Dreamforce 2024 pushed the boundaries of what a tech conference can be. The annual event from Salesforce, which had more than 45,000 in attendance this year, showcased cutting-edge AI technology, with the debut of Agentforce as its centerpiece.

While tech innovations took center stage, the event also featured some familiar faces. Attendees might have spotted Simone Biles, Kate Hudson, and Matthew McConaughey among the crowd, adding a touch of star power to the venue.

On top of that, autonomous robots roamed the conference floors, providing a glimpse into a more automated future.

From AI breakthroughs to futuristic demonstrations, these highlights reveal how the conference from Salesforce is shaping the future of business and technology.

1. The introduction of Agentforce: AI Agents are here

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff set the tone for the conference by introducing Agentforce, a platform that enables companies to deploy autonomous AI agents capable of analyzing data, making decisions, and taking action without human intervention. These agents can respond to customer service inquiries, qualify sales opportunities, and optimize marketing campaigns autonomously.

Along with the platform, Salesforce also introduced Agent Builder, a low-code tool that allows customers to quickly create and customize their own agents.

A successful example is the Sophie agent, created by Saks Fifth Avenue department store, which could be deployed in just one week and is able to perform actions such as arranging product changes without human intervention.

“Autonomous AI agents are about to make an impact in the retail world, especially as we head into the holiday season. These smart-systems can tackle tough jobs like automating customer service and streamlining supply chains. This could completely change the way we shop, making it faster, more tailored to our needs, and safer,” said Blake Ellis, Founding Partner at CommerceV3.

In Benioff’s words, AI is not just a trending technology, but a crucial solution for the future. “This is our most important Dreamforce yet, you’re going to see technology like you’ve never seen before,” he assured attendees during the inaugural Dreamforce 2024 keynote.

In addition, Salesforce launched the Agentforce Partner Network, an ecosystem that provides third-party extensions for use in complex action chains. Launch partners include Amazon Web Services, IBM and Google Cloud, among others.

2. A new era of Slack and AI

The tech goliath also announced it has infused AI into Slack, with the integration enabling direct access to Salesforce information without the need for another application. The new Slack interface not only communicates with Agentforce agents, it also interacts with third parties such as Adobe, Anthropic, Cohere, and Perplexity.

“We’ve moved beyond collaboration; every day, millions of teams are leveraging purpose-built AI, with customer data, automation, and now agents seamlessly integrated into the flow of work. In today’s increasingly complex work environment, true productivity requires a work operating system built for the future of work, and that is Slack,” said Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack.

Other new features include meeting notes, simplified automation, enhanced search, and collections of templates for channels, canvases, lists, and automated workflows. These updates aim to turn Slack into a comprehensive work operating system with accessible data and seamless integrations with other systems. The goal is to improve collaboration and productivity, as studies show that poor collaboration results in the loss of 25 billion hours each year, and AI can save around 12% of that time.

3. Data cloud as the “heartbeat”

Salesforce has highlighted the importance of its Data Cloud, calling it the “heartbeat” of its platform and the foundation of its Agentforce. The Data Cloud is capable of processing a staggering 767 billion records per month, and all Salesforce Customer 360 applications, as well as Tableau, have been rewritten to run on it.

At the conference, Salesforce announced several new features, including support for unstructured data like audio and video content, a standardized semantic data model for consistent interpretation and use of data, enhanced search capabilities, real-time data triggers to respond to changing customer needs, and improved security and data governance features.

“When we encouraged you to use Data Cloud, what we didn’t realize is we were preparing you very well for AI,” Benioff added.

4. The blend of technology, entertainment, and science

The conference utilized iconic San Francisco locations like the Salesforce Tower and Oracle Park as venues. It featured a diverse lineup of speakers, including actress Kerry Washington, actor Matthew McConaughey, and primatologist Jane Goodall.

In addition to the speaker sessions, the conference included entertainment and celebrity appearances. Musical acts such as Pink, Imagine Dragons, and Japanese pop star Yoshiki performed. Comedian John Mulaney replaced Seth Meyers, who had roasted the conference the previous year.

Salesforce also highlighted its technological capabilities by hosting talks from tech industry leaders. This included conversations between Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as well as presentations by AMD CEO Lisa Su, Anthropic president Daniela Amodei, and former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg.

5. Salesforce’s Ventures $500M AI fund

Salesforce Ventures has announced the creation of a new AI Fund, which will add another $500 million to its existing AI investment fund. This brings the company’s total commitment to AI innovators to $1 billion in the past 18 months.

Salesforce Ventures has already invested in over two dozen AI companies, including Anthropic, Cohere, Runway, TogetherAI, Mistral AI, and Hugging Face.

The company aims to support dynamic and expansive innovators in winning the market by accelerating their growth through its customer network.

“Our expanded investment deepens our commitment to helping the most dynamic and expansive innovators win the market by accelerating their growth through our customer network and delivering trusted AI that earns the confidence of the biggest companies in the world,” added Paul Drews, managing partner of Salesforce Ventures.

6. Lots of autonomous robots

This year’s event marked the human-AI collaboration as the core of an exciting era in our daily lives. The integration of autonomous robots throughout the event, demonstrated the potential of AI to work alongside humans, not just as tools, but as partners.

When coffee ran out at the park’s main refreshment stand, attendees were directed to another where beverages were served by a robot. Another great example that captured a lot of attention was the presence of autonomous delivery robots.

The small and adorable machines navigated the event grounds, disturbing special editions of TIME Magazine’s*“Most Influential People in AI”* to attendees, offering a tangible demonstration of advertising and robotics in action.

The robots’ presence highlighted the growing importance of autonomous systems in our daily lives, offering a glimpse into a future where delivery robotics seamlessly integrate into urban environments, potentially revolutionizing everything from local deliveries to advertising.

Last Thursday, while participating at the conference, Kiwibot, the company behind the delivery robots, announced its acquisition of Nickelytics in a $25 million deal. This move is effectively turning their fleet of delivery robots into mobile, interactive billboards that hint at innovative new ways brands might engage with consumers in the future.