Use Metadata to Empower Salesforce Agents

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Joshua Birk, Admin Evangelist at Salesforce.

 

Join us as we chat about why your metadata is crucial for building effective AI agents.

 

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Joshua Birk.

Why multi-tenancy still matters for Agentforce

As the Admin Evangelist team has been helping people get started with Agentforce, we’ve noticed that the key to unlocking this new technology is to revisit some of the oldest concepts about the Salesforce platform.

 

That’s why I brought Josh Birk on the pod to talk about metadata and multi-tenant architecture. If you need a refresher, that’s the idea that Salesforce is like an apartment building where each org is an apartment. Your stuff is in your individual unit, but the entire building shares resources like water and electricity.

 

So what’s the difference from 2010? As Josh explains, it’s that every apartment comes standard with an Agentforce-powered robot butler.

Quality data leads to better automation

Imagine you’re sitting down for dinner, and you want your robot butler to set the table—how does it know where the forks are? And what happens if they’re buried in your junk drawer?

 

Clearly, a robot butler will be more helpful if you keep your apartment organized. And, as Josh points out, the same is true for your Salesforce org. AI agents rely on your metadata, like description fields and field types, to help them respond correctly and find what your users are looking for.

 

With longstanding orgs, there can be an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset, but that’s the equivalent of throwing everything in the junk drawer. Doing a little spring cleaning and organizing your metadata helps Agentforce help you.

Why you’re already an AI builder

The key thing Josh wants you to realize is that you’re already an AI builder. An agent is just another user in your org, and so the work you do to make your data easy to use is also what powers the solutions you build in Agentforce.

 

That’s why it’s so important to fall back on Salesforce fundamentals. Building an agent is the easy part. The hard part is making sure your metadata is in a good place to support your AI solutions, but that’s the work that admins do every day.

 

There’s so much more great stuff from Josh in this episode, so be sure to take a listen. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday.

 

Podcast swag

• Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Learn more

• Trailhead: Custom Metadata Types Basics

 

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• Admin Trailblazers Community Group

Social

• Josh on LinkedIn