal AI companion, the software maker says.
Salesforce faces stiff competition from Microsoft Teams, also a workplace collaboration platform. OpenAI, a leading developer of AI systems, also has released new tools for companies to build apps within ChatGPT. OpenAI also has released coding tools for companies to write their own software.
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The Dreamforce conference runs from Oct. 14 to Oct. 16 in San Francisco. Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff is slated to deliver a keynote address on Tuesday.
Salesforce hosts an investor day on Wednesday. At the event, the software maker is expected to update its financial outlook and projected revenue from AI products.
Heading into the Dreamforce conference, Wall Street analysts expected an upbeat presentation by Salesforce amid struggles to monetize AI products.
"We believe one of the focus areas for the company will be showcasing additional enterprise customers adopting Agentforce and examples of customers moving past Agentforce pilots and proof-of-concepts to broader enterprise adoption and documented business value," said Truist analyst Terry Tillman in a report.
"We believe an expanded roster of customers adopting Agentforce will be a main keynote highlight along with partner traction such as Accenture."
Salesforce, ServiceNow On Collision Course?
Meanwhile, competition is heating up between Salesforce and ServiceNow.
Salesforce on Oct. 9 announced the launch of Agentforce IT Service, an agentic IT service desk, and the acquisition of Apromore, a process intelligence vendor. Salesforce sees an opportunity to embed an ITSM tool within Slack, its workplace collaboration platform.
"The Agentforce IT Serviceand Apromore acquisition are both next steps in the growing overlap between ServiceNow andSalesforce," said Jefferies analyst Samad Samana in a report.
ServiceNow's software tracks and manages services provided by information-technology departments. ServiceNow recently has pushed into "front office" software (customer service, field service and supply chain management).
Meanwhile, Salesforce's initial Agentforce IT Service customers include UNESCO and Piedmont Healthcare.
Will Informatica Acquisition Pay Off?
In a move to boost its artificial intelligence strategy, Salesforce recently agreed to buy data-management software maker Informatica in an all-cash deal valued at $8 billion.
Further, Salesforce stock is among AI stocks to watch.
Meanwhile, CRM stock owns a sub-par Composite Rating of 67 out of a best-possible 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup.
Salesforce stock holds an Accumulation/Distribution Rating of C+. That rating analyzes price and volume changes in a stock over the past 13 weeks of trading. A+ signifies heavy institutional buying; E means heavy selling. Think of a C grade as neutral.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on X, formerly Twitter, @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing and cloud computing.
