At Dreamforce 2025, the conversation surrounding Agentic AI moved past simple chat applications and centered on how intelligent agents can fundamentally change the flow of work, particularly within the Salesforce ecosystem.
In a recent webinar presented in partnership with Salesforce, a group of expert panelists discussed major takeaways from Dreamforce 2025 and how Agentic AI Assistants can help build Salesforce forms, augment human work, and prepare organizations for the Agentic Enterprise.
Moderated by Jess Steinbach of SmartBrief, and hosted by Josh Strehle, Senior Product Marketing Manager at FormAssembly, the webinar panel included the following experts:
- Peter Bernardi, CEO at ElevateActual
- Aparna Jue, Chief Product Officer at FormAssembly
- Eric Dreshfield, Founder of Midwest Dreamin’
- Sarah Thanawalla, Head of Business Development and Client Relations at Thanawalla Digital
The panelists had a lively discussion about the ambitious speed of the “Agentic Enterprise” and the critical steps organizations must take to realize AI’s true potential.
You can watch the webinar on-demand at your leisure, or read on for a detailed overview of what was discussed.
Vision vs. Reality: Are We in the Future Yet?
A major theme coming out of Dreamforce was the aggressive timeline for AI adoption. While Salesforce is signaling that the future is already here, the panelists agreed that the reality is more nuanced.
- Augmentation Over Replacement: The core purpose of Agentic AI is to make people more effective at their jobs, not replace them entirely. Eric Dreshfield highlighted that even with AI, the goal for marketers, in particular, is to enhance creativity and better define core messages, while keeping a unique human element in the work.
- The Prerequisites Problem: Peter Bernardi emphasized that AI agents are only as good as the data they consume. The biggest barrier to entry is data readiness – specifically, having a clean, structured, and trustworthy data architecture. Eric agreed, stating, “[If] you start off with bad data, you’re gonna definitely get bad results.”
- The Speed of Change: Aparna Jue noted her surprise at how quickly the narrative has shifted from AI as an augmenting tool to the “Agentic Enterprise,” where AI is seamlessly incorporated into the flow of work. This ambitious speed means organizations must quickly adapt their strategies around governance and compliance.
Actionable Insights: The Non-Negotiable Rules for AI Success
The conversation quickly moved to practical steps for organizations that are either starting their AI journey or struggling to get their data ready for tools like Data Cloud and Agent Force. The table below highlights some of the panelists’ recommendations for data readiness, and an explanation of why they believe their proposed action step matters.
Key Recommendations for Data Readiness
| Panelist | Action Step | Why it Matters |
| Peter Bernardi | Document Your Metadata: Ensure every field has a description. | Agents lack historical knowledge and rely solely on metadata to understand data context. Undocumented fields are unusable. |
| Eric Dreshfield | Eliminate Duplicates: Aggressively tackle data quality, especially identity resolution. | Bad input leads to bad output; agents will amplify the problems caused by duplicate or conflicting records. |
| Aparna Jue | Assess Organizational Fit: Look at your org structure and how roles must shift before implementing AI. | AI adoption requires a change management strategy to ensure human teams work effectively alongside the new agents. |
The True ROI Challenge (The Iceberg Analogy)
Sarah Thanawalla and Peter Bernardi both touched on a crucial pain point: the current cost of AI implementation can often outweigh the immediate ROI.
- The Investment in Pre-Work: Peter used the “Iceberg” analogy – what you see (the AI agent) is tiny compared to the foundational work required under the surface (data architecture, system integration, governance).
- Strategic Imperative: Investment today is required to set up the necessary infrastructure for success down the road. Establishing a single source of truth means that when adoption scales, the technology will actually pay off.
The Future of Data Collection: Trust, Ease, and Human Connection
The final lightning round of the webinar focused on the evolution of data collection, especially for highly regulated sectors like higher education and healthcare.
- Trust is Paramount: For any organization collecting sensitive data (PII, FERPA, HIPAA), the user must be able to trust that the data is protected and compliant.
- Ease and Accessibility: The next trend is shifting away from traditional forms toward natural, accessible interactions. This means potentially moving an entire application or intake process into a conversational, AI-assisted chat format.
- Human Connection: The foundation of all business remains personalized, human relationships – people do business with those they trust.
In Practice: Introducing Fai, the Agentic AI Assistant
To conclude the webinar presentation, Josh Strehle provided a compelling look at the practical application of agentic AI with a quick demo of FormAssembly’s new Atlas platform featuring Fai, the Agentic AI assistant.
Fai functions as a coworker to users, demonstrating how Agentic AI can rapidly automate typically manual work. In the demo, simply asking Fai to “build a short lead form for the University of Florida and connect it to Salesforce,” resulted in the agent quickly:
- Building the form with relevant fields
- Creating an entire workflow in reaction to the prompt
- Authenticating and mapping fields to the correct Salesforce object schema
The demonstration highlighted that the platform’s goal is to dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of data collection while maintaining the necessary focus on security and compliance.
The Path Forward for Agentic AI
This webinar emphasized that while AI is a powerful tool for data collection and workflow automation, success depends on careful preparation, trust in data systems, and thoughtful integration into existing processes. By focusing on human-centered design, education, and small, targeted implementations, organizations can harness AI’s potential while preserving the critical human elements that drive relationships and outcomes.
Interested in learning more?
FormAssembly’s Atlas platform makes data collection and automation easier than ever. Start a free trial now to see how AI can drive your organization forward.
