In the CRM world, the cycle of reinvention is relentless. Old ideas are rarely retired — they’re rebranded, rewrapped, and reintroduced with a flourish of marketing fanfare. It’s a bit like watching a magician pull the same rabbit out of a slightly shinier hat. This year’s CRM buzzword bingo has a new square: “Agentic.” And now, the latest rabbit? Agentic CRM.
It’s the promise of AI agents that don’t just assist — they do, decide, and act. Independently. Autonomously. Flawlessly, if you believe the press releases. But before we all start handing over the keys to our customer journeys, let’s pause and ask: is this truly the dawn of a new era, or just another round of CRM and Marketing Automation hocus pocus?
Enter the 800-pound Agents: AgentForce, Agent Orchestrator, and the Copilots
Salesforce, never one to miss a branding opportunity, has unveiled “AgentForce.” The name alone suggests a squadron of tireless digital workers, ready to execute tasks and rule without oversight. Sounds impressive—until you dig into the details. What exactly are these agents doing? Who is managing them and what decisions are they making? And more importantly, how well are they really performing their jobs?
From what’s been shared, AgentForce appears to be a mash-up of existing Einstein capabilities, some Flow automation, and a sprinkle of LLM-powered task execution. But is it truly autonomous? Or is it just a glorified macro with a chatbot interface?
Adobe, not to be outdone, this year launched “Agent Orchestrator.” The name evokes a symphony of AI agents working in harmony. But peek behind the curtain: there’s no conductor to be found, and it’s unclear whether we’re hearing a symphony or just a few instruments tuning up. Adobe promises that Agent Orchestrator will coordinate multiple AI agents to handle complex marketing workflows. But what’s GA? What’s still in beta? What’s just a slide deck?
Microsoft has fully embraced the “agentic” hype wave, rolling out an aspirational broad ecosystem of agentic AI tooling into 365 and Copilot Studio under the umbrella of what it calls the “open agentic web” and the “autonomous enterprise.”
True to its vision of a technology factory and fabric to support the agentic future, Microsoft also rolled out Azure AI Foundry – For developing and managing enterprise-grade AI agents, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers – New infrastructure in Dynamics 365 to support agent-based automation across CRM and ERP systems
Microsoft’s agentic AI rollout is kind of like announcing a self-driving car that still needs you to steer, brake, and occasionally push it uphill—but don’t worry, the dashboard is AI-powered.
The Problem with the Premature Parade
Let’s be clear: the idea of agentic AI is compelling. Who wouldn’t want a digital assistant that not only recommends the next best action but actually takes it after it’s proven to be trustworthy, reliable, and acting on your best interests? But the reality is, we’re not there yet. These systems are nascent, untested at scale, and often lack the guardrails needed to ensure accuracy, compliance, and brand safety.
Yet here we are, watching vendors parade these capabilities as if they’re plug-and-play. As if they’re ready for prime time. As if they won’t require months of configuration, training, and oversight to avoid embarrassing—or worse, damaging—mistakes.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
If this all feels familiar, it should. Remember the CDP smoke and mirrors and that hype that started last decade? They were supposed to unify customer data and unlock 360-degree insights. Instead, we got a proliferation of overlapping products, vague definitions, unscalable point solutions, and a lot of shelfware.
Salesforce alone now has at least three flavors of CDP, depending on which cloud you’re in, and the one in core cloud – now called the Data Cloud – has undergone an identity parade of 5 name changes since 2020. Was Data Cloud in the witness protection program?
Now, with Agentic CRM, we’re seeing the same pattern. Big promises. Vague demos. Glossy names. And very little clarity on what’s road-tested and what’s just a concept.
Buyer Beware: Focus on Outcomes, Not Acronyms
So, what should buyers do in the face of this agentic arms race?
- Demand documentation. Not just marketing decks—real product manuals, configuration guides, and training materials.
- Ask for references. Not just logos on a slide—actual customers using the product in production.
- Look for outcomes. What business value has been delivered? What KPIs have improved? What manual work has actually been eliminated?
- Read the reviews. Sites like G2, TrustRadius, and Gartner Peer Insights can offer a reality check that’s often missing from vendor events.
In Summary: Don’t Buy the Cape Until You See the Hero Fly
Agentic AI may one day transform CX and CRM. But today, it’s mostly a promise—wrapped in a new name, dressed in transformational and revolutionary garb, and launched with the same old fanfare. Before you bet your customer experience on it, make sure you’re not just buying a cape and hoping for a superhero.
Because in Customer Relationship Management, as in magic, the trick is often in the misdirection.
Endnote: I let GenAI create the image I included with this blog post – and coerce it as I tried to get its spelling and number of fingers correct, after several attempts, and it trying to convince me it had fixed the issues, I went with its product – perhaps to make a point.