The Importance of Human in the Loop for Agentforce

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Lee, Lead Admin Evangelist at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about all the cool new features coming in the Winter '27 Release, including Builder Central, Setup with Agentforce, and what's new with Flow. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Lee. Admins are agent-powered with Builder Central and Setup with Agentforce First of all, this is the first week with our new format, there will be a video version as well. Coming soon to the Salesforce Admins YouTube channel to see demos, clips, and visual explainers for each episode. Today, we're looking ahead to the Winter '27 Release with Jennifer Lee to find out which new features admins need to know about. One thing that generated a lot of excitement at Dreamforce is Builder Central. It's an intelligent, agent-powered workspace where you can build, test, and deploy solutions using natural language. You really need to see it in action to understand how powerful it is, so check out the video for this episode, where we have a demo for you. Setup with Agentforce is also now generally available (GA). This tool simplifies so much about managing users, configuring your org, and troubleshooting user access issues. Jen's found it to be especially helpful for reorganizing role hierarchy and, in general, taking control of permissions in your org. Three Flow enhancements to make your life easier Jen highlights three Flow enhancements that she thinks will have a big impact for admins: Edit History allows you to review, restore, and reuse past versions of a flow. If you've ever found yourself staring at a broken flow and asking yourself why you can't just go back to a version that worked, this enhancement is for you. Also new in Winter '27, you can now process multiple records with Screen Flows from List Views and Related Lists. This makes it easier than ever for your users to do bulk updates with a quick mass action, without having to leave the screen flow they're already working in. Finally, Test Mode (Beta) allows you to debug and test in Flow Builder in one place. You can save manual tests so you're not entering the same criteria over and over again, and use them to build an automated testing suite. Jen's steps for release readiness The wonderful thing about Salesforce is that a new release is always around the corner. For Jen, release readiness comes down to four steps: Plan and learn

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Alastair Dinning, Senior Solution Architect at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about the process of adding new features to your org, from what to look for when you're reading through release notes to rolling something new out and driving adoption. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Alastair Dinning. Which new features should I pay attention to in the release notes? The exciting thing about working in the Salesforce ecosystem is that it's continually evolving. A new release is always around the corner, chock-full of new features that could improve your org. But how do you sift through everything to figure out what will add value and what's just a shiny new toy? My guest this week is Alastair Dinning, a Senior Solution Architect with Salesforce Professional Services. He has 14 years of experience as a consultant for businesses of all sizes, helping admins change their orgs for the better. For Alastair, the most important thing when you're looking through release notes is to have a clear understanding of your business processes and problems. Do any of these new features address a pain point? Whether you practice SABWA, run a steering committee of power users, or use a case management system for feedback, you need to have your finger on the pulse of your users. Three pathways for adding a new feature to your org Once you've identified a problem you'd like to address, Alastair lays out three options: you can build a declarative solution yourself, you can buy a solution off of the AppExchange, or you can work with a developer to code something custom. Building your own declarative solution means that you end up with something that's tailored exactly to your specific business requirements, but it also costs you resources in terms of time. Buying something off the AppExchange, on the other hand, costs you money up front, but you're saving a lot of time and can deploy the change quite quickly. Even if the solution isn't 100% right for your specific problem, Alastair encourages you to reach out to the AppExchange partner because they're often willing to make improvements. Finally, coding a custom solution is probably the most expensive in terms of internal resources, but gets you exactly what you want. The drawback here is flexibility. You don't want to end up with a solution that you can't update if your business context changes in the future. Know when to keep Salesforce steady for your users If you've spent time with your users and really understand their pain points, adoption should come easily. But at the end of the day, the job of the admin isn't to constantly roll out new features—it's to make life easier for your users. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to keep your Salesforce environment consistent and stable. That means not only identifying which new features could possibly be helpful for your org, but having proactive conversations with leadership about the bigger picture. Make sure to listen to my full conversation with Alastair for more about how to roll out new features to your org and how admins can best work with consultants. And remember to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Joshua Birk, Senior Director of Admin Evangelism, and Kate Lessard, Lead Admin Evangelist at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about what caught our attention at Dreamforce, what surprised us, and what's worth spending time on. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Joshua Birk and Kate Lessard. Build fast and accurately with Builder Central Probably the most exciting announcement from the keynote is Builder Central. It's a low and no-code workspace to enable admins to build fast and accurately, without compromising on security. From React sites to flows to agents, you can get an idea off the ground with plain language prompts. But just because you move fast doesn't mean you need to break things, thanks to automated testing, safety checks, and built-in controls. "We can take what we as admins already know about data models and our org structure and really, truly define what we're building," Kate says. You can upload requirements documents and information about your organization's business processes to make sure everything that you build works from the get-go. Create consistently amazing Salesforce experiences The other thing that was touched on in the keynote was Headless 360 and the Headless Experience Layer. You can bring Salesforce to Slack, Claude, and anywhere else your users need to interact with your data. If you're feeling overwhelmed by how many different ways there are for users to interact with your Salesforce data, know that you're not alone. But at the end of the day, these are experiences that you're designing for your users to make their lives easier where they're already working. Admins need to focus on governance and security Finally, the biggest takeaway from Dreamforce this year is that governance and trust are more important than ever. Hackers use AI too, and the threat landscape is constantly evolving. Now more than ever, the role of the Salesforce Admin has shifted into governance. That means data cleanup and strict permissions controls to make sure that your agents are working as intended. And that also means getting a better handle on how your data is moving across platforms and who might have access to it. Trust is a core principle at Salesforce, and so we're rolling out new tools like Security Center Essentials and the Transaction Security Policy Accelerator to help you take control of what's going on in your org. There's so much more great stuff in our September Monthly Retro recap of Dreamforce, so make sure to listen to the full episode. And don't forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us in your feed every Thursday. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Maria Alvarez-Zarrilli, Founder and Principal Consultant for Throughline HR LLC, and William Walsh, Salesforce and AI Recruitment Lead at Harvey Nash. Join us as we chat about what Salesforce employers are looking for in new hires and how to get your career started. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Maria Alvarez-Zarrilli and William Walsh. How the Salesforce Admin job market has changed Over the past few years, the role of the admin has changed a lot. It's no longer about how many certifications you have or how many users you can manage. While those skills are still important, being a great Salesforce Admin is much more about how you put that knowledge into action to support core business processes and generate value for your organization. So how do you stand out from the crowd? That's what I wanted to talk about with Maria Alvarez-Zarrilli and William Walsh. As recruiters, they see the Salesforce Admin job market from both sides: what it's like when you're looking for a role and what employers are asking for when they hire. Increasingly, it's not just about what you can do in Salesforce, but how you can connect it to the business and make an impact. Talk about business impact The number one thing that Maria looks for in a Salesforce Admin is requirements literacy. "It's not just being able to take a set of orders and execute it, but really be able to fine-tune that," she says. "Push back, make recommendations, be in front of what's happening and have that longer future vision, knowing that so many of these runways are going to be short with AI." Showing you have that skill is tricky, but it starts with how you talk about your experience. Are you describing features, or are you talking about the benefits? Don't just list outcomes; talk about impact. You need to show that you can think bigger than what you're building and understand how it fits with larger organizational goals. The power of showing up William urges job seekers to spend real, face-to-face time in the Salesforce community. At this point, everybody has shiny, AI-polished LinkedIn profiles and resumes. But meeting someone and making a connection with them can be so much more powerful than sitting in front of your computer mass-applying to every job opening you come across. "This ecosystem is super welcoming, and everybody wants to see everybody succeed," William says. "So go to some user groups, some local events, and you'll see how quickly people around you start to root for you and start to put your resume in front of the people they know." Maria and William have a ton of great tips for interviews and navigating the Salesforce Admin job market, so make sure to listen to the full episode. And while you're at it, subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Sabrina Simeroth, Product Manager on the Salesforce Security Product Team. Join us as we chat about the new Security Center Essentials feature and how to work security reviews into the rhythm of your organization. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Sabrina Simeroth. What is Security Center Essentials? The last time we had Sabrina on the pod, we were talking about Health Check scores. However, as she explains, that number is meant to be an assessment of your organization's security Configurables at a single point in time. But what about continuous monitoring? That's where Security Center Essentials comes in. "With Essentials, we're trying to give a broader and more ongoing visibility," Sabrina explains, with a focused set of security metrics you can monitor over time. It makes it easy to see things like what managed packages are supported, which third-party platforms have access to your data, and who in your organization made changes. In other words, Security Center Essentials gives you a map for how your org is structured, making it easier to spot potential problems and make sure your security and governance are aligned with your business goals. Two questions to ask for security reviews So how do you get started with Security Center Essentials? For Sabrina, it's all about context. Once you've run Health Check and dialed in your security settings and policies, you want to use the metrics on Security Center Essentials to get context for how things work in your organization. From there, Sabrina recommends asking yourself two key questions: What should be in my environment? Who owns this managed package? Who installed it? Who is using it? What has changed most recently? Were you expecting it? Who did it? How does it affect your business processes? Sabrina recommends establishing a monitoring cadence around regular business process milestones. If something is updated every Tuesday, check before and after to make sure everything happened as expected. As an admin, you have the best operational context to flag potential problems and bring them to your security and governance team. Why you shouldn't chase a perfect Health Check score While your Health Check score is helpful for giving you a general understanding of how your security standards compare to industry best practices, Sabrina urges you not to chase a perfect score. "Your Health Check score should begin a security review, rather than ending a review," she explains. It's there to flag areas of your org that need a closer look, so you can make decisions about how much intentional risk your business needs to carry. The most dangerous security threats are the ones you don't know about. It's OK not to have a perfect Health Check score, as long as you know why you're doing it. Make sure to listen to my full conversation with Sabrina about how to use Security Center Essentials and Health Check. And don't forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store