AI Search
Salesforce has announced a set of new Agentforce features for retailers, with a focus on shared context across marketing, eCommerce and customer service interactions.
The company positioned the release as a response to what it described as fragmented AI agent deployments across different functions in a business. Salesforce said companies often roll out agents in separate systems, which can produce disconnected customer experiences when each agent draws on different datasets and workflows.
Salesforce said the new release sits within Agentforce 360, which it described as a platform approach that shares context across sales, commerce, marketing and service. The company framed this as an alternative to building custom integration layers across systems.
Retail features
Salesforce outlined three product updates aimed at retail use cases across marketing, onsite shopping and service.
The first is two-way conversational email. Salesforce said this turns marketing emails into an interactive channel. Customers can reply with questions and receive AI-generated responses. The company said it uses the same underlying agent logic as the retailer's website experience.
The second is contextual search. Salesforce said the product focuses on natural language queries and shopper intent. It said the same search logic informs both the search bar and the guided shopping agent experience.
The third update covers guided shopping agents. Salesforce said the guided shopping experience can proactively offer navigation and search prompts during a shopping session. It said agents can respond with product information, inventory status and shipping calculations during the conversation. Salesforce said customers can complete purchases within a single conversation.
Shared context
Salesforce said organisations face a "context problem" as AI agents become more common across commerce and marketing operations. The company said agent deployments often sit inside separate functional tools. It said this creates a situation where each agent can perform its own task but cannot take account of the full customer journey.
Salesforce used examples of conflicting messages in promotions, storefront recommendations and service responses. It said these issues can occur even when each agent acts as designed. The company linked the problem to a lack of shared context across systems.
Salesforce said companies often attempt to address the issue by building custom integration layers. It described these projects as increasingly complex as APIs and data pipelines grow. It said governance and permissions also become harder to manage as more agents and workflows connect across systems.
Salesforce claimed Agentforce 360 provides context sharing at a platform level. It said this includes a unified model for data and metadata and continuously updated context. It also said the platform approach allows shared reasoning and decision logic across agents.
Messaging channels
Salesforce said the release includes two-way messaging across multiple channels. It listed SMS, WhatsApp and email as supported channels. It framed the approach as continuous conversations that can move between inbox, storefront and service interactions.
The company said shared context supports consistent handling of trust settings, permissions and governance across interactions. It also said campaign intent can flow into guided shopping and service interactions within the same conversation.
Market claims
Salesforce also cited metrics about retailer adoption of AI agents during the most recent holiday shopping period. The company said retailers' agents "contributed to sales growth" during the season and said companies that deployed AI agents saw a "59% higher growth rate", with "a 6.2% YoY sales increase" on average.
It also said shoppers increased their use of retailers' AI and agents for customer service by 126% during the holiday rush compared with the prior two months.
Availability
Salesforce said Agentforce Commerce Guided Shopping, Contextual Search in open beta, Two-Way SMS and Two-Way WhatsApp are available now. It said Two-Way Email and Marketing and Commerce Connected Journeys will be available in February.
