Agentforce vs Agentforce Coworker vs Claudeforce vs Slackforce: Which One Do You Need?

Agentforce is Salesforce’s platform for building and running AI agents that work autonomously or talk to your customers. Agentforce Coworker, Claudeforce and Slackforce are three interfaces that bring Salesforce to employees wherever they already work:

• Coworker inside Salesforce’s own Lightning interface.
• Claudeforce inside Anthropic’s Claude.
• Slackforce inside Slack.

Salesforce groups these three interfaces under a new layer called AIforce, launched at Dreamforce on September 15, 2026. So the choice is not really “which one.” Agentforce answers “what work should agents do on their own?” The other three answer “where do my people want to work with Salesforce?”

This guide compares all four on what they do, who they are for, where they run, what they cost, and what is available today. It then gives a decision guide for common scenarios.

Key takeaways

• Agentforce is for autonomous and customer-facing work: service agents, inbound lead handling, outbound prospecting and back-office processes. It now includes seven prebuilt “job-ready” agents.
• Agentforce Coworker is an AI teammate inside Lightning for employees who already live in Salesforce. It is available now in Enterprise, Unlimited and Agentforce 1 editions.
• Claudeforce is the Salesforce and Anthropic partnership. Its first product, Salesforce in Claude, gives sellers 37 prebuilt sales skills inside Claude. It is in beta.
• Slackforce brings Salesforce into Slack through Slackbot, Slackforce Surfaces, Slack CRM and Slack Code.
• All four respect the same Salesforce permissions, and Claude is the default model behind Slackbot, Coworker and Headless 360. Many companies will use more than one.

The 60-second comparison

How the four fit together: the AIforce stack

Salesforce describes its architecture as four layers:

1. Data 360, at the bottom, unifies data, metadata and memory.
2. Customer 360 holds the applications for sales, service, marketing and commerce, with their business logic, processes and permissions.
3. Agentforce is the agent layer.
4. AIforce, on top, is what Salesforce’s AIforce announcement calls a live interface layer that brings that whole foundation to any AI interface.

AIforce launched with three interfaces: Claudeforce, Slackforce and Agentforce Coworker. All three sit on what Salesforce calls the Headless Toolkit, an open architecture that exposes the Salesforce platform through MCP servers, APIs, plugins and skills. That is why they behave similarly on security. Every request runs on your existing permissions and business rules, so each user sees only what they could see in Salesforce, and actions route back through Salesforce.

The model underneath is also shared. Salesforce and Anthropic’s Claudeforce announcement made Claude:

• the default model powering Agentforce Coworker and Agentforce Vibes,
• a reasoning model for Agentforce’s Atlas Reasoning Engine,
• and the default model for Slack.

At Dreamforce, Salesforce also introduced Koa, its own CRM reasoning model built on NVIDIA Nemotron. Koa is in pilot inside Agentforce and expected to be generally available this winter in US regions.

The practical consequence: these are not four competing products. They are one data and permission foundation reached through four different front doors.

Agentforce: agents that do the work

What it is

Agentforce is Salesforce’s platform for building, deploying and managing AI agents. It includes Agent Builder, Prompt Builder and Agent Script for building agents, a runtime that plans and executes actions, and a growing set of prebuilt agents.

Salesforce’s president of applications, Patrick Stokes, drew the line clearly when Claudeforce launched. Agentforce is designed for autonomous work or work that touches the end customer, such as the agent behind Salesforce’s own help site.

What is new in September 2026

On September 11, 2026, Salesforce introduced a portfolio of seven named, “job-ready” agents built for specific roles:

Hunter is the first agent on Agentforce’s new long-horizon runtime, which lets an agent pursue a goal across days and weeks rather than a single conversation. Salesforce also announced multi-agent orchestration, which lets several agents coordinate on one piece of work; our guide to multi-agent orchestration in Agentforce explains how it works in practice. For Coworker, Salesforce announced AI Skills (covered below).

Pricing model

Salesforce’s help documentation lists Flex Credits at $500 per 100,000 credits, with one standard Agentforce action consuming 20 credits, or $0.10. Enterprise Edition customers and above can get a starter allocation through Salesforce Foundations.

Per-user options also exist. Third-party pricing guides list Agentforce add-ons from $125 per user per month and Agentforce 1 editions from $550 per user per month. Confirm current rates with your account executive, since Salesforce’s packaging has changed several times in 2026.

Choose Agentforce when

• The work should happen without an employee prompting each step: answering customers, qualifying inbound leads overnight, routing cases or running back-office processes.
• The agent faces customers on your website, in messaging apps or on the phone.
• You want an agent to pursue a goal over time, such as working an outbound account list.

For examples of where autonomous agents are already delivering results, see our roundup of real-world Agentforce use cases working in 2026.

Agentforce Coworker: AI inside Salesforce itself

What it is

Salesforce describes Agentforce Coworker as an AI teammate in the Lightning interface that reasons across accounts, activity and history, surfaces insights and takes action. It was first announced in May 2026 and became one of the three AIforce launch interfaces at Dreamforce. Because it runs inside Salesforce, it operates within your existing permissions, and Salesforce says nothing is retained outside your trust boundary.

Coworker can also call the specialized Agentforce agents you have already built, so it becomes more capable as your agent portfolio grows. Salesforce reports that 100,000 users activated Coworker within its first 35 days.

Availability and requirements

• Editions: Enterprise, Unlimited and Agentforce 1.
• Salesforce says it can be activated with a button, with no migration and no new permissions model.
• AI Skills in Coworker lets employees teach Coworker a task once and scale it across the workforce. It is in pilot, with GA planned for October 2026.

Pricing model

Salesforce’s developer documentation on billing for Agentforce Coworker lists two billing models:

• Seat-based pricing applies through Agentforce 1 Edition or Agentforce for Sales, Service and Industries licenses. With seat-based pricing, searching Salesforce CRM or Slack through Coworker does not consume Flex Credits or Data Services Credits.
• Usage-based pricing applies through Flex Credits, Einstein Requests or Data Services Credits.

Admins must assign the user-based AI permission for seat-based users. Without it, those users consume credits instead.

Choose Coworker when

• Your team already spends its day in Salesforce and you want AI where they are.
• You already license Agentforce for Sales or Service, or Agentforce 1, and want to use the seats you have.
• You want an assistant that can hand work to the Agentforce agents you have built.

Claudeforce: Salesforce inside Claude

What it is

Claudeforce is the expanded partnership Salesforce and Anthropic announced on August 26, 2026. It has several parts:

• Salesforce inside Claude.
• Claude inside Salesforce products, including Agentforce and Slack.
• Each company adopting the other’s technology.

When people say “Claudeforce,” they usually mean its first product, Salesforce in Claude.

Salesforce in Claude is a plugin built by Salesforce. It bundles 37 prebuilt sales skills, the Salesforce and Slack connectors, and a setup skill that personalizes the plugin to each seller’s role and book of business. Sellers can research accounts, prep for calls, review pipeline, draft follow-ups and update Salesforce from Claude, with Claude asking for approval before each change by default. Anthropic says GitLab, Siemens and Legora have deployed it and that 7,000 Salesforce sellers use it.

For developers, Salesforce also released a Salesforce Development plugin for Claude Code with more than 40 skills.

Availability and requirements

• Beta since September 15, 2026, on all paid Claude plans.
• Anthropic lists the latest Sales Cloud Enterprise edition as the beta eligibility requirement.
• Works in Claude chat and Claude Cowork, on web and desktop.
• Skills are sales-only at launch. Salesforce says analytics with Tableau and skills for service, marketing, commerce and industries will follow in the near future.

Pricing model

There is no single Claudeforce price. You pay Anthropic for Claude seats and Salesforce for an eligible edition. Stokes has said Salesforce charges for the plugin’s usage through headless consumption tied to your edition and licenses, and that customers contract separately with Anthropic for Claude. He acknowledged it cannot yet be bought on one contract.

Choose Claudeforce when

• Your sellers or managers already use Claude for research, writing and analysis, and switching into Salesforce is the friction.
• You want multi-step sales work done in one request: a morning brief, call prep, a scored deal review with a mutual close plan, or a forecast narrative.
• You want sellers to build their own views. Salesforce demonstrated sellers asking Claude to build custom pipeline dashboards on live Salesforce data.

Slackforce: Salesforce inside Slack

What it is

Slackforce brings Salesforce context and actions into Slack conversations and workflows. It has four parts:

• Slackbot: Slack’s personal AI assistant, which Salesforce says reasons across Slack conversations and Salesforce data. In Salesforce’s example, Slackbot finds accounts going quiet, reads the support cases and threads behind them, reassigns an owner, creates a follow-up task and drafts a win-back email.
• Slackforce Surfaces: interactive, live views built from Salesforce, Slack and other tools that a whole channel can filter, comment on and act on together.
• Slack CRM: connects Slack conversations, users and updates to Salesforce, so users can create accounts, log call notes and update records from a prompt. The name also covers a native lightweight CRM for small businesses, included in Slack’s Business+ plan.
• Slack Code: a shared space in Slack where a team works with a coding agent on a session or project, in the open.

Availability and requirements

• Salesforce Ben reported that Slackforce Surfaces is available for Enterprise+, Business+, Pro, Legacy and Free Slack teams with Slackbot enabled, with live data rolling out in October.
• Slack says Slackbot is available on Business+ and Enterprise+. Access is unlimited on Enterprise+, and Business+ has a weekly message limit. Free and Pro users get a limited sample.
• Some trade reports describe Slackforce as beta at launch. Check component-level status with Slack before committing to a rollout date.

Pricing model

Slackforce is tied to your Slack plan rather than sold as a separate SKU. Slack’s small-business CRM is included in Business+ at no extra cost. Acting on your full Salesforce org also requires the relevant Salesforce licenses.

Choose Slackforce when

• Deals and accounts are already discussed in Slack channels, and updating Salesforce after the conversation is the step people skip.
• You want shared, live views a team can act on together, rather than individual dashboards.
• You are a small team without a CRM and want to start with one built into Slack.

Detailed side-by-side comparison

Decision guide: which one fits your situation?

Start with two questions

1. Should a person be in the loop for each step? If no, you need Agentforce. If yes, you need one of the three interfaces.
2. Where do your people already spend their day? In Salesforce, choose Coworker. In Claude, choose Claudeforce. In Slack, choose Slackforce.

Common scenarios

Can you use more than one?

Yes, and most larger Salesforce customers will. A common pattern is:

• Agentforce for customer-facing and after-hours work.
• Coworker for Salesforce-first roles.
• Claudeforce for account executives and managers who prefer Claude.
• Slackforce for deal-channel collaboration.

Running several at once has three consequences to plan for:

• One permission model governs all of them. Because each interface respects the user’s Salesforce permissions, a single permission cleanup protects every interface at once. Our guide to running AI agents safely with permissions and data boundaries covers how to set that foundation.
• Separate connection settings. Claude connects through an External Client App that you configure. Salesforce recommends a dedicated app per MCP client, so do not reuse one app across tools.
• Several cost lines. Agentforce credits or seats, Claude seats, Salesforce API consumption and Slack plans are billed differently. Track usage per interface during pilots so you can compare value per dollar.

Common misconceptions

“Claudeforce replaces Agentforce.”

No. Claude runs inside Agentforce as a reasoning model, and Salesforce keeps adding Agentforce agents. The two serve different kinds of work.

“AIforce is a product you buy.”

AIforce is the name of the layer. What you adopt are its interfaces (Claudeforce, Slackforce and Coworker), each with its own requirements.

“Agentforce is being renamed or dropped.”

Salesforce has dropped the “Agentforce” prefix from some application names: Agentforce Sales is Sales Cloud again, and Agentforce Marketing is Marketing Cloud again. The Agentforce agent platform itself continues to expand.

“Coworker is Salesforce’s version of Claude.”

Coworker is a Salesforce interface. It uses Claude as its default model, but it runs inside Lightning, uses Agentforce licensing, and can call your Agentforce agents.

“Slackforce needs a full Salesforce implementation.”

Not always. Slack’s small-business CRM runs natively in Slack on Business+, with data stored in Salesforce behind the scenes. Acting on an existing Salesforce org’s data does require that org and its licenses.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Agentforce and Claudeforce?

Agentforce is Salesforce’s platform for building and running AI agents that work autonomously or deal directly with customers, such as service agents on web chat or inbound lead agents working around the clock. Claudeforce is the Salesforce and Anthropic partnership. Its first product, Salesforce in Claude, lets employees work with Salesforce data inside Claude using 37 prebuilt sales skills. The simplest way to separate them: Agentforce does work on its own within guardrails, while Claudeforce helps a person do their own work faster, with that person approving each change.

What is the difference between Agentforce Coworker and Claudeforce?

Both help employees work with Salesforce data, and both use Claude as the default model while respecting each user’s Salesforce permissions. The difference is where they run and how they are licensed. Agentforce Coworker lives inside Salesforce’s Lightning interface, uses Agentforce seat-based or usage-based licensing, and can call Agentforce agents you have already built. Claudeforce, through Salesforce in Claude, runs inside Claude chat and Cowork. It needs a paid Claude plan and an eligible Sales Cloud edition, and suits sellers who already do research and writing in Claude.

What is AIforce?

AIforce is the live interface layer Salesforce announced at Dreamforce on September 15, 2026. It brings Salesforce data, workflows, business logic, permissions and governance to AI interfaces such as Claude, Slack and Lightning. People can ask questions, update records and trigger workflows without navigating Salesforce’s screens. AIforce is not a product you buy on its own. It launched with three interfaces, Claudeforce, Slackforce and Agentforce Coworker, and sits on top of Data 360, Customer 360 and Agentforce in Salesforce’s architecture. Each interface has its own requirements.

What is Slackforce, and is it the same as Slack CRM?

Slackforce brings Salesforce context and actions into Slack through four parts: Slackbot, Slackforce Surfaces, Slack CRM and Slack Code. Slack CRM is one of those parts, focused on managing customer records by conversation. For Salesforce customers, it connects Slack conversations and updates to their Salesforce org. The same name also covers a lightweight CRM for small businesses, included in Slack’s Business+ plan at no extra cost, with data stored in Salesforce behind the scenes. Slack CRM sits inside Slackforce, but Slackforce covers much more.

Does Claudeforce replace Agentforce?

No. Claude runs inside Agentforce as a reasoning model for the Atlas Reasoning Engine and is the default model for Agentforce Coworker and Agentforce Vibes. In September 2026 Salesforce launched seven job-ready Agentforce agents and a long-horizon runtime, plus Koa, its own CRM reasoning model for Agentforce. Salesforce positions Agentforce for autonomous and customer-facing work, and Salesforce in Claude for employees doing their own work in Claude. The confusion partly comes from Salesforce dropping the Agentforce prefix from some application names, not from any change to the platform itself.

Which of the four is available today?

As of September 2026, Agentforce Coworker is available now in Enterprise, Unlimited and Agentforce 1 editions. Six of the seven job-ready Agentforce agents are generally available, with Hunter in pilot and GA planned for November 2026. Salesforce in Claude, the first Claudeforce product, has been in beta since September 15, 2026 on paid Claude plans. Slackforce components are rolling out, with live data in Slackforce Surfaces scheduled from October 2026. Statuses change monthly, so confirm availability for your edition with Salesforce before planning a rollout.

How much do Agentforce, Coworker, Claudeforce and Slackforce cost?

Each is priced differently:

• Agentforce uses Flex Credits, listed by Salesforce at $500 per 100,000 credits with a standard action consuming 20 credits, or $0.10, plus per-user license options.
• Agentforce Coworker supports seat-based pricing through eligible Agentforce licenses, or usage-based pricing through credits.
• Claudeforce has no single price: you pay for Claude seats, an eligible Sales Cloud edition and Salesforce API consumption.
• Slackforce is tied to your Slack plan, with Slackbot on Business+ and Enterprise+, plus Salesforce licenses for your org.

Can we use Agentforce, Coworker, Claudeforce and Slackforce together?

Yes, and most larger Salesforce customers will. A common pattern is Agentforce for customer-facing and after-hours work, Coworker for employees who live in Lightning, Claudeforce for account executives and managers who prefer Claude, and Slackforce for deal-channel collaboration. Because every interface respects each user’s Salesforce permissions, one permission cleanup protects all of them. Plan for separate connection settings, including a dedicated External Client App for Claude. Track usage per interface during pilots, since each one is billed differently, so you can compare value per dollar.

Which AI model powers Agentforce, Coworker, Claudeforce and Slackforce?

Claude is the default model across the employee-facing side. Salesforce and Anthropic’s Claudeforce announcement made Claude the default for Agentforce Coworker, Agentforce Vibes and Slack, including Slackbot, and a reasoning model for Agentforce’s Atlas Reasoning Engine. Salesforce in Claude runs on Claude by design. Agentforce still lets admins choose among supported models and override the choice per agent. Salesforce has also introduced Koa, its own CRM reasoning model built on NVIDIA Nemotron, which is in pilot inside Agentforce with general availability expected this winter in US regions.

How do we choose between Agentforce, Coworker, Claudeforce and Slackforce?

Start with two questions. First, should a person be in the loop for each step? If not, and the work is customer-facing or should run on its own, choose Agentforce. If yes, choose one of the three AIforce interfaces. Second, where do your people already spend their day? Teams that live in Salesforce should start with Coworker, teams that work in Claude with Claudeforce, and teams that coordinate in Slack with Slackforce. Many organizations end up using several, all on the same data and permissions.