Connection at Scale: 10 Moments Defining the Agentic Enterprise at Dreamforce 2025

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn, dated October 18, 2025

From SaaS to Agentic: The New Operating System for Growth

Dreamforce 2025 was more than an event. It was an inflection point for how growth will be created in the next decade. For twenty years, SaaS digitized the enterprise. Now, Agentic AI operationalizes transforming software from a tool into a living system that learns, acts and adapts in real time.

This year, 50,000 Trailblazers came together in San Francisco to reimagine what’s next. You could feel it everywhere: from Investor Day to customer stages to impromptu dinners across San Francisco. Dreamforce was proof that when AI is built on trust, it becomes compounding leverage. 

I had the privilege of hosting CIOs and COOs customers alongside our Salesforce Engineering Leadership Team: the brilliant minds behind Agentforce 360 and Data 360, the foundation of the Agentic Enterprise. The conversations went deep: how to accelerate value creation, lead responsibly, and keep trust and humanity at the center of every intelligent system we build.

10 Moments That Defined Dreamforce 2025

1. Marc Benioff’s Keynote: The Playbook for Agentic Leadership

Marc Benioff's message to every CEO was clear: “Don’t just use AI. Become an Agentic Enterprise.” He showed how Salesforce reengineered itself, connecting Agentforce 360 and Data 360 into an intelligent operating core that accelerates innovation across every cloud. The next era of leadership belongs to those who design systems that learn and lead alongside their teams.

2. The COFO Experience: Leadership in Action

Hosted by the extraordinary Robin Washington, the inaugural COFO Experience was electric: a room alive with insight, ambition, and purpose. Global leaders explored the intersection of the economy, geopolitics, and technology and how to lead organizations in the Agentic AI era.

We aligned on one truth: Transformation-based growth in the age of AI must include everyone. Upskilling our SMEs in the line of business creates exponential value. The ideas born in that room will shape how industries grow in the decade ahead through execution, inclusion, and trust.

3. Investor Day: Operating Leverage, in Motion

Our Investor Day made one thing clear: Agentic AI is about more than productivity, it’s about Agentic-led growth. Wall Street investors like Rathin Yagnik and Eric Cheung saw it in the numbers: faster cycles, net new growth with expanded human capacity, and AI as long-term compounding leverage. Leaders who transform and operationalize Agentic AI will lead in profitable growth.

🎥 Watch the replay: it’s a must-watch for any software investors.

4. Customers on Stage: Value at Agentic Speed

Transformation is most powerful when customers lead it. Hearing from Raúl Piola of City of Buenos Aires and Cecilia Benitez from Mercado Libre showed what’s possible when intelligence meets trust, transformation. In just months, their teams built on Agentforce 360 and Data 360, creating measurable business value at scale.

There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your customer and friend Cecilia on stage, sharing how she and her team delivered impact using products our engineering teams built. That’s the Agentic era in action: faster outcomes, deeper trust, real transformation.

5. Exec Women in Data & AI: Leadership, Redefined

We brought together bold leaders from LatAm, Europe, and beyond for breakfast, all committed to shaping a more responsible AI future.

One moment stood out: Stephanie Hart, COO of Nestlé, introduced the idea of Reverse Mentoring, where AI-native Gen Z employees mentor senior leaders. In the Agentic Enterprise, wisdom flows both ways. Their instincts for experimentation, speed, and ethics are already reshaping how we build, sell, and lead. 

There may be few of us, but we are mighty and we’re moving fast. 

6. The Humanoid Powered by Agentforce 360 🤖

Watching Pledge 1% CEO Amy Lesnick take the stage with our humanoid was surreal... and deeply human. Trained on Pledge 1% knowledge and grounded in Data 360, it showed what happens when AI is contextual, ethical, and designed to amplify humanity, not replace it. 

Huge thanks to Keith White and our Physical Security team. Tireless work made that Day Zero preview possible. AI grounded in purpose earns trust by design.

7. Agents for Good Hackathon: Innovation with Intention

Judging the inaugural Agents for Good Hackathon was one of my proudest Dreamforce moments. Twelve executives from our Equality Groups joined as volunteer judges, evaluating ideas that use AI for inclusion and impact. 

A personal highlight was being with Alexandra Laxmi Iyer, our neurodivergent ERG leader and Jin Lee AsiaPacforce leader, two visionaries who turned Agents for Good from concept to reality. The future of AI must include everyone.

8. Dreamfest: Connection Beyond Code

Dreamfest was pure energy, a celebration of purpose and generosity. Connecting with John Somorjai, the VC community and next-generation builders, alongside David Schmaier and Siebel Systems OGs, was inspiring.

Our donation to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals reminded us that innovation and generosity scale best together. 

9. CIO Welcome Reception: Collaboration in Action

At our CIO Welcome Reception, leaders from every corner of the world shared insights on building trusted, governed enterprise AI. We went deep into architecture design and global deployment models including how to balance local agility with global governance & compliance, and how to scale trust as fast as technology.

What started as collaboration became connection, work partnerships that turned into real friendships. Transformation is co-engineered.

10. The Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Agent: Personalization, Redefined

Finally, the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Agent Olive. I’m still thinking about it. It’s a perfect example of how Agentforce enables AI agents to not just recommend, but anticipate and assist, creating experiences that feel intuitive, human, and deeply personal.

And yes, I fully plan to use it to plan my Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving dinner this year. 🦃

That moment took on even more meaning later that evening, when I joined the Data360 team’s impromptu dinner. We celebrated birthdays, shared stories, and reflected on how far we’ve come, from concept to customer impact, all in one extraordinary year. That’s what this work is really about: building technology that connects people, and teams, in more meaningful ways.

The future of AI is personal, contextual, and profoundly human.

Connection at Scale: The Agentic Imperative

As AI becomes embedded in every workflow, connection becomes every leader’s differentiator.

Agentic enterprises, the ones that thrive, will be those that balance autonomy with alignment, automation with empathy, and speed with shared purpose. That’s the work ahead: designing systems where technology amplifies what humans can achieve together.

From Wall Street to Buenos Aires to your own workflows, the message was clear: The Agentic Enterprise is the new operating system for growth, and it’s already live. Now comes the leadership challenge: scaling it responsibly, inclusively, and boldly.

Congrats on the great Tableau Data Fam Keynote! It was great to be with Muralidhar Krishnaprasad (MK), Rahul Auradkar, Southard Jones, Raveendrnathan Loganathan Sireesh Bodireddygari Teri Hatfield Rekha Srivatsan!

💜 Vivienne