The ‘data foundation’ for AI starts paying off for Salesforce

They are saying issues transfer sooner within the AI age, and on Wednesday, Salesforce delivered the most recent instance.

Salesforce introduced its third-quarter outcomes for the 2026 fiscal yr on Wednesday. The high-level numbers regarded good. Income for the quarter was $10.3 billion, up 9% yr over yr. The corporate raised its full fiscal yr 2026 income steering from $41.45 billion to $41.55 billion, representing a 9% to 10% year-over-year enhance.

However it was the efficiency of Information 360 (previously Information Cloud) and Agentforce that basically stood out. 

“Our Agentforce and Information 360 merchandise are the momentum drivers, hitting almost $1.4 billion in ARR — an explosive 114% year-over-year achieve,” mentioned Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce, through the earnings name. “We now have over 9,500 paid Agentforce offers and three.2 trillion tokens processed, underscoring our management in constructing the Agentic Enterprise and driving actual outcomes.”

Dig deeper: Why is Salesforce partnering with the biggest names in AI?

What a distinction 10 months makes

It was lower than a yr in the past, on the February 2025 earnings name, that Salesforce executives mentioned a meaningful contribution to earnings from Agentforce was greater than a yr away. 

“We’re extremely excited concerning the buyer momentum we’re seeing. Nonetheless, the adoption cycle continues to be early as we concentrate on deployment with our clients,” mentioned Amy Weaver, who on the time was serving as Salesforce president and CFO. “Consequently, we’re assuming a modest contribution to income in fiscal ’26. We count on the momentum to construct all year long, driving a extra significant contribution in fiscal ’27.”

However even again in February, momentum for Information Cloud (now Information 360) was constructing. On the time, Salesforce reported that just about half of the Fortune 100 have been each AI and Information Cloud clients, and that each one of Salesforce’s prime 10 wins in This fall included Information and AI.

That was necessary to notice as a result of earlier than firms can unleash brokers on their clients and staff, they should get their information so as. Information 360, with unified information and guardrails, does precisely that.

On Wednesday, Salesforce referred to Information 360, Agentforce and different infrastructure instruments just like the recently acquired Informatica because the spine of its “information basis,” on which AI brokers can be constructed. And it had numbers to exhibit that the inspiration is in good condition. 

• Agentforce’s annual recurring income (ARR) alone was roughly $540 million, representing a 330% year-over-year enhance.
• Information 360 ingested 32 trillion information in Q3, up 119% year-over-year.
• 50% of recent Agentforce bookings and 50% of Information 360 bookings got here from current clients increasing their investments.

We’ll see what will get constructed on that basis within the 2027 fiscal yr.