Salesforce Connections 25 Keynotes - First Impressions from Industry Analysts and Influencers

Another week, another major industry event. Last week it was Salesforce Connections 2025 in Chicago.  So we brought together a few of our favorite industry voices to watch along with Paul Greenberg and I for our latest CRM Playaz watch party.  The folks joining us across bboth keynotes include:

• Alan Berkson - Industry observer and corporate narrative expert
• Liz Miller -  VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research
• Jon Reed - Cofounder at Diginomica
• Bonnie Duncan Tinder - Founder & CEO of Raven Intelligence
• Rebecca Wettemann - CEO and Principal Analyst of Valoir

As usual, we put the most focus on the opening keynote of every vendor event as that is where they will have the greatest opportunity to reach the most people.  This is especially the case with Salesforce announcing Marketing Cloud Next - built natively on the Salesforce Platform and Data Cloud - allowing marketers to build and deploy campaigns using Agentforce Campaign Creation.

But like we did last week with PegaWorld 25, we also did a "popup" watch party for the Day 2 keynote to see how it complements the main keynote.

Below are clips of the groups first impressions directly following each keynote, along with edited transcripts of the conversations. But also included directly below is the summary analysis of the transcripts from Google Gemini as it did a nice job of representing the conversations.

Perplexity Analysis for Opening Keynote

## Day 1 Key Takeaways

### Presentation Assessment
The keynote received mixed reviews regarding structure and messaging. While experts noted that the opening failed to establish a clear problem statement for marketing challenges, the overall pacing and demonstrations were well-received. The presentation effectively used Ford Pro as a consistent customer example throughout, allowing for deeper exploration rather than broad, surface-level coverage.

### Technology Focus Areas
A significant discussion point centered on Salesforce's approach to explaining their agentic AI tools. Experts felt the company jumped too quickly into technical details without adequately addressing the organizational transformation required for effective implementation. However, the demonstration of campaign optimization—showing how targeting could be refined from 5,000 to 25 recipients—resonated as a practical value proposition for resource-constrained marketing teams.

### Architectural Concerns
The panel highlighted ongoing concerns about Salesforce's siloed architecture, noting that their presentation slides reinforced perceptions of compartmentalized systems that competitors often criticize. This structural challenge was seen as potentially limiting the effectiveness of their integrated marketing solutions.

Edited Transcript from Opening Keynote First Impressions

Brent Leary:  So why don't we go around and give our final thoughts on what we heard:

Alan Berkson:  One of the biggest challenges that CMOs face is just understanding what the future looks like. And I don't know that they painted a good picture of how people have to think about Agentic or whatever their tools are. They went right into technology and I think that makes it harder. And if you're going into technology you're not really addressing the transformation that has to happen in order to be effective with this.

The piece that she showed about the campaigns and then that 5,000 red number that went down to a 25 red number; That's my takeaway. I don't have enough staff to do that right now or I don't have enough resource to do that, so agentic or AI can help me catch my backlog up; that’s something nobody else wants to do. That's kind of a minimum buyable value point at this point for a lot of this stuff.

There are issues with bias and ethics and all that kind of stuff, which isn’t Salesforce's problem - It's an industry problem. I give them credit for the right type of innovation, but at the same time every time they showed that cake [architecture] slide with the different silos it just reinforces in my mind that they have a silo problem everybody else sells against.
So that 5,000 going down to 25 that's actually pretty strong.

Jon Reed:  Look I mean I really wanted the keynote to start out with a problem statement around the challenges marketers are facing and why they're struggling, and then to talk about what the future could look like. And so I think we missed kind of a framing for that. But then overall I thought there was some pretty good pacing in the keynote and they showed attendees a lot of stuff.
And it's important to keep in mind that the goal here is to send them off on their way to go chase down a bunch of information. And from that perspective I think they showed attendees a lot of stuff.

If I were a customer in that audience I would have some new ideas on stuff I could go check out on the show floor and things like that. So from a strictly practical standpoint I think they accomplished those things. But for people like those assembled in this panel here we have all kinds of questions on privacy, ethics, and how do you get this done in a way that makes people more creative and more successful. Those are big questions, right? And so all those questions aren't answered, but I think if I'm an attendee at least I know where I'm gonna go spend the rest of my day and what I'm gonna look for.

Rebecca Wettemann:  I think the more that they can do to help customers understand how they move from whatever the pieces they're using today to Marketing Cloud Next, and do it in a way that's gonna drive that kind of value that Alan's talking about, is gonna be super important. And I think also more guidance, other than “try a campaign” to help customers understand where do I start with Agentforce given my portfolio of products and resources that I'm working with [will help]. “Where do I start in a way that's low risk and likely to get some clear wins for me” would be super important.

Paul Greenberg:  It's not a whole lot to add to what everybody said. There was no frame, no real way of looking at the thing as a whole. That said they kind of recovered in part by focusing in and on uses of something. And they had a consistent customer they ran through the whole thing, Ford Pro. So they could kind of go deep as opposed to go wide with w lots of customers.
The presentations themselves were pretty effective overall, and the demos worked well I think. From what I've seen at Agentforce it retains context. And to me this is a super important aspect, when it comes to anything agentic; that it can actually pick up where it left off so to speak. And so I thought that was interesting.

And the other thing was if you remember, in the very beginning, I started looking for the Thunderhead approach really which I I And I saw the beginnings of it I think from that standpoint you know seeing the beginnings was promising for me. I don't know where it's gonna go and I'm not really talking about exactly what we saw, but I'm talking about at least the trigger points are there right.
So I I'm really curious as to where they're gonna take it.

Liz Miller:  I think the interesting things were the whole "Do your campaigns faster" message did not necessarily resonate, because no one has a problem with how quickly we can churn nonsense out the door. The thing that really resonated though is when Steve Hammond said - and honestly it was like the quote of the session - "This is not a migration it's a convergence" because that's what is exactly happened to Marketing Cloud, right?
Marketing Cloud was 9 crazy acquisitions made over a period of like 4 to 5 years. These weren't rapid fire acquisitions made over a period of a year. This has been a long period of time. And they have tinkered with all the different acquisitions trying to make them hit the right sweet spot over these past several years.

I think when Steve Hammond came in it became a “wait a minute, we gotta we gotta figure this out. We've gotta bring all of this into one space”. And I think it's taken 2 years, but when you realize the number is 9 - not know 3 - 2 years isn't unreasonable.
And so I'm really actually very optimistic that this is real, right? And what we're talking about is built on the platform, and built on DataCloud. I think what was getting people like "Mm there's still a little trepidation" is building agents. We get it It's easy. So I loved the pivot to it's straightforward to build it. And yes here's all of DataCloud and here's how all of this comes in.
So I think the real test over the next 2 days is gonna be how many customers are making that connection happen, and how many connections are making the flow into the rest of their systems.

Brent Leary:  I thought this was one of the more enjoyable keynotes of the last couple of months. The opening didn't really set the stage, but the other components were actually there.

The pacing was good like Brohammer was saying. The demos were the best I've seen the last several months. They definitely told the right story. So overall I thought this was very well done. All in all I would say this is one of the more positive events.

Any last thoughts?

Alan Berkson:  The metrics they talk about are old school marketing metrics and they need to give guidance If you're gonna create new technology and have transformation how do we measure success in the new world and what are those new metrics Because that's really how y- y- that's the goalpost That's where we're headed And so how do I how do I measure success My Once I clean up my mess with everything you're telling me that I'm gonna do now what? So I would love to see what that would look like.

Perplexity Analysis for Day 2 Keynote

Day 2 Takeaways

### Improved Execution
Day 2 received significantly more positive feedback, with experts praising the demonstration of system integration across sales, marketing, and service functions. The use of real customer examples, including the Indiana Pacers and Ford Pro, provided credible production-level use cases rather than theoretical demonstrations.

### Messaging Evolution
Steve Hammond's leadership and presentation style received particular commendation for his casual, conversational approach to explaining complex technology concepts. His explanation of the distinction between Marketing Cloud and Marketing Cloud Next was highlighted as particularly effective.

### "End of No Reply Marketing" Theme
The conference's central theme around eliminating one-way marketing communications generated discussion about raising customer expectations. Experts noted that positioning marketing as conversational interactions increases the stakes—if AI-powered interactions fail to understand customer needs, the experience becomes worse than traditional generic communications.

## Strategic Implications

### Market Leadership Position
The panel recognized Salesforce as the first major player to emphasize marketing-focused agentic AI at scale, potentially establishing them as the market leader that competitors must now respond to. This first-mover advantage in marketing AI was seen as strategically significant.

### Integration Challenges
Despite progress in system integration, experts emphasized the ongoing need for better guidance on how customers can transition from current Marketing Cloud implementations to Marketing Cloud Next. The complexity of migrating from nine separate acquisitions integrated over several years remains a significant customer consideration.

### Measurement and Metrics
A critical gap identified was Salesforce's reliance on traditional marketing metrics rather than developing new success measurements appropriate for AI-driven marketing transformation. Experts called for clearer guidance on how organizations should measure success in this new technological paradigm.

## Future Considerations

### Customer Adoption Pathways
The discussions revealed a need for clearer guidance on low-risk entry points for customers not immediately ready to adopt Agentforce, while still providing compelling reasons to migrate to Marketing Cloud Next[2]. This graduated approach could help bridge the gap between current capabilities and future AI-powered marketing.

### Community-Based Alternatives
The panel suggested that instead of focusing heavily on complex customer journey mapping, organizations might achieve better results by building opt-in communities around their products or services, providing real-time customer engagement and more accurate behavioral insights.

The overall assessment reflected cautious optimism about Salesforce's marketing AI direction, with recognition of both significant technological progress and remaining implementation challenges for enterprise customers.

Edited Transcript

Brent Leary:  All right so let's go Around the Horn, although that show just got canceled.

Bonnie Tinder: In terms of really demonstrating the linkage between the systems that in the past I think looked really siloed right between sales marketing service they did a really masterful job of being able to use all that in context with the customer experience, even external on a website. That to me was different than what we've seen in other conferences. And they did a great job taking real customers like the Indiana Pacers or Ford Pro yesterday, and giving us examples of this in production - not some demo database. That was the most impactful for me.
We didn't hear anything new today in terms of product announcements, but it was a deeper dive and a new set of customer examples that I think they did a masterful job with. And presentation, style wise, I would give them a 10 out of 10.

Jon Reed:  The pacing of these keynotes has been really good, right? And getting people out on time and back into their schedule is actually not to be underestimated. Honestly I think concise keynotes show confidence; Overblown keynotes show desperation. And Salesforce is a confident company right now. They've been preaching this omni-channel gospel for years and I think they finally have the technology to allow marketers to deliver on that, and reach people the ways they wanna be reached.

The one thing I would point out about the so-called tagline for the show, around the end of no reply marketing; that actually raises the stakes. Because if you're gonna try to create a better interaction and a better experience for customers, you're also gonna be held to that standard, right? So if I'm interacting with a bot and it doesn't friggin' understand me and it gets everything wrong, that's actually worse than just sending me a a generic email.
The technology has to deliver, but also marketers have to change. This blurring of the lines that's happening now, and all the things that's happening, there's a human change element inside of organizations that I think we need to follow here.

Brent Leary:  Shout out to Bob Faigel for being here. Bob gives it a 9.5 out of 10.

Jon Reed:  And what was the missing.5? 'More stuffed animals at the end?

Paul Greenberg:  He could be one of those people who just refuses to give 10s…

Rebecca Wettemann:  I wonder if you polled 100 people who are here this week next week, and asked them what the end of no reply marketing is if you would get the same answer. 'Cause I think we heard it but laying the step between what the end of no reply marketing is and what that future looks like could have been tied together a little more tightly.

I'd also like to hear more about what this looks like for customers who are not looking at Agentforce right away. What's the compelling reason for me to move to Next. And there are compelling reasons, but I think for those folks who are like "Oh not quite yet," on the AI front or on the Agentforce front, giving them a little bit more of "Here's what's compelling for you to go with Next today," I think would have made that Agentforce message even more interesting to them.

Paul Greenberg:  For the first time for at least from my standpoint I actually think Agentforce is a real technology that's meaningful. They've delivered a lot more than I expected them to have delivered, at least in the Marketing Cloud side of it. I wasn't even close to thinking it was as advanced as it was.
From the standpoint of the of the messaging, and the theme that ran through, I think they implied the future of marketing in there where marketing is going. They simplified it and dumbed it down around conversations per se; A one-way correspondence becomes a 2way correspondence. There is something important in the idea of conversations being how marketing ultimately works.
I actually was very impressed with the with the demos and the actual uses of the product. That's one of the better ones I've seen in any conference this entire year. And with that said I think Salesforce really needs to show what Jon actually said that it should be doing with the agents.

Brent Leary:  I did enjoy this one even more than I did the one yesterday. Steve [Hammond] has had a great way of interacting with um the folks that he brought on stage with him I liked the way that they had this casual conversation about the demo was going on and he would go back and forth between the conversation, and then say " now let's see what's going on." And it was just a really nice way of of tying everything together.
I thought Steve opened it up a lot better than yesterday's opening. And I liked the way he actually explained the differences between Marketing Cloud and Marketing Cloud Next.

All the demos were really good I think - well the latter one might not have been as good as the first one. You take the 2 days together back to back - good to very good.

I do appreciate when you start on time and when you end ahead of time. I I hadn't thought about it the way that Jon did but I think he’s right. You don't have to put 10 gallons into a 5gallon sack, if you know what the good 5 gallons are then you're able to explain it and illustrate it and walk through it in a timely but still entertaining way. I didn't feel like I was looking at the clock waiting for it to end, so that says something.
It's just good to hear agentic stuff from a marketing perspective versus some of the other things. Probably part of the reason why I enjoyed this 'cause we get kind of beat over the head with the service stuff from an agentic perspective. And it was really nice to hear something a little different so maybe that added in to why I I appreciated it too.

Paul Greenberg:  Salesforce is really the first to emphasize that marketing side. They're now technically now the alpha. So now other people have to shape to them. They were first right? And first in a big way.

Rebecca Wettemann:  I think the one thing that we haven't really talked about, that goes to the conversation about journey though and Bonnie mentioned it earlier. The idea that instead of having a website or a journey with a bucket of content that's micro you know micro-content that is served dynamically to whoever the customer is based on how much I know about them and what they're asking about dynamically? There's a lot to be said for that and it doesn't feel like that is far away from being able to do that.

Bonnie Tinder:  The rate of change with customer data and customer needs… The rate of change is so great that it's almost crazy to think that all of that's gonna exist within your Salesforce data. You need to have more contextual information because I don't think anybody can say "Oh well my Salesforce data is the be all and end all of where journeys should start and end."

Jon Reed:  How about this, Instead of sweating journeys so much, build a friggin' community around your product or service. And then people are always connected. And wow, you actually get up-to-date information on what they're up to all the time, even as their plans change.
It's called opt-in communities people. And it's way more effective than trying to map out little road trips for people whom you don't know what path they're gonna take anyway.