Big week. Salesforce just grabbed Qualified to bring AI agents into marketing, Novartis is going all-in on Agentforce for their global pharma operations, and that Workflow Rules deadline everyone's been ignoring? It's twelve days away. Let's get into it.
Top Stories
Salesforce Buys Qualified - Marketing Gets Its Own AI Agents
Salesforce signed a deal to acquire Qualified, the conversational AI company that turns website visitors into pipeline. If you've seen those chat widgets that actually know what they're doing - qualifying leads, booking meetings, routing to sales in real-time - that's Qualified. The deal should close in early 2027.
Why it matters: Up until now, Agentforce has been mostly a service and sales play. This changes that. Qualified gives Salesforce the ability to deploy AI agents at the top of the funnel - engaging prospects before they ever become a lead in your CRM. If you're running ABM or any kind of inbound motion, pay attention. Marketing teams are about to have the same AI agent conversations that service teams have been having for the past year.
Novartis Bets Big on Agentforce for Life Sciences
Novartis - one of the biggest pharma companies on the planet - announced they're rolling out Agentforce Life Sciences globally over the next five years. The goal is connecting patient and healthcare professional (HCP) experiences through AI agents.
Why it matters: Pharma is one of the most heavily regulated industries out there. If Novartis is comfortable deploying Agentforce at scale, that tells you something about where the platform has matured. For anyone in healthcare or life sciences who's been skeptical about AI agents in regulated environments, this is worth watching. Novartis isn't exactly known for taking risks with compliance.
Vonage Adds Agentforce Voice to Contact Center
Vonage announced they're integrating their contact center platform with Agentforce Voice. The pitch: AI handles the initial conversation, and when it needs to escalate to a human, all the context comes along for the ride. No more "can you repeat your account number" after you've already said it three times.
Why it matters: Voice is hard. It's probably the hardest channel to automate well because customers have zero patience when they're on the phone. The handoff between bot and human is usually where things fall apart. If Vonage and Salesforce have actually solved the context problem, that's a big deal for contact center ops. Worth testing if you're in that space.
Workflow Rules Support Ends in 12 Days
December 31st. That's when Salesforce officially stops supporting Workflow Rules and Process Builder. Your automations will keep running, but if something breaks after that date, you're on your own. No bug fixes, no patches, nothing.
Why it matters: Look, I know a lot of orgs have been putting this off. And technically, "end of support" isn't the same as "it stops working." But here's the thing - you probably have Workflow Rules in your org that you've forgotten about. Maybe from a consultant five years ago, maybe from someone who left the company. Running unsupported automation in production is a choice, but it should be a conscious one. If you haven't done a full audit yet, now's the time. We wrote a deeper piece on this: Workflow Rules and Process Builder Retirement: What You Need to Know.
Industry Spotlight: Life Sciences
The Novartis deal is the big headline, but it's part of a pattern. Pharma companies are realizing that the old model - field reps visiting doctors, dropping off samples, hoping for five minutes of attention - doesn't scale anymore. AI agents can handle the routine stuff: answering medical information requests, processing sample orders, following up after events. That frees up reps to focus on the conversations that actually need a human. Agentforce for Life Sciences ships with pre-built actions for most of these workflows. If you're in this space and still evaluating, 2026 is probably the year to move from pilot to production. Learn more about our AI & Automation Consulting services.
Recommended Trail
Given the Workflow Rules deadline, this one's obvious. If you're rusty on Flow or still finding your footing with record-triggered flows and screen flows, this trail covers the fundamentals. Good refresher even if you've been building Flows for a while.
Quick Takes
- Agentforce by the numbers: Over 18,500 deals since launch, paid deals up 50% from last quarter. Agentforce and Data 360 together are at nearly $1.4 billion ARR. The adoption curve is steep.
- New Chief Architect: David Ward left his CTO role at Lumen to join Salesforce as President and Chief Architect. Interesting hire - Lumen's been doing serious work on AI infrastructure, and Ward was leading that effort.
- Spring '26 preview orgs are up: Production upgrades start in January. If you haven't spun up a preview org yet, now's the time to test before it hits your production instance.
That's a Wrap
Lot of movement this week. The Qualified acquisition, the Novartis partnership, the Vonage integration - they all point the same direction. Agentforce is becoming the hub for AI-powered customer engagement across every channel. And that Workflow Rules deadline? Consider this your final reminder. If you have questions about any of this or want to talk through what it means for your org, reach out. Happy to chat.