Salesforce has confirmed the release of Agentforce for Retail, a skills library for industry-specific AI agents.
With these new skills, retailers can develop AI agents that support their customer service workers, store associates, and customers in new ways.
For instance, they may build AI agents that enhance and automate order management processes, guided shopping experiences, and appointment scheduling.
In doing so, retailers can develop AI agents that meet their specific needs.
While Salesforce had previously released 100 preconfigured, industry-specific AI Agents for its core Agentforce offering, the new release signals a shift to provide certain sectors with new agent skills that allow them to better build their own.
In discussing the release of Agentforce for Retail, Nitin Mangtani, SVP & GM of Retail at Salesforce, commented:
Salesforce is helping retailers deliver seamless, unified shopping experiences across both the physical and digital realms of retail that drive productivity advancements and business growth across their entire enterprise.
Yet, ultimately, this move signals Salesforce's drive to deliver sector-specific agentic AI innovation.
While it had previously released Agentforce skills for merchandisers, marketers, and customer service reps, this latest move underlines this goal, which will likely spread into other industries.
Agentforce for Retail: What's Included?
Here are some of the skills that come part and parcel with Agentforce for Retail.
Commerce Skills for Order Management
By enabling retailers to provide self-service order support, Salesforce claims that users will be able to lower costs and improve customer loyalty.
These skills also allow customers to update payment and shipping details, manage uneven exchanges, and check order status in a conversational manner on their preferred channels.
Commerce Skills for Guided Shopping
Shoppers can use natural language to receive product recommendations based on shopper behavior, inventory, and operational data.
Customers can also use the skills to search for products, add items to their cart, and complete purchases through conversational interactions – helping users to deliver a concierge-like level of personalization.
Field Service Skills for Appointment Scheduling
The skills enable service representatives to coordinate deliveries, installations, or consultations.
In addition, the AI-powered tools leverage real-time availability updates to streamline the scheduling process, enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
