A new report from Bloomberg raises some uncomfortable questions about Salesforce’s marketing around Agentforce, the company’s AI platform. The platform has long been criticized on social media as “vaporware” (sometimes even in pro-Salesforce posts), and this Bloomberg report doesn’t look like it’s helping matters.
Conventional wisdom—true or not—holds that we’re in the midst of something called the “SaaSpocalypse,” brought about by AI. The thinking goes that Salesforce is the prototypical example of B2B SaaS, and who needs to pay for SaaS (that is: software as a service) when you can just vibe code your own software?
But Salesforce hasn’t been without its rejoinders to this narrative—even if you set aside Agentforce. Recently, for instance, it announced “Headless 360,” an initiative aimed at inserting “more than 100 new tools” into its consumer relationship management system with the goal of giving the user the ability to ignore the software’s graphical interface altogether, and simply let the AI do all the work—even easier than vibe coding, or at least that’s the theory.
But Agentforce was announced all the way back in 2024, and has had some time to cook. Unfortunately, ads like this one, in which Agentforce appears to have revolutionized service at University of Chicago Medicine, are sharpening the contrast between what was promised and what’s been delivered so far.
In that ad, you can see patients interacting with agents that convey practical knowledge, things like saying a doctor is running late and asking if the patient would like to reschedule, or steering them to a parking lot with spots available. It also appears to effortlessly book appointments and arrange for prescription refills.
According to Bloomberg, those functions are still unavailable. “Patients who call the hospital system today are greeted with keypad-selection menus and routed to human schedulers,” Bloomberg says. The chatbot in the ad is “still being tested and not visible to most web visitors.”
Anonymous sources apparently told Bloomberg the delay of the features is “due to product glitches and difficulty getting sign-offs from internal compliance departments.”
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff reportedly said the materials being scrutinized are future-oriented marketing. “Whatever technology we have ever marketed, we have always delivered,” he told Bloomberg.
And in Benioff’s defense, Bloomberg notes that appliance and personal tech brand SharkNinja Inc. claims that using Agentforce has resulted in a 20% drop in “service phone calls.” Apparently Agentforce agents really are good at troubleshooting people’s gadget problems.
Also, Salesforce is far from the only company that created marketing materials featuring AI-related promises that have noticeably not materialized. Apple most famously released an ad in 2024 for a new, personalized version of Siri with capabilities that save actor Bella Ramsey from awkwardness at a party. Apple settled a false advertising lawsuit over the ad without admitting fault.
But it’s not just University of Chicago Medicine. A stage presentation by Williams-Sonoma last year showcased Agentforce-powered phone features—allowing a customer to easily buy something they saw online via a slick synthetic phone operator. Bloomberg notes that “about half a year after that presentation, Williams-Sonoma’s phone line isn’t actually using Agentforce.” Williams-Sonoma Chief Technology & Digital Officer Sameer Hassan tells Bloomberg the stage presentation showed off “possibilities,” and that the company hopes to roll out the features by the holidays.
In a video made in conjunction with Finnair, the Finnish airline, we see a customers interact with what are meant to be an Agentforce agents. The interactions depicted would be a dream come true if they were real. For instance:
Customer: My flight was canceled due to weather. Can you help me get rebooked?
Agent: Absolutely! I’ve found the next available flight at 2:00 PM, arriving at your destination at 3:15 PM. Would you like me to confirm this for you?
It knows the user and their itinerary, instead of asking a million tedious questions, and it simply solves the problem for them.
But Finnair’s website (which refers to its chatbot as a proprietary character named “Sisu”) has an FAQ about its agent, which clarifies that actually, no, the agent can’t change your booking for you. It can “explain how to make changes and guide you to the right place, Manage Booking or a customer service agent,” but the ability to make changes to your booking is “planned for future development.”
Salesforce’s stock price, by the way, is in bad shape. It lost almost 21% of its value in 2025. Last month it was down an additional 35%, but it’s climbed back a bit.
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