Vivek Ravisankar

“Salesforce is Exitforce.” “Marc is getting greedy.” That’s what the comment sections say. And honestly? I get where it's coming from. → New AI features are gated. → Pricing has gone up. → The product suite keeps getting more complex. But let’s zoom out for a second. Salesforce isn't exiting. It's evolving. From a CRM to a full-scale enterprise platform. From managing leads to powering entire industries. From automation… to autonomous. And growth? That’s not greed. That’s strategy. Because when you serve 150,000+ customers, "staying the same" isn’t an option. You either innovate — or you disappear. So yes, there are valid concerns. But there’s also massive opportunity. → For consultants building niche solutions. → For partners scaling smarter workflows. → For founders riding the ecosystem wave. The ones who win? They don’t just adopt Salesforce. They adapt with Salesforce. Because it’s not just software. It’s a strategy layer. So the real question isn’t: "Is Salesforce becoming Exitforce?" It’s: "Are you still playing the old game… while the rules have changed?" At Vedsphere, we help businesses not just implement Salesforce — but optimize it for this new era of AI, automation, and scale. → Streamlined architecture → Smarter flows → Real business outcomes Let’s make Salesforce your edge — not your expense. DM to explore how we do it.

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Salesforce just replaced 4,000 support jobs with AI. CEO Marc Benioff called it “not dystopian, just reality.” 50% of customer support cases are now handled by Agentforce AI. Headcount went from 9,000 → 5,000. On paper, it’s efficiency. For the humans, it’s something else entirely. Because these weren’t “replaceable” people. They were mid-level professionals, many with years of experience. And overnight, the ladder they were standing on was cut shorter. This is the new blueprint: → AI doesn’t just cut costs. → It replaces functions. → And the first functions to go? Customer support, sales, repetitive mid-skill roles. When I read this, I thought about my own early career. As an engineer at Twitter, junior tasks, bug fixes, feature pipelines, were training grounds. Now those are the first things machines take over. It’s exciting for companies. It’s terrifying for workers. The lesson? Job security today ≠ stability. Job security = adaptability. If you can’t direct AI, it will replace you. If you can, it will multiply your value. That’s why we built Jobright.ai. Because navigating this shift requires tools that: → Surface roles where humans still have an edge. → Tailor resumes for AI filters. → Connect you to insiders, so you don’t compete with 200 strangers. We can’t stop transitions like Salesforce. But we can help you adapt before the next one hits. #Jobright #OpentoWork #JobMarket #JobTrends

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Salesforce didn’t become a $300B giant by building everything in-house. It became a powerhouse by buying the future. Here’s the timeline of its boldest bets 👇 → 2011 – Radian6 ($326M): Listening to customers, at scale. → 2012 – Buddy Media ($689M): Social marketing goes mainstream. → 2013 – ExactTarget ($2.5B): The birth of Marketing Cloud. → 2016 – Demandware ($2.8B): Laying the foundation for Commerce Cloud. → 2016 – Quip ($750M): Documents meet collaboration. → 2016 – Krux ($800M): Data becomes the new oil. → 2018 – MuleSoft ($6.5B): The pipes that connect everything. → 2018 – Datorama ($800M): Marketing meets intelligence. → 2019 – Tableau ($15.7B): Analytics for everyone. → 2019 – ClickSoftware ($1.35B): Field service, redefined. → 2020 – Vlocity ($1.33B): Industry clouds, vertical by vertical. → 2020 – Slack ($27.7B): Collaboration becomes the front door to CRM. → 2024 – OwnBackup ($1.9B): Protecting enterprise data. → 2025 – Informatica ($8B): Data management for the AI era. From social listening to AI-ready data— Salesforce’s acquisitions show one thing: 👉 Every move was a step toward Customer 360. And with AI on the horizon… The next $10B deal might already be in sight. What do you think Salesforce will buy next?

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A well-funded enterprise SaaS client told me last quarter: “We don’t need MuleSoft. We’ve already wired most of it up with low-code.” Three months later, they called back in a panic. Customer data was syncing out of order  Order IDs were duplicated across systems  And the CTO was staring at a retry queue with no way to inspect the payloads    Low-code didn’t fail them because it was too simple.  It failed because it didn’t let them model what wasn’t simple. Low-code tools are excellent for: ✅ Prototyping  ✅ Internal tooling  ✅ Lightweight automations But when you're dealing with: ❌ Complex auth and token lifecycles  ❌ High-stakes sequencing (e.g., order-to-cash)  ❌ Policy-enforced governance (think HIPAA, PCI, SOC 2) Low-code becomes a black box.  And black boxes don't win in regulated, real-world integration.    That’s where MuleSoft comes in. 👉 Full visibility across API calls, retries, failures  👉 Deep observability into logs, policy outcomes, SLAs  👉 Support for hybrid, zero-trust, multi-cloud deployments You don’t just build faster, you build with structure, auditability, and scale in mind.    And when your customer experience depends on integration,  you can’t afford to guess what's happening underneath.  Disclosure: I’m the Founder & CEO of NexGen Architect. Today and tomorrow's leaders in MuleSoft, AI, and Salesforce solutions. If you need help integrating AI or connecting to a range of systems, we’d be happy to help. You can talk to us at: https://lnkd.in/ekztBSuY “Low-code is ideal for quick wins — but fails at scale when governance, auditability, and distributed orchestration are required.” — Forrester & Gartner, June 2025  MuleSoft Community #EnterpriseIntegration #APIGovernance #SaaSIntegration

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Is a "User-less" Salesforce org possible? For a small 2–5 person startup, an agent-driven CRM may not just be possible—it may be a necessity. I’m working with a startup on an AI-first Salesforce implementation, where every process is designed for agents—handling tasks end-to-end without traditional users. For early-stage companies with limited resources, this model is a game-changer: 🚀 Start on an enterprise-grade CRM that grows with you 💰 Pay for agent consumption (credits + outcomes), not idle licenses 🛠️ Redefine the Sys Admin role—less “user management,” more agent coaching & optimization An unexpected upside: in M&A, the health and automation maturity of a Salesforce org is often cited as contributing to higher valuations. In this world, the Agent Ops / Sys Admin role becomes highly strategic—closer to a Business Analyst or even a COO. These hybrid roles will only grow in demand as organizations lean more on agent-first operating models. #salesforce #crm #ai #agents #startups

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Salesforce Summer ’25 Release is here. And it’s not just a seasonal update. It’s a shift in how we build, automate, and scale. AI isn’t an accessory anymore. It’s the architecture. Here’s what stood out: → Agentforce 3.0 goes enterprise * Agents now come with full observability * Real-time monitoring, error recovery, fallback control * Prebuilt actions just got smarter — and safer → Canvas UI expands further * Modular, clean layouts * Built for context-first work, not click-first chaos * Finally: speed, clarity, and design in one place → Einstein Copilot gains workflow memory * It remembers what you did * It suggests what’s next * AI isn’t just chat — it’s execution-ready → Data Cloud integrates natively with Tableau * Real-time sync between data and insights * No more dashboard lag * From siloed data to real decisions But the most important upgrade? The mindset. Salesforce isn’t asking: “What can AI do?” It’s asking: “What should humans never have to do again?” At Creatique Technologies, we help you prep for what’s coming: → AI agents that actually understand your data → Canvas UI setups users love to use → Real-time analytics that drive action Ready to align with the future of Salesforce? Let’s talk.

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Distribution always wins, and here's another proof point: SFDC's AgentForce grew from 0 to $100M ARR in 8 months = faster than Lovable, Cursor, Wiz. It's great to see innovation from the incumbents, as well as the disruptors! While vibe coding apps are making headlines, Marc Benioff 'quietly' revealed: "AgentForce reached more than $100,000,000 in AOV. It's much faster than any product in our history, and we're not even fully deployed in all geographies, currencies, or languages." To put things in the perspective… SFDC has 150,000 customers AgentForce grew to $100M in 8 months It's 'only' adopted by 8,000 SFDC customers (5.3%) So, even if they just expand to SFDC's current customer base, AgentForce alone has a potential to be a ~$2B ARR product! ------- The takeaway? In the last 2 years, VCs bet (at least) $221.5M on AI SDRs alone. The broader category of AI Agents is obviously much bigger, with at least +150 solutions out there. A lot of them may be an objectively better product than AgentForce, but... The best product doesn’t always win. But a good product with great distribution? Almost always does.

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Whether you plan to get acquired someday or not, Salesforce’s acquisitions offer a hint at what to build.   Salesforce is on a "shopping spree." But what does it really buy?   → An advantage they can’t build fast enough themselves. A tech capability — and often, trust.   Acquirers can build trust. But it takes time. They’d rather buy it.   Same with Citrix. When they acquired our company, Grasshopper, it wasn’t for the telecom tech.   Citrix recognized that Grasshopper had built an exceptional system for reaching and acquiring entrepreneurs - exactly the early-stage audience Citrix couldn't access.   So if you’re a founder thinking about what to build,   Build a wedge into a customer they can’t reach. A system for trust they haven’t earned. A strategic gap they can’t afford to leave open.   That’s what gets acquired.   #merger #acquisition #b2b #founder #entrepreneurship

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You might be exposing your entire Salesforce database without realizing it. (Especially if your org is a bit… vintage.) Outbound Messages were Salesforce’s declarative way to integrate with external systems. A relic from the Workflow Rules era. And while the feature isn’t “dead,” it has been mostly forgotten. But here’s the problem: A single checkbox can turn this innocent feature into a full-on security breach. Why? Because many orgs use a System Admin user for these integrations. And if you check “Send Session ID”… That integration has the power to act as the admin. In other words, it can do anything in your org. ↳ Create/modify/delete records ↳ Read and export all your sensitive data ↳ Execute Apex code ↳ Change metadata ↳ Trigger additional integrations ↳ Even blocking you from logging in... No login required. No MFA. Just full admin access via a VALID and OFFICIAL feature. This isn’t theory... We've seen too many breaches lately, taking advantage of integrations. Hackers are entering through the back door. 🛑 Check your org. 🛑 Check your outbound messages. 🛑 And never send the session ID unless you absolutely know what you’re doing. I compiled an 11-step guide to audit your Salesforce security. It's in my profile's "Featured" section. Feel free to check it out! Are you still using Outbound Messages?

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AI > SaaS Salesforce beat earnings. Stock still dropped. Why? Because Wall Street sees through the AI hype. Salesforce announced 4,000 human jobs gone, replaced by “Agentforce.” BUT growth is stalling. Guidance disappointed. Core SaaS products are soft. And the AI halo for legacy SaaS? It’s fading. Here’s the real story: AI isn’t saving legacy SaaS ... it’s disrupting it. AI-native platforms aren’t augmenting software. They’re replacing it. This isn’t Salesforce story. It’s a warning shot for every legacy software vendor. The future isn’t SaaS + AI. It’s AI > SaaS.

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"𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭." ❤️ This is what a CPQ customer who we recently onboarded told us when we reacted fast to their "Billing" requirement. First, the ability to show billing schedule on a CPQ is an innovation in of itself which standalone CPQs simply cannot do. 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌 However, default billing schedule wasn't working in certain cases. Example: If a contract runs from Oct 15, 2024 – Oct 14, 2025, the default invoice date would be Oct 15, 2024. But if the end customer prefers invoices aligned to the calendar year, they are expecting to see the following: Oct 15, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 (prorated balance) Jan 1, 2025 – Oct 14, 2025 (remaining term) 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 Sales rep can now easily set the billing anchor date on the Quote and it shows the correct schedule. If you are using our billing functionality, you can get the right invoices as well. Voila! https://lnkd.in/gExkJtQF

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Benchmarks for Customer Support Rep Team Size Ratios Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently revealed that the company has used AI agents to cut around 4,000 customer support team staff. Indeed, Customer Support is another job family evolving quickly due to the new crop of Conversational AI Agents like Decagon. Today, let’s look at some benchmarks for how many Customer Support employees customers across the market employ today. Then, we can hypothesize how these benchmarks will change over the coming months and years. __________________ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝟮,𝟮𝟯𝟳 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗽: ✅ 1-99 Employees => A Median of 23 FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep ✅ 100-199 Employees => A Median of 37 FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep ✅ 200-499 Employees => A Median of 44 FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep ✅ 500-999 Employees => A Median of 50 FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep ✅ 1,000-2,999 Employees => A Median of 43 FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep ✅ 3,000+ Employees => A Median of 65 FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep __________________ 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: 1️⃣ As companies get larger, they tend to get more leverage out of each Customer Support Rep as shown by the increasing “FTEs-per-Customer-Support-Rep” benchmarks. 2️⃣ We will monitor these benchmarks to see how they change over time due to a variety of forces including AI tooling adoption as well as macro conditions. My personal prediction is that the benchmarks will concretely increase (so more leverage per Customer Support rep) due to the increasing adoption of Conversational AI tools.

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New Salesforce release means that a dozen different blogs are recapping the hundreds of changes, new features and updates. There's only a dozen different products, feature licenses, and license exclusions you have to navigate - simply to find out the answer to a simple question: what matters. Enter ChatGPT's Deep Research functionality (for the list of features) + ChatGPT's Canvas feature (for the eye-popping presentation). I used a simple prompt: I run a Salesforce <insert your edition> consisting of <Cloud Names>. Research authoritative blogs and sources and give me a comprehensive list of new features in the Winter '26 Release. For each feature explain how it can be used and provide what makes it so helpful or impactful. I got a multiple page report that was too dense to share with a business stakeholder. Then - I turned on ChatGPT's Canvas feature and said: Here are the features that are applicable that I'm interested in <insert the feature names>. Using HTML, React and CSS create a visual interactive dashboard that highlights the user impact. Ensure the styling and messaging pops. And here's what GPT-5 created. 11 key features (from my choosing), organized by impact, role and fully interactive. Instead of me describing these features in a Zoom call - or worse...fumbling through a live demo - I shared this with our business-facing team members. https://lnkd.in/gZNy4kZT

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Salesforce CPQ is dying. That's the sentiment I'm seeing across LinkedIn and industry forums. But here's what's really happening - businesses are struggling with user adoption challenges that lead to data gaps and revenue leakage. The real problems aren't with CPQ as a concept. They're with execution. Based on feedback from customers across different industries, These are the top 5 pain points that keep coming up: - Clunky UX means reps avoid using CPQ altogether, defeating the entire purpose - Slow Time-to-Market - 8-16 weeks just to launch new products or update pricing? That's a competitive killer - Migration & Entitlement Nightmares - Moving customers from old to new products while managing credits, rebates, and eligibility rules becomes impossibly complex - Approval Bottlenecks - Discount and deal desk slowdowns that kill sales momentum right when you need it most - System Disconnects - CPQ operating in isolation from Contracts, Billing, and ERP creates data chaos and manual workarounds These aren't just minor inconveniences They're business-critical issues that directly impact revenue and the productivity of the sales team. Here's the thing - AI is starting to address these specific pain points in ways traditional CPQ never could. That's exactly what Nishit "Nish" Rawat from Bluvium and I will be demonstrating next Tuesday, September 30th, at 12 PM PST. We're doing a live demo showing how AI can reimagine the entire CPQ experience - from intelligent product configuration to automated pricing optimization to seamless system integration. Are you seeing these adoption challenges in your organization? Join us to see how AI might be the solution you've been looking for. Registration link in the comments. #SalesforceCPQ #Salesforce #CanAIDoThis #GPTfy #Bluvium

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The competitive advantage for most software platforms is their respective app stores. The Salesforce app store has 5,446 apps! It's hard to quit an ecosystem. MCP is going to replace app stores both technically and commercially. Most enterprise SaaS platforms have robust app stores with integrations to payments vendors, CMSes, tax calculators, or any one of hundreds of other point products. No product can or should do it all. These integrations are all one-off point to point integrations, with the platform taking a cut of the point vendor's revenue for the privilege of being in the platform's app store. Platforms are the center of gravity presently - they're self-contained islands surrounded by full ecosystems in the form of an App Store. MCP is so revolutionary because each of these point vendors can offer up their data and functionality to AI in a way that's basically a self-contained app. MCP offers direct, clear guidance to AI on how to use the particular capability. It's like an API + readme.txt all in one, with no rev share. The ambiguity (as is often the case with APIs) is entirely removed. Point ChatGPT to Stripe's MCP and it'll work flawlessly in seconds, no integration or rev share required. Eventually, AI (OpenAI, Gemini, Perplexity, Anthropic, etc) becomes the platform, allowing users to easily mix & match capabilities from any vendor via MCP. Platform app stores are no longer necessary either technically or commercially. We move to a more best of breed ecosystem (again, the pendulum swings...) where each vendor is offering up its data and functionality up via MCP, and AI becomes the ultimate platform/head tying it all together. No more "platforms," each with their own app stores / ecosystems. At least this is my current working theory of how this all shakes out...

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As a Salesforce CTA and someone who has been in this ecosystem for 18 years now, I still believe that there's a lack of awareness around awareness and tools when it comes to Salesforce security. And if we have learned anything from this recent surge in Salesforce customer data breaches, we know that this gap is putting organizations at massive risk of data breaches. Recently I sat down with Ariella Imhoff at Salesforce Ben to share my favorite tools as a CTA and I hope that you all find these helpful. ✅ DevOps & Deployment Control: Gearset and Copado are critical for controlling deployment processes and also preventing security inconsistencies that poor DevOps practices can introduce. ✅ Data Protection: OwnBackup provides essential data backup and security beyond Salesforce’s standard safeguards. Varonis to easily manage Salesforce permissions to sensitive data, monitor activity, and fix critical misconfigurations to reduce risk and maintain compliance ✅ Metadata Management Champion: Elements.cloud for metadata oversight and providing a microscope into your org to understand permissions, profile usage, and hidden security risks that could expose your data. ✅ Real-Time Threat Protection: EzProtect for real-time, AI-powered virus scanning to detect and block cyber threats before they infiltrate your org. Biased because it's my company, but also sharing because most people miss this critical gap in Salesforce security. There are many more out there and I would always recommend doing your research, as I am speaking from my own experience. And if you evaluating tools as an Architect, I would always consider: 🤔 Does the solution provider use it themselves? Poor self-demonstration = red flag 🤔 Do they follow Salesforce best practices? Poor Salesforce knowledge = security risks 🤔 Does it align with your requirements? Always weigh “buy vs. build” Shoutout to the Low-Code Security Alliance that I am a founding member of and well-worth following on LinkedIn to learn more. Watch the full video here and thank you for having me, Ariella. https://lnkd.in/gDTXaEbm #Salesforce #DataProtection #CyberSecurity #SalesforceThreatProtection #TraiblazerCommunity

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