CRM giant Salesforce is facing criticism from its own customers and community members after it quietly removed the search bar from its online help pages.
The previous search function has been replaced with the AI-powered Agentforce assistant.
The move has sparked a backlash with users calling for the return of the classic search functionality.
Previously, users on the Salesforce Help site could use the search bar to type keywords, filter by topic, and drill down to quickly find documentation, knowledge articles or troubleshooting resources.
That option is now gone. The only way to access information is to interact with the conversational AI assistant that must understand the user’s question, interpret it and generate an answer on the fly.
Complaints quickly sprang up online in response to the change, with users reporting that Agentforce, while promising in theory, is often slower to deliver what index-based search used to serve up instantly. It may misunderstand queries, hallucinate incorrect answers, or require more back-and-forth conversation to narrow down results.
Users on Reddit noted that Salesforce “killed simple access to the case creation form” recently and see this as the next step in its agentic AI push.
“It's called Agentforce because they force you to use it,” a Redditor snarked.
The change comes as Salesforce continues to promote Agentforce across its product suite, touting it as the future of intelligent, AI-driven support.
But many users argue that the technology is not yet reliable or fast enough to replace a standard search interface.
Tom Bassett, a Senior Salesforce Solution Architect, launched a vote on the Salesforce IdeaExchange to encourage the company to reinstate the traditional search function. Bassett wrote:
Search has been replaced with Agentforce which can produce unreliable results and takes longer to find the information you need. Turning Search back on would enable a UI that can be used to find trusted results and would give the power back to users as to whether they want to search using text or a conversation.
Sarah Orens, Salesforce Architect at Foundation Software responded:
My experience with Agentforce has been less than stellar — conversations often take longer than necessary, and I rarely get the specific information I’m looking for on the first try.
“This is especially frustrating because Salesforce’s own Service Journey messaging emphasizes that customers prefer to self-serve when possible,” Orens added.
Removing the core self-service search capability appears to directly contradict that vision.