SalesForces AgentForce - Deterministic, Probabilistic, Oh My !

This episode of the '3 Takes on AI' podcast focused on Salesforce's Dreamforce 2026 announcements around Agentforce and deterministic AI, with the hosts analyzing the architectural approach, business model implications, and customer risks. Brian, Mike and Campbell broadly agreed that pairing a deterministic control layer with probabilistic AI is architecturally sound, but expressed serious reservations about cost predictability, vendor lock-in, and liability, particularly for companies deeply customized on Salesforce. We noted that Salesforce's usage-based pricing model, compounded by a multi-tier cost chain (Salesforce, AWS, Anthropic), makes it nearly impossible for customers to forecast spend, and that governance decisions about when to invoke deterministic versus probabilistic logic are effectively transferred to the deploying organization. Beyond the Salesforce-specific critique, the Brian, Mike and Campbell argued that the broader AI industry consistently underweights the procurement realities of cost, predictability, and liability ownership that finance and legal teams require before deals close. MuleSoft was identified as a potentially significant new entry point into the Salesforce ecosystem, and the possibility of a pure-play AI competitor displacing Salesforce over a two-to-three-year horizon was raised, contingent on solving data portability challenges that Salesforce has historically resisted