Dreamforce 2026 Announcements: What Matters for Small Business

What did Salesforce announce at Dreamforce 2026?

Six things matter to a Salesforce customer: AIforce, Salesforce in Claude moving to open beta, Slackforce Surfaces, Agentforce Coworker, the Koa model and seven named agents. Salesforce collects them on its Dreamforce media resources page; some were published on 10 and 11 September, before the event opened.

Every cell comes from the linked page. "Not stated" means the page is silent on the point.

Announcement	What it is	Status as at 18 Sep 2026	Edition or licence stated	Price stated	Source
AIforce	Interface layer that carries Salesforce data, logic and permissions into AI tools	No status of its own; "launching with" Claudeforce, Slackforce and Agentforce Coworker	Not stated	Not stated	AIforce release, 15 Sep
Salesforce in Claude (Claudeforce)	Claude plugin with 37 prebuilt sales skills	"now available to all customers in beta"; the Claudeforce page still describes a pilot with an open beta planned for September	Not stated	Not stated	AIforce release, Claudeforce page
Slackforce Surfaces	Live, shared interfaces built by prompting Slackbot	"available today"; live data feature "begins rollout in October"	Slack plans: Enterprise+, Business+, Pro, Legacy and Free Teams with Slackbot enabled. Salesforce edition not stated	Not stated	Slackforce page
Agentforce Coworker	AI assistant inside the Lightning interface	"instantly available to Salesforce customers"; the 4 August blog is headed Generally Available yet also says "in beta for Salesforce today"	Release: not stated. The 3 September editions story lists Coworker in every Core, Advanced and Max tier	Not stated	AIforce release, Coworker blog, Editions story
Koa	Salesforce's first CRM reasoning model for Agentforce, built on NVIDIA Nemotron	"Available to select pilot customers now in Agentforce"; GA "expected winter 2026 in U.S. regions"	Not stated	Not stated	Koa release, 15 Sep
Seven named agents	Casey, Paige, Carter, Marshall, Piper and Fin (help, IT and HR, shopping, supply chain, inbound pipeline, customer experience) plus Hunter (outbound sales)	"GA now" for six; Hunter: "Pilot now; GA November '26."	Not stated	Not stated	Agents story, 11 Sep
AI Skills, Multi-Agent Orchestration, Agent Optimizer	Teach Coworker a task once; route work between agents; an agent that tunes agents	AI Skills: "Pilot now; GA October '26." Orchestration: "GA now." Optimizer: "GA October '26."	Not stated	Not stated	Agents story
Trusted Enterprise AI Harness and AI Control Plane	Architecture of six capabilities, plus one place to see and control agents	New capabilities "planned to begin rolling out in early fiscal FY28"	Not stated	Not stated; to be announced "closer to general availability"	Harness story, 10 Sep

The rest was enterprise infrastructure and finance: expanded AWS and Google Cloud partnerships, and, per CNBC, a fiscal 2030 revenue target of over $63 billion. Separately, Salesforce's status record shows a major service disruption on 16 September, mid-event, which Salesforce Ben also reported. The timeline and a continuity checklist are in our outage explainer.

What is AIforce, and how is it different from Agentforce?

AIforce is an interface layer, not an agent product. Agentforce builds and runs the agents; AIforce is how people and agents reach Salesforce from somewhere other than the Salesforce screen.

Salesforce's release calls it "a live interface layer" and places it fourth in its architecture: Data 360 for unified context, Customer 360 for applications and business logic, Agentforce as the digital workforce, and AIforce bringing all of that to any AI interface. It launches with three interfaces: Claudeforce, Slackforce and Agentforce Coworker.

Two claims in the release matter to an admin. Every request runs on existing permissions and business rules, so an agent sees only what the person asking can see. And business data is not retained by the model provider, which Salesforce labels Zero Data Retention.

Salesforce Ben's read is that AIforce is a culmination of several announcements. The dates agree: Claudeforce was announced on 26 August and the Coworker blog is dated 4 August. Both are covered in our guide to connecting Claude or ChatGPT to Salesforce.

What are Slackforce and Slackforce Surfaces?

Slackforce is Salesforce's name for working with Salesforce from inside Slack. Surfaces is the new part: you describe what you need to Slackbot and it builds a live interface the whole channel can filter, comment on and act on.

Per the Slackforce page, a Surface can be a dashboard, a presentation or a calculator, draws on Salesforce, Slack history and other connected tools, and is built under your existing permissions. It is the one announcement with a free entry point: the listed Slack plans include Free Teams with Slackbot enabled. The live data feature begins rolling out in October, and the section headed "Pricing & Availability" gives no price and no Salesforce edition.

The AIforce release also names Slack CRM (create accounts, log call notes and update records by prompt) and Slack Code (shared coding sessions with an agent), with no status label for either.

What is Koa, the Salesforce reasoning model?

Koa is a model, not a product you switch on. Salesforce's release describes it as its first CRM reasoning model for Agentforce, made by post-training NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super on a synthetic dataset, and says no customer data was used to train it.

Salesforce claims that on its own CRM benchmark Koa matches or exceeds leading models on CRM actions with three times fewer errors. That is a vendor benchmark, not an independent test. Koa is with select pilot customers now (Xero is among those named), with general availability expected in winter 2026 in U.S. regions. No other region, edition or price is stated.

Which new Agentforce agents were announced, and can you use them?

Seven, six of them marked "GA now". Hunter, the outbound sales agent, is a pilot with GA stated for November.

The 11 September story says Hunter is the first on a new long-horizon runtime that lets an agent pursue a goal over days and weeks.

The story states no edition, licence or price for any of them. GA means Salesforce sells it, not that it is in your edition. How agent pricing works is in our Agentforce cost guide.

Is AIforce available now, and what does it cost?

Partly, and no price is published. No Dreamforce page we read gives AIforce a SKU, edition or price; availability is component by component, as the table shows.

The AIforce and Harness pages end with the same disclaimer: pricing and packaging may change, availability varies by region and is governed by customer agreements, and customers should base purchasing decisions on what is currently available.

The only recent list prices are in the 3 September editions announcement: Core at $195, Advanced at $395 and Max at $550 per user per month, with existing pricing on legacy editions unchanged. Our guide to Core, Advanced and Max covers what each tier bundles. An Info-Tech Research Group analyst told CIO Dive that AI may add a new layer of cost and that customers will still need clean, connected and governed data.

What is actually usable by a small business today?

Very little that is new. Four things are worth knowing.

• The Suites' built-in AI, unchanged. Salesforce's 17 March 2026 post says record summaries and email drafting are built into Free, Starter and Pro Suites, and that the Employee Agent can be activated in Starter and Pro with no setup or extra cost. None of the Dreamforce pages we read mentions the Suites or small business.
• Slackforce Surfaces, if you use Slack. Available on the listed plans today; the Salesforce edition needed is not stated.
• Salesforce in Claude, as a beta. Open to all customers per the release, with no Salesforce edition, Claude plan or price stated. Keep a beta in a sandbox.
• Agentforce Coworker, if your org has it. The release names no editions; the editions story places it in Core, Advanced and Max. We found no page saying the Suites include it, so check your own org.

Who should ignore Dreamforce entirely?

Most small teams can, for now. Skip it without worry if:

• You are on Starter or Pro Suite and use neither Slack nor Claude. Nothing announced changes your product this week.
• Your data is unreliable. Every AIforce interface answers from the records you already have, duplicates and empty fields included.
• You wanted Koa. It is a pilot, and the only stated GA is for U.S. regions.
• You run a legacy Enterprise org and are content. Salesforce says legacy pricing is unchanged, and none of these pages sets a deadline to move.

What should a small business do this quarter?

1. Know your edition and contract. Suites, a legacy edition, or Core, Advanced or Max. Salesforce says availability is governed by customer agreements.
2. Fix the data. Our AI-ready data checklist is the pre-flight.
3. Review permissions. AIforce runs on existing permissions, so an over-broad profile becomes an over-broad AI answer. Start with our security settings checklist.
4. Try only what is free and low risk. The Employee Agent in the Suites, or a Surface in a test channel.
5. Wait for GA and pricing before committing budget. Salesforce's own disclaimer says the same.
6. Re-check the dated items. Salesforce's stated plans: October for AI Skills, Agent Optimizer and the Surfaces live data rollout, November for Hunter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AIforce? AIforce is the interface layer Salesforce unveiled at Dreamforce 2026. It brings the data, workflows, business logic and permissions inside Salesforce to AI tools such as Claude, Slack and the Lightning interface. It launches with three interfaces: Claudeforce, Slackforce and Agentforce Coworker. Salesforce has published no AIforce price or edition.

What is the difference between AIforce and Agentforce? Agentforce is the agent layer: ready-made agents plus a builder for your own. AIforce sits on top as the interface layer, carrying Salesforce data, logic and permissions into Claude, Slack and Lightning. Salesforce lists four layers in its architecture: Data 360, Customer 360, Agentforce and now AIforce.

Is AIforce available now, and what does it cost? There is no single AIforce product to buy. Availability is by component: Salesforce in Claude is in open beta, Slackforce Surfaces is available on listed Slack plans, and Agentforce Coworker is described as instantly available. None of the Dreamforce announcements states a price, and Salesforce says pricing and packaging are subject to change.

What is Koa, and when will it be generally available? Koa is Salesforce's first CRM reasoning model for Agentforce, built on NVIDIA Nemotron and trained on synthetic data. As at 18 September 2026 it is with select pilot customers, and Salesforce expects general availability in winter 2026 in U.S. regions. No other regions, editions or prices are stated.

What did Dreamforce 2026 announce for Starter Suite and Pro Suite customers? Nothing specific. None of the Dreamforce announcements we read mentions Starter Suite, Pro Suite or small business. The Suites keep the built-in AI Salesforce described in March 2026, including the Employee Agent in Starter and Pro.

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SAASKOOL is a New Zealand Salesforce partner. If you want a second opinion on which of these announcements applies to your edition, see our AI and Agentforce service.