This year’s Dreamforce is all about Agentforce. If you thought that Salesforce had already put all its chips into AI, then you ain’t seen nothing yet.
In addition to the multiple announcements regarding the new Agentforce platform, Salesforce has teased that they’ll be offering free premium instructor-led courses, as well as AI certifications throughout 2025.
Addressing the Growing AI Skills Gap
In order to support the current and upcoming wave of AI tools and implementations, Salesforce has announced that they’re investing $50 million into initiatives designed to upskill workforces in a bid to address the AI skills gap.
While details haven’t been fully announced, Salesforce has stated that it’ll offer its premium AI courses and AI certifications free of charge via Trailhead by the end of 2025.
While this is pure speculation, one could assume that this means both the AI Associate and AI Specialist certifications may become free in the near future, which are currently priced at $75 and $200 respectively.
In addition, Salesforce referred to “premium instructor-led training” when talking about the courses that’ll be made free. Could we potentially see some AI-focused, instructor-led Trailhead academy courses become available to everyone in the ecosystem?
Why Are Salesforce Doing This?
This push is part of a wider initiative by Salesfore who has started founding “AI Centers” across the globe to skill up their own workforce. This started in June with the launch of the AI Center in London and will expand to cities such as Chicago, Tokyo, Sydney, and a pop-up AI Center in San Francisco.
These spaces will be hosting the premium in-person courses, as well as bringing together industry experts, partners, and customers.
This initiative is a rising tide that lifts all boats. Not only does it support educating the wider Salesforce ecosystem in an area where currently very little expertise exists, but it also brings more focus into how Salesforce is bringing AI to market through their new products. This includes Copilot Studio, Data Cloud, and the newly announced Agentforce.
Summary
Salesforce has been a leader in AI for close to a decade, and this is its chance to further push its messaging across the Salesforce ecosystem and beyond.
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