Salesforce Platform Admin Exam Updated for 2026: More Agentforce, Less Configuration
The Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator exam is being updated – with ‘Agentforce AI’ emerging as a topic and ‘Data & Analytics’ now the most heavily weighted section.
The exam will be refreshed on December 15, 2025, to align with the Salesforce Summer ’25 release. Here’s what the new exam will look like.
Certified Platform Administrator Exam: What’s New?
There are two certifications within the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator program. This remains the case with the updates. The two certifications are:
- The Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator credential, focusing on the features and functionality used to maintain a Salesforce implementation.
- The Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator II credential – for the Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator who has mastered Salesforce configuration maintenance, can demonstrate an understanding of administration best practices, and can use the advanced features and functionality to solve a variety of business problems.
After December 15, the Certified Platform Administrator exam will be set up with the weightings below.
New weightings:
- Configuration & Setup : 15%
- Object Manager & Lightning App Builder: 15%
- Sales & Marketing Applications: 10%
- Service & Support Applications: 10%
- Productivity & Collaboration: 10%
- Data & Analytics Management: 17%
- Automation: 15%
- Agentforce AI: 8%
Ecosystem veterans will note that ‘Agentforce AI’ makes its debut as a new exam topic. This will likely not come as a surprise to many, what with Salesforce taking any possible opportunity to promote Agentforce – and AI becoming such a crucial part of Salesforce’s future plans.
Indeed, in the r/salesforce subreddit post discussing the change, one user commented: “Genuinely surprised it’s only 8% Agentforce weighing.”
Let’s look at how the exam used to be structured to see what changes Salesforce has made.
Old weightings:
- Configuration & Setup: 20%
- Object Manager & Lightning App Builder: 20%
- Workflow/Process Automation: 16%
- Data & Analytics Management: 14%
- Sales & Marketing Applications: 12%
- Service and Support Applications: 11%
- Productivity & Collaboration: 7%
The newer version represents an interesting focus shift for the Salesforce Administrator.
Both Configuration & Setup and Object Manager & Lightning App Builder went from a 20% weighting down to 15%.
Salesforce professionals might also be unsurprised with Data & Analytics Management taking up the largest part (though still a long way from a majority) of the exam at 17% – up from 14% in the older weightings. Salesforce says it consistently, and it’s true – without proper data management, your AI will not achieve its potential.
Automation remains relatively steady, going from 16% to 15%, while Sales & Marketing Applications takes a dip, from 12% to 10%.
Productivity & Collaboration rises from 7% to 10%.
Why the Changes?
There seems to be a fairly obvious conclusion to draw here about the extra weighting of Agentforce and Data & Analytics. AI and data have been at the forefront of Salesforce’s efforts recently, and as Marc Benioff himself once put it: “Everything needs to become about Agentforce at Salesforce – this is the only thing that really matters today.”
Indeed, this change is indicative that AI skills are becoming a formal part of a Salesforce Admin’s training, and there will come a point where they are no longer simply a way to stand out on your resumé – but a necessary prerequisite.
Its weighting is modest (for now), but the message is clear: get on board the AI train, or be left behind.
Secondly, Data & Analytics becoming the most important topic of the exam reinforces Salesforce’s message that sloppy data leads to suboptimal AI performance.
The pie has not increased in size – merely in the way it is divided – and so other elements of the admin role are arguably becoming less important.
Traditional configuration skills seem to matter less, with Configuration & Setup and Object Manager & Lightning App Builder dropping down a hefty 5% each. They are still essential, core components of the certification, but it could be argued that they are no longer the primary barrier to mastering the platform.
Final Thoughts
The role of the admin is constantly changing, and it’s interesting to see which way the wind is blowing – and from Salesforce itself, no less.
With more of an emphasis on AI and data – and less of an emphasis on those traditional configuration skills – if we continue at this rate, the role of Salesforce admin might be unrecognizable in just a few years’ time.
