Buying AI tools is easy.
Building an AI-ready workforce is harder.
As Dreamforce approaches, Salesforce leaders will hear more about Agentforce, AI-enabled workflows and the next phase of the Agentic Enterprise. The technology conversation will move quickly.
But for many organizations, the harder question will come after the event.
Who is actually going to deliver it?
AI transformation is creating a workforce challenge that cannot be solved through technology investment alone. Organizations need people who can redesign processes, manage data, govern automation, integrate systems and help employees adapt to new ways of working.
That makes AI transformation a workforce strategy issue as much as a technology strategy issue.
The organizations that make the greatest progress will not necessarily be those that buy the most AI capability. They will be the ones that make deliberate decisions about which skills to build internally, which expertise to bring in and how to create a workforce capable of evolving alongside Salesforce.
AI conversations often start with productivity:
Those questions matter, but they are only part of the picture.
As AI takes on more routine activity, the work left to people often becomes more complex.
Teams spend less time completing repetitive tasks and more time interpreting information, improving processes, handling exceptions and making decisions.
That changes the capability mix organizations need.
Salesforce teams increasingly need people who can:
This does not automatically mean adding headcount.
It means understanding where human expertise creates the greatest value once AI becomes part of the operating model.
For leaders, that requires workforce planning much earlier in the transformation process.
One of the most important workforce decisions in any Salesforce AI program is whether a capability should be developed internally or accessed externally.
There is no universal answer.
Some skills make sense to build because they will become part of the organization's long-term Salesforce capability.
Others may be needed immediately to support a specific transformation milestone.
The distinction matters.
For example, organizations may choose to build internal capability around:
These capabilities become more valuable over time because they help the organization operate Salesforce effectively after implementation.
Other areas may require specialist expertise sooner.
That could include:
The right workforce strategy often combines both.
Internal teams provide business context, ownership and continuity.
External expertise can provide speed, depth and experience where capability is difficult to develop quickly.
The challenge is knowing where each model creates the greatest value.
Organizations often respond to capability gaps by opening new roles.
That may be necessary, but it is rarely sufficient.
AI is changing too quickly for every new requirement to be solved through permanent hiring.
Some capabilities will evolve before a traditional recruitment cycle is complete. Others will only be required during specific stages of a transformation program.
That means Salesforce leaders need a broader set of workforce options.
A strong AI workforce strategy may combine:
The objective is not to choose one model.
It is to create enough flexibility to match capability with business demand.
This is particularly important when Agentforce moves from experimentation into production.
A pilot may require a small technical team.
Scaling agents across the organization could require architecture, governance, change management, integration and data expertise at different points in the program.
A static workforce model will struggle to respond to that complexity.
Reskilling is often presented as the obvious alternative to external hiring.
In practice, successful reskilling needs more than access to online learning.
Employees need a clear pathway from learning to practical application.
That means understanding:
Structured development is particularly important for AI because theoretical knowledge becomes outdated quickly.
The strongest learning pathways combine technical training with real-world application.
That could mean developing Salesforce professionals who already understand the business and giving them deeper capability across AI, automation, data or architecture.
It may also mean identifying people in adjacent technology disciplines whose skills can transfer into Salesforce.
Through Revolent, Tenth Revolution Group's talent creation and training business, organizations can build structured pathways that combine training, certifications and practical experience to develop capability aligned to real delivery needs.
This gives organizations another option between hiring experienced specialists and asking existing employees to learn independently.
Not every Salesforce capability carries the same strategic importance.
Some skills should sit close to the business because they influence long-term decision-making.
Others can be brought in when needed.
For example, organizations may want to retain strong internal ownership of:
These areas depend heavily on organizational context.
External specialists can provide expertise, but long-term accountability usually needs to remain inside the business.
By contrast, a specialist Agentforce implementation or a complex integration challenge may require expertise that the organization does not need permanently.
This is why AI workforce planning should begin with capability mapping rather than job titles.
Leaders need to understand what capabilities are strategically important, how frequently they will be needed and whether they should be owned internally or accessed on demand.
That creates a much more resilient workforce model.
Dreamforce will generate new ideas.
Salesforce leaders will return with AI use cases they want to explore, Agentforce functionality they want to test and examples of organizations moving further into the Agentic Enterprise.
The risk is treating that inspiration as a technology roadmap without considering the workforce behind it.
Every major AI initiative should prompt three questions:
Those questions help turn AI ambition into a practical delivery model.
They also reduce the risk of organizations buying new technology before understanding how it will be supported.
The Mason Frank Careers and Hiring Guide 2026 shows how quickly the capability landscape is already changing. Two-thirds of Salesforce professionals plan to pursue AI training or certification, while 59% of hiring managers have seen demand for AI specialists increase.
That means organizations are competing for expertise at the same time as existing professionals are trying to develop it.
Waiting until a project begins to think about capability could make delivery significantly harder.
The strongest Salesforce workforce strategies do not rely on a single route to capability.
They create pathways.
An organization could develop junior talent internally, reskill experienced employees into emerging areas and use specialists to accelerate high-priority projects.
Over time, external expertise can also transfer knowledge into the internal team.
That creates a workforce model where capability grows alongside the Salesforce roadmap.
For example, an organization introducing Agentforce might:
This approach can provide speed without creating permanent dependency.
It also gives leaders more control over where they invest in long-term skills.
Mason Frank and Tenth Revolution Group can support organizations across this capability journey, from specialist Salesforce talent and contractors to structured training and broader transformation expertise.
AI will continue changing what Salesforce teams do.
Some responsibilities will become automated.
Others will become more complex.
New capabilities will emerge and existing roles will evolve.
Organizations therefore need workforce strategies that can change with the platform.
That means moving away from annual headcount planning as the only answer to capability demand.
Instead, leaders need to ask continuously:
Those conversations should sit alongside technology planning, not follow it.
AI transformation will demand more than new tools. It will require the right combination of internal capability, specialist expertise and structured development.
If Dreamforce is accelerating your Salesforce AI roadmap, speak with us to build a workforce strategy that can deliver today while developing the capability you will need next.