Dreamforce 2025 takeaways

Michael Couch

VP, Technology Strategy & Transformation

October 20, 2025

This year’s Dreamforce delivered one unified message: the "agentic enterprise" is no longer theoretical. It is becoming real that AI agents are finally transitioning from speculative buzzword software features, towards foundational infrastructure in how our clients think about their operations and experiences end-to-end.

Here are some of the key takeaways that highlight how this shift is unfolding across industries:

Five Critical Trends

1. The Agentic Divide is Accelerating

Organizations with clean data architectures, ambitious leaders who are empowered to take bets, and strong governance frameworks, will scale AI successfully. Those without these foundations will face increasing competitive disadvantage. The middle ground is disappearing. It was interesting at the roundtables to hear that it’s usually sales, followed closely by marketing, that are the main provocateurs in the org pushing their business partners forward. Sales & field get immediate ops gains that hit the bottom line.

2. Salesforce Is Re-Writing their Stack

This represents a platform transformation, not a product extension. Agentforce will be allegedly embedded across all Salesforce products by 2026. Clients will increasingly expect native AI capabilities rather than third-party integrations which is no surprise. This feels more tangible than their Einstein experiments, the business tech is finally catching up with consumer tech. There was an interesting chat with Michael Dell about how now is the time to critically re-think your org + ops in this light and focus on ‘building your competitor’ with the latest available capabilities. It’s never been this feasible & faster before for challengers to spin up agentic first orgs, so get ahead of it.

3. Chat Collaboration Apps Emerge as the Winning Interface Layer

AI tools that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows drive adoption; those requiring dedicated dashboards and separate apps with MFA logins face user resistance. Slack and similar chat-based interfaces may succeed where traditional BI platforms have struggled with adoption. It’s conversational by design, in your pocket, on your laptop and fundamental to how you communicate the work with your colleagues – while they did show some awkward copy/pastes into their GPT from slack to make it work optimally, it will get much better.

4. Labor Transformation Timeline: 2–5 Years

Creative and operational roles are confidently shifting from execution to oversight, refinement, and strategic direction, agencies that proactively prepare for this transition will maintain differentiation; those that don't risk commoditization. These conversations are still rooted in augmenting our talent, removing the mundane work, and chasing a narrative of enabling our resources to be the best version of themselves and maximize their impact. From a creative excellence POV, they did not address the reality in marketing that AI Slop is already systemic, and we must find operating models where the magic of creative expression can cut through effectively, and we must nurture our agency creators.

5. Brand Authenticity Becomes the Defensible Value Proposition

While technical AI capabilities are becoming democratized, encoding authentic brand voice, values, and identity into AI systems remains unsolved. Agencies that develop this capability will secure a sustainable competitive advantage. Although this may be technically feasible to implement piecemeal with the new Salesforce products, they did not recognize this critical factor in the agentic future. Turning Insight Into Action

Reflecting on my Dreamforce experience, one thing is clear: Salesforce is pursuing a governance-first, human-AI collaborative model for enterprise adoption, and the strategic logic is sound. Across roundtable discussions, I heard again and again that data discipline is now the critical first step. Organizations are bringing data, compliance, and legal teams into the conversation earlier, forging stronger internal partnerships to unlock responsible and effective AI usage.

For marketers, these shifts signal a new mandate:

AI is now foundational, not optional. Clients will expect AI woven into every aspect of service—not as a premium extra, but as the standard.

Our roles are evolving. Marketers must move from being primary creators to becoming oversight specialists, brand guardians, and integration architects.

Trust will define premium positioning. The brands that invest in AI to protect reputation, reinforce authentic identity, and deliver reliable outcomes will set themselves apart.

The organizations that act thoughtfully and early will define the next era of marketing.