Salesforce and IBM join forces to develop AI agents for enterprise software

Salesforce and IBM are teaming up to create AI-powered agents that could reshape how businesses handle sales, customer service and other core operations. The partnership combines IBM's watsonx platform with Salesforce's Agentforce to develop autonomous agents capable of performing complex tasks without human intervention.

The collaboration hinges on integrating data from various sources, including IBM Z mainframes and Db2 databases, with Salesforce's Data Cloud. This integration is crucial, given that over 70% of global transactions by value run on IBM Z systems.

"These agents are just the final step," said Nick Otto, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships at IBM. "It all starts with our upstream collaboration on data-connecting watsonx.data with Salesforce Data Cloud. This foundation is what makes our AI agents truly powerful."

Data integration fuels AI agents

The partnership also plans to incorporate AI agents into Slack, Salesforce's workplace communication platform. Otto noted, "I think Slack will certainly be one of those vehicles for interaction… All of our different agents have come to life through Slack, which I think is just the medium that people get used to communicating in."

Anna Gutowska, an IBM AI Advocate, explains the impact of AI agents on routine business tasks: "Using AI agents means that human effort can be dedicated to more nuanced tasks with highly impactful business results rather than routine tasks." She adds, "Regardless of the task being executed, it is considered best practice to provide occasional human feedback and supervision."

Gutowska highlights AI agents' customization advantages: "AI agents can be developed to accommodate varying levels of task complexity. The tool calling that AI agents use on the backend can include tools that are already existing enterprise systems."

Related: Learn how to create LangChain AI Agent in Python using watsonx in this tutorial.

AI agents set to transform industries

The partnership between Salesforce and IBM reflects a growing trend in the tech industry: creating marketplaces for AI agents. According to IBM Distinguished Engineer Chris Hay, we can expect to see AI agents becoming ubiquitous. The agents will often work together in teams, and "AI agents will be everywhere," Hay said recently on IBM's Mixture of Experts podcast.

He envisions a future where specialized agents can be acquired for various tasks, similar to how freelance services are offered on platforms like Fiverr. "I think we're heading towards a world of agent marketplaces. So you're going to go, and you're going to have an agent that's good at translating into a native language. You're going to have an agent that will be good at performing a particular task, an agent that can do benefit calculations," Hay explained.

Gutowska elaborates on the role of AI agents in enhancing productivity: "AI agents can automate complex tasks that would otherwise require human resources, leading to greater productivity and efficiency. This translates to goals being reached inexpensively, rapidly and at scale."

Some companies are already exploring the possibilities. MOL Group, a global oil and gas company, is looking into how these AI agents could transform their service stations into "preferred journey stops" with personalized services. István Mag, Head of Digital Factory at MOL Group, anticipates that Agentforce will help deliver highly personalized services through the innovative use of AI.

Hay predicts that the success of these AI initiatives will depend on data quality and accessibility. "Who are the companies that are going to be truly at the forefront?" he noted. "It's going to be the people who have the better data, the faster agents, the cheaper agents-and they're going to dominate that."