The Picklist ☕️ Dreamforce 2025 Call for Participation Open, Undervalued Architects, and More Salesforce vs. Microsoft
Every Monday, we’ll be delivering our top headlines – highlights from the previous week for you to enjoy with a cup of coffee!
Why Are Salesforce Technical Architects Being Undervalued in the Job Market?
Technical Architects have been the pinnacle of Salesforce roles since they were created, but like with many other roles in the ecosystem, they too have been facing a wave of change as the job market continues to shift.
So what’s happening? Well, according to our salary survey from last year, we concluded that TAs consistently rank as one of the highest-paid Salesforce roles globally, but it’s becoming more and more common for architects to struggle to find jobs that offer them what they’re worth.
Falling salaries have affected most of the ecosystem, but for TAs – who hold a multitude of responsibilities in every org they’re in – it indicates a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
Dreamforce 2025 Call for Participation is Now Open: All You Need to Know
This year’s event season is now in full swing, and it’s nearly time for the big one: Dreamforce.
Dreamforce’s Call for Participation is now open for 2025, inviting budding Salesforce Admins, Developers, Architects, and everyone in between to speak at the world’s biggest AI event. Here’s what you need to know:
A message from Salesforce
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Marc Benioff Warns of Microsoft “Playbook” After $663M Fine Over Slack Battle
If you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing feud between Salesforce and Microsoft, then you’ll know how cutthroat it has been at times. The latest development has emerged just this week, with Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff challenging Microsoft’s ethics, referencing a case from 2020 that saw the company under investigation for bundling Teams with Office 365 to edge out Slack.
In 2021, Salesforce acquired Slack for a mighty $27.7B, and although this was an acquisition for the books, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. In 2016, Microsoft strongly considered acquiring Slack but decided instead to develop their own platform, which would become Teams.
Microsoft bundled Teams with Office, giving it instant reach and quickly driving adoption – two million users shortly after launch, and eight million by 2018. This stunted Slack’s growth, prompting a 2020 complaint to the EU over anti-competitive bundling. In 2024, Microsoft was fined $663 million and forced to unbundle Teams.
Salesforce initially stayed quiet, as the complaint predated its Slack acquisition. But Marc Benioff recently spoke out, calling Microsoft’s tactics part of a familiar “playbook,” likening it to the Netscape saga – and warning similar behavior may surface in its dealings with OpenAI.
How Do Salesforce Flow Wait Elements Work? Use Cases, Examples, and Best Practices
Salesforce Flow’s Wait elements, introduced in Winter ’24, let you pause a flow based on time or specific conditions, replacing the older Pause element with more flexibility. There are three types: Wait for Conditions, Wait for Amount of Time, and Wait Until Date. These can be used in autolaunched flows, scheduled flows, and orchestrations.
They’re ideal for automating time-sensitive tasks, like delaying follow-up emails, waiting for a status field to change, or pausing until a renewal date. This makes processes like lead nurturing, onboarding, and contract management more streamlined and hands-off.
To get the most from Wait elements, plan for what happens when the pause ends, especially if conditions aren’t met. It’s also essential to monitor paused flows to avoid delays or hitting system limits. When used thoughtfully, Wait elements make your automations smarter, cleaner, and far more efficient.
Is CRM Dying or Evolving? How AI is Transforming the Industry
Is SaaS dead? Is CRM dying? Is AI overtaking everything, leaving the technologies we have built and mastered obsolete?
Arguments over whether both SaaS and CRM are dead have been around for years, but with the rise of AI, this discussion has also been catapulted into the limelight. Because AI might not be coming for our jobs just yet, but is it coming for our existing technology?
The answer is actually pretty simple: if a technology lets it, then AI will absolutely overtake. If a technology is able to adapt, evolve, and reinvent itself alongside AI, then the future could be even brighter for it.
Top 8 Salesforce Summer '25 Features for Developers
In case you didn’t hear: the Salesforce Summer ‘25 release is here!
This release is once again packed with exciting new developments and features for all Salesforce professionals alike, but for developers, this release might be one of the best ones yet.
In Summer ‘25, some of the new updates you can expect to see include:
Check out this video to dive into the new features.