AI promotion all hype? Salesforce accused of deceptive marketing, most AI features for major clients are fabricated

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There is a significant gap between the marketing hype of Salesforce’s flagship AI product Agentforce and its actual implementation. Many features showcased by leading clients are in fact simulated demos and have not been launched. This is intensifying market doubts about whether the software giant can maintain its position in the AI era.

According to Bloomberg’s Friday report, Salesforce’s promotional videos and conference demos have portrayed prominent clients such as Williams-Sonoma, Finnair Oyj, and the University of Chicago Medical Center as exemplary "agentic enterprises," but the core AI functions presented in these cases have yet to be put into actual use. For example, Williams-Sonoma’s AI voice customer service hotline has not connected to Agentforce so far, and Finnair’s official website clearly notes that related functions are "for future planning only."

This revelation comes at a particularly unfavorable time for Salesforce. The company’s stock price has dropped 21% in 2025, and this year has further declined by 30%, becoming a typical victim of the so-called "SaaSpocalypse" wave. CEO Marc Benioff defended this, saying that forward-looking marketing is a common practice in tech: "Every technology we’ve marketed ultimately delivered on its promise."

Flagship Clients "Take the Stage," Features Remain on PPT

Bloomberg’s investigation shows that multiple high-profile Salesforce promotional cases differ significantly from reality.

At the user conference in December 2024, Salesforce marketing executive Sanjna Parulekar demonstrated live on stage the Williams-Sonoma voice customer service system powered by Agentforce, showing a smooth experience where AI automatically identified customer identity and assisted with purchases. Yet about half a year later, this retailer’s phone customer service system still hasn’t connected to Agentforce, and its online chatbot can’t complete orders or modify them without human intervention; current main functions are limited to offering recipe suggestions and checking order status. CTO Sameer Hassan said their goal is to connect Agentforce before this year’s holiday shopping season.

Finnair is in a similar situation. The company appeared in a Salesforce video released last year, showing Agentforce automatically rebooking flights for passengers. However, Finnair’s website clearly states this feature is "only a future development plan." A spokesperson noted the obstacle is another software system "lacking agentic capabilities."

The University of Chicago Medical Center appeared in a Salesforce promotional video released in October 2025, showing patients using Agentforce to seamlessly refill prescriptions, book appointments, and even get parking advice. According to insiders, these features have not yet been launched due to technical faults and delays in internal compliance approval processes. The medical system pays Salesforce millions of dollars annually for software.

Benioff: Forward-Looking Marketing Is Industry Norm

Facing doubts, Benioff defended the company’s marketing strategy in an interview. He said Salesforce always clearly marks forward-looking content in its marketing: "I don’t want any customer to call me and say—‘I thought I bought this, but it doesn’t even exist.’"

Madhav Thattai, Executive Vice President in charge of Agentforce, attributed delays in implementation to clients’ own processes and compliance issues, not technological ones. "You’ll see customers start with simpler use cases, and as they develop and implement more complex scenarios, they’ll gradually reach the fully autonomous vision," he said.

DA Davidson & Co. analyst Gil Luria pointed out this problem is not unique to Salesforce. "Under AI delivery pressure, many companies are promising far more than they can actually deliver. Salesforce just shouts the loudest," he said.

Bloomberg also cited historical precedents, noting that hype in the tech industry is long-standing—Larry Ellison once called the first commercial version of his database product "Oracle 2" to avoid resistance to "first edition" products. Earlier this month, Apple settled a $250 million lawsuit over allegedly misleading ads for the "Apple Intelligence" features.

Agentforce Actual Implementation: Limited Capabilities, Success Cases Centered on Information Processing

Despite ongoing controversy, Agentforce has shown real value in some scenarios, mostly focused on relatively simple tasks such as information collection and distribution.

Appliance brand SharkNinja said after using Agentforce for automatic troubleshooting of product faults, the number of customer service calls dropped by 20% this year. European HR company Adecco Group AG uses Agentforce to process tens of thousands of initial written screening interviews. The small town of Kyle, Texas uses Agentforce to handle resident complaints (such as fixing potholes or removing graffiti), raising its annual Salesforce spending from about $150,000 to $300,000. PepsiCo said that after using Agentforce to assist with expanding small store business, its overall Salesforce spending increased by 10%.

However, software industry analyst Rebecca Wettemann pointed out that Agentforce currently struggles with more complex tasks, and the root cause is businesses’ concerns over AI autonomously performing high-value actions. "People worry AI might refund money in the middle of the night, or generate huge bills," she said.

Slowing Growth, Salesforce Bets on AI for Breakthrough

The marketing pressure around Agentforce reflects Salesforce’s deeper business challenges. The company’s annual revenue growth slowed from 25% in fiscal 2022 to 10% in the most recent fiscal year, and AI is seen as the core engine to revive growth.

Salesforce has signed 29,000 Agentforce contracts so far, with annual recurring revenue of $800 million. The company says some Agentforce client annual spending has at least doubled.

Strategically, Salesforce is quietly shifting direction. Benioff previously highlighted the convenience of Agentforce deployment, but recently the company acknowledged that "building agents is not easy." At a conference in April this year, several information sessions recommended that clients look for small and precise AI application scenarios. Meanwhile, Salesforce is offering clients free or heavily discounted tech support, and has strengthened data integration by acquiring Informatica for $8 billion—seen as a prerequisite for AI deployment. It is also linking salesperson compensation to actual Agentforce usage by clients, rather than just contract signing volume.

Whether these adjustments can convince Wall Street remains unknown. The market’s core concern is: Facing both emerging AI-native competitors and clients building their own tech teams, can traditional SaaS giants like Salesforce defend their turf—and the current gap between marketing and reality undoubtedly makes this question even harder to answer.

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