Why Is Agentforce Now Free for SMBs?
Salesforce has announced it will bring Agentforce capabilities to its SMB-specific editions of its CRM, including its no-cost package for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
The company is introducing AI and agentic functionality into Salesforce Suites – also known as Free Suite, Starter Suite, and Pro Suite. But beyond the typical reasons of freeing up time for SMB leaders and driving customer success, why is Salesforce doing this?
Agentforce Adoption as a ‘SaaSpocalypse’ Antidote
Salesforce has had a tough year. CRM stock is down 30%, and the company has been battling narratives of the so-called ‘SaaSpocalypse’ – where AI tools are supposedly taking over the roles that traditional software products have handled for decades.
Major markers of a company’s health, such as revenue, are obviously important, but the Agentforce adoption metrics are where the real results lie.
In the latest Q4 figures, Salesforce revealed that it had closed 29,000 Agentforce deals, up 50% quarter-over-quarter (Q/Q), and Agentforce ARR reached $800M.
Salesforce has a peculiar relationship with the ‘SaaSpocalypse’ narrative, because:
- The company has gone ‘all in’ on AI with Agentforce, so Salesforce has a vested interest in advancing arguments that AI is a powerful, essential tool for businesses delivering a clear ROI, but;
- Salesforce is the archetypal software-as-a-service business model. Yes, it’s now an artificial intelligence provider, but if AI really is killing SaaS, this would be a critical blow for Salesforce’s business model, even if it does have its own AI solutions.
So, Salesforce, the AI vendor, wants the world to believe that AI is the future and is going to revolutionize the world of work as companies become ‘Agentic Enterprises’.
But, Salesforce, the CRM vendor, needs you to know that SaaS isn’t going anywhere, and AI isn’t actually going to disrupt businesses that provide systems of record radically – and these theories of a ‘SaaSpocalypse’ are overblown hype.
Whatever the truth may be, Salesforce needs to show that it’s spreading Agentforce far and wide. If investors believe the ‘SaaSpocalypse’ narratives, then Salesforce leaning into a new AI-first business model where Agentforce becomes its flagship product might convince them that the SaaS ship isn’t sinking – it’s just changing course.
But even those who firmly believe that SaaS is here to stay still want to see meaningful results from something that Salesforce has poured so much time, effort, and resources into for more than a year.
All of this is to say: investors want to see Agentforce figures going up. Adoption, usage, revenue – the figures need to keep rising, and the flywheel needs to spin as fast as it can.
More customers using Agentforce – due to lower barriers to entry, like cost – means that those adoption and usage figures rise, which means other customers might be more likely to use Agentforce due to fear of missing out, which means better metrics will be revealed in Salesforce’s quarterly results, and the stock price will ultimately go up.
Competing With Rivals
Salesforce Free Suite is a free tier that offers sales, service, marketing, and collaboration tools. It can be used indefinitely, as long as users keep logging into it.
For marketing, users get an email-marketing campaign tool with a monthly allowance of 100 emails, along with other campaign tools like templates.
Free Suite users also get a connected Slack workspace, which lets up to two people communicate and connect activity from the CRM into Slack channels.
It also has a built-in integration with Gmail and Google Calendar.
Offering ‘freemium’ products where curious customers can try out some functionality before fully committing is nothing new. But, even in its current position as the uncontested leader in the CRM space, Salesforce can’t afford to be complacent and rely on its stellar reputation alone.
With free-first CRMs like HubSpot and Zoho jostling for a place in the market, Salesforce can’t afford (metaphorically, of course) to have the SMBs of today – which could turn into the Fortune 100 companies of tomorrow – building their businesses on newer, cheaper, rival systems.
If rivals – even smaller rivals, who don’t even come close to matching Salesforce’s size – are offering free agentic solutions for SMBs, Salesforce can’t be complacent.
The Salesforce Perspective
We spoke to Eddie Cliff, VP & GM of SMB & Growth Products at Salesforce, about the changes, and he outlined Salesforce’s view that adding Agentforce to the Free, Starter, and Pro suites was a significant priority, intended to democratize its power and allow smaller, newer customers to get started quickly.
No setup is required, with activation taking place through a single click, where users accept the use of generative AI, and the features are directly embedded into workflows – even in Free Suite, Eddie told us.
We asked about the new value proposition of Pro Suite, now that some AI functionality is available in lower tiers. Eddie told us: “The traditional path is from Free to Starter to Pro suite, and it’s a natural graduation path for customers to take. It’s a seamless upgrade in every scenario.
“Even if you skip those steps, all of your data, all of your configuration comes along with you; you only unlock more power. There’s no setup or re-implementation – any of that. That’s been a huge investment.”
Eddie Cliff stressed that new customers are able to try Agentforce for free in Free Suite without a credit card, and the features are also available in trials of Starter and Pro Suite. This helps Salesforce in another crucial way: gathering feedback from partners and customers helps the company shape future innovation and development for capabilities.
He added: “I think the really exciting thing for me here is that new customers can try Agentforce for free. They can come test this out; they can sign up for free, they can keep that for as long as they’d like. But these are also available in trials of Starter and Pro suite as well.
“So for anybody that’s interested, come try it for free. No credit card required. You can get in and start using it immediately. And we would love the feedback and love to continue the dialogue; it’s super helpful for us in shaping where we’re going next.”
Final Thoughts
Being able to try Agentforce out in Salesforce’s Free Suite makes strategic sense for the company at this time, when worries about a ‘SaaSpocalypse’ are still around, and competitors offer similar products.
Eddie’s point about gathering extra feedback through the expansion checks out too – the more people using Agentforce, the more data Salesforce gets about what is and is not working, so the better Agentforce becomes.
