The Picklist ☕️ Salesforce Career Program Uncertainty, Gemini & Agentforce Alliance, and an AI Ultimatum
Every Monday, we’ll be delivering our top headlines – highlights from the previous week for you to enjoy with a cup of coffee! ☕️
What Happened to Salesforce’s Biggest Career Programs?
Salesforce Well-Architected has been discontinued. Salesforce Military is now under new ownership. What does the future look like for some of Salesforce's biggest career programs and communities?
Some of Salesforce’s biggest career programs have been making waves in the ecosystem lately, and not necessarily for the right reasons. Professionals have been left feeling confused about the status of some of these programs, with a lack of communication from the mothership being cited as a predominant reason.
Here’s what you need to know:
Google Wins Salesforce Cloud Deal to ‘Bring Gemini to Agentforce’
Two mighty industry forces come together as Salesforce and Google announced a major expansion of their strategic partnership with further collaboration on AI products in a bid to “bring Gemini to Agentforce”.
According to Salesforce, the enhanced partnership aims to offer "essential flexibility," enabling customers to create customized AI solutions that align with their unique requirements rather than being restricted to a single model provider.
The deal also perhaps goes some way to explaining Marc Benioff’s singing praise for Google’s Gemini, while still taking shots at rival Microsoft’s own Copilot AI.
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AI in Salesforce: Evolve or Be Replaced
If you’ve not yet joined the AI race or revolution, then there’s a real risk you could easily fall behind. These are sentiments that Copado’s CEO Ted Elliot, firmly agrees with, saying: “either get on with it and participate, or start digging your own grave.”
We’ve seen the reality of this play before our eyes: mass layoffs have taken place in a number of tech companies over the last couple of years, with AI being cited as one of the reasons. Salesforce has unfortunately not been immune to this trend.
The key to standing out and making sure that you or your job role doesn’t get replaced or reshaped is all in changing the way we work rather than replacing all work. The companies and professionals who choose to harness these new capabilities will be the ones who stand out.
No More Junior Salesforce Developers? How AI Will Impact the Job Market
So we’ve just spoken about AI replacing the workforce. But how accurate is this statement to our current time, and how quickly could we see changes?
Well, AI is projected to disrupt entry-level and mid-tier job roles in tech, reducing on-ramp opportunities for career advancement. Veteran industry analysts like Vernon Keenan warn that the rise of virtual employees could erode traditional job structures, affecting economic mobility and skill development.
This comes at a time when uncertainty is at an all-time high, as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff indicated a shift away from hiring software engineers due to AI-driven productivity gains, focusing instead on expanding the sales team.
Senior Salesforce developers see AI as a double-edged sword, potentially replacing some human roles but also enabling more rapid code generation and project completion. However, the impact of AI on job roles raises concerns about the loss of mentorship and the practical experience necessary for professional development in technology.
Salesforce Stock Down 5%: "Modest" Agentforce Contribution and Weak Outlook
Salesforce has released its Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 results, and its stock dropped by more than 5% in extended trading.
The cloud giant reported a revenue of $10BN – a year-on-year increase of 8% – with Marc Benioff saying that the company had had an “incredible” quarter and year, with strong performances across every key metric, including the highest cash flow in Salesforce’s history.
Although Salesforce is eager to highlight its successes, its projected revenue for 2026 did not meet Wall Street's expectations, leading to a roughly 5% decline in its shares during after-hours trading. Its Q4 revenue was lower than a consensus estimate of $10.04BN.
The cloud giant’s latest figures are not awful by any means, but it goes to show how even if you have a strong flagship product like Agentforce, unless you can prove what it can do for longevity purposes, investors and stakeholders might not be convinced.
Very helpful 💯