SAN FRANCISCO — Salesforce's flagship AI agent platform, Agentforce, is struggling to convince customers of its value, according to a KeyBanc Capital Markets report that led the investment bank to downgrade the stock to Sector Weight on July 9.
KeyBanc managing director for software equity research Jackson Ader questioned the platform's ability to drive meaningful revenue. "When is Agentforce going to… materially accelerate the overall growth rate of the business rather than, you know, showing some nice KPI metrics?" Ader said.
The report, co-authored by Ader and three other analysts, said customer checks and conversations have not been strong and that disclosed numbers do not signal building momentum for Agentforce.
Customer feedback consistently surfaced two problems. Many enterprises say their data is not organized enough to support meaningful AI work. Customers also view Agentforce as not yet a mature product.
Partners working with Salesforce are only beginning to convert Agentforce proof-of-concept engagements into pipeline deals. The KeyBanc CIO survey found more chief information officers expect to reduce their IT budget allocation to Salesforce over the next 12 months than increase it.
The report also found that a majority of customers are unwilling to pay for new AI capabilities through their CRM provider, even as Salesforce implements aggressive price increases.
Salesforce disputes the assessment. A company spokesperson said Agentforce is the fastest-growing product in Salesforce history and cited customers including Engine, Falabella and AAA going live with the platform in weeks. The company said its focus is on helping customers move faster through forward-deployed engineers and ready-to-use agents. Salesforce's broader product vision positions Agentforce as a tool that pulls data from its systems into a conversational interface, supporting what the company calls headless CRM.
Despite these challenges, KeyBanc said Salesforce retains a commanding position in the overall CRM market. That dominance has not protected its stock. Salesforce shares have fallen more than 50 percent from their December 2024 peak, erasing over $200 billion in market value.
In January, Gartner warned Salesforce users that capped enterprise agreements for its AI and data platforms might not be available at renewal, making cost forecasting difficult for customers. Salesforce EVP of corporate strategy Bill Patterson disputed the warning at the time. "The claim that we are moving away from capped agreements is inaccurate," Patterson said.
