Salesforce Is Rebuilding Everything - Should You Be Worried?

This is the web version of the newsletter which you can subscribe »

Hello

A small housekeeping note first - I'm switching Reddit links to standard URLs going forward. Turns out the "old." prefix now forces a login, which defeats the purpose of sharing them. Thanks to a reader who flagged it.

On to this week's content. Salesforce's new licensing tiers - Core, Advanced, and Max - are worth paying attention to. It's not just a pricing reshuffle; it changes what's actually included in your org. Related to that, the Claudeforce partnership with Anthropic keeps expanding, and it's worth understanding what it actually means in practice rather than just the marketing angle.

For developers, Winter '27 brings a significant bump to Apex heap limits - synchronous jumps from 6MB to 10MB, async from 12MB to 25MB. A welcome change. And on the AI side, there's a solid piece making the case that not every workflow needs an agent - sometimes a prompt template is simply the right tool.

All links and more below.

For everyone

Reinventing Salesforce's Biggest Strength - The New CRM Ecosystem
https://www.salesforceben.com/reinventing-salesforces-biggest-strength-the-new-crm-ecosystem/
Salesforce built its power by getting all its tools - CRM, Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau, and the new Agentforce - to work seamlessly together, making customers stick with the platform. But the market's changing fast - more businesses now want freedom to pick their own data storage, AI models, and tools instead of being locked into one vendor. Salesforce noticed this shift and started opening up - supporting outside data platforms, different AI options, and third-party integrations throughout the year. Here's the twist though - while Salesforce looks more open on the surface, it's becoming even more central to how everything connects. So the real question is: did Salesforce actually solve the lock-in problem, or just make customers dependent in a different way?
Salesforce External Client App: Complete Guide for Headless 360 Integrations
https://salesforcecodex.com/salesforce/salesforce-external-client-app-complete-guide-for-headless-360-integrations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=salesforce-external-client-app-complete-guide-for-headless-360-integrations
Salesforce is shifting from Connected Apps to External Client Apps (ECAs) for securing external access - this includes custom apps, mobile tools, and AI clients. Starting Spring '26, Salesforce won't allow new Connected Apps, pushing everyone toward ECAs instead (existing ones still work fine). ECAs become crucial for modern setups, especially with Salesforce Headless 360 and hosted MCP servers. This guide breaks down what ECAs actually are, how OAuth authentication works with them, how they stack up against the old Connected Apps, and where they fit in a Headless 360 architecture.
Will Salesforce Lose Platform Dominance in 2027?
https://www.salesforceben.com/will-salesforce-lose-platform-dominance-in-2027/
Salesforce is basically the king of CRM software - it's been the top dog since 2012 and way ahead of competitors like Oracle and Microsoft, holding 20% of the market in 2025. Looks unstoppable on paper, but something's brewing in the user community that could shake things up and challenge Salesforce's reign soon.
Salesforce Rebuilds Licensing Tiers and Adds Agentforce
https://salesforcebreak.com/2026/09/04/agentforce-pricing-tiers/
Salesforce made buying easier by creating three new package tiers - Core, Advanced, and Max - that bundle everything together instead of forcing customers to buy Agentforce, Slack, Tableau, and security add-ons separately. This isn't just a feature tweak; it's a whole new way to purchase, which means organizations will see real changes in what they actually get access to in their systems.
Winter '27 Release: New Logic Split Elements for Salesforce Flow
https://www.salesforceben.com/winter-27-release-new-logic-split-elements-for-salesforce-flow/
Salesforce just dropped two new branching tools in Winter '27 - Split by Field Value and Split by Date. Split by Field Value lets you branch flows based on whether a variable matches a specific value, while Split by Date checks if the flow ran before, after, on, or between certain dates. Both support formulas for more flexibility. For years, Decision elements were the only way to create branching logic in Flow Builder, but these new tools change the game and offer faster, more straightforward alternatives for specific situations - though Decision elements still have their place.
How to Audit a Salesforce Integration You Didn't Build
https://www.salesforceben.com/how-to-audit-a-salesforce-integration-you-didnt-build/
Taking over someone else's Salesforce setup can be tough because it's hard to understand why things were built the way they were - whether a partner, contractor, or original team set it up. The real challenge isn't knowing the technical stuff, it's figuring out what decisions were made and why. To take real ownership, the new person needs to dig in and understand what's actually there, how it all works together, what it relies on, and where problems might happen down the road.
Claudeforce: What Is It and How Does It Work With Salesforce?
https://www.mytutorialrack.com/claudeforce/
Claudeforce is a partnership between Salesforce and Anthropic that mixes Claude's smart AI with Salesforce's business data - all while keeping your company's security rules intact. The first product is Salesforce in Claude, which gives Claude access to your Salesforce info and comes with 37 ready-made sales tools. These tools help with stuff like finding new customers, checking your sales pipeline, planning deals, prepping for meetings, and updating your CRM. The partnership works both ways, so it's not just Claude using Salesforce data.
Send Email through External Email Service permission is not like the others
https://goravseth.com/send-email-through-external-email-service-permission-is-not-like-the-others
The "Send Email through External Email Service" permission works differently than other permissions and causes headaches. It won't show up in the UI unless deliverability is set to "all email" - even after you enable it, you have to turn deliverability back on just to see it. Same issue happens with permission set retrieves - deliverability must be on or the permission won't pull through. Deploying this permission to another org fails unless deliverability is already enabled there, which means keeping it on permanently. But that's not even the whole problem - you also need to enable the actual feature for sending through Gmail or Outlook in the target org, or deployment still fails. Even disabling deliverability after enabling the feature doesn't help. The checkbox for this in setup has no save button either, and it uses async processing that takes an unknown amount of time, so clicking away too fast means your changes don't save. The permission is enabled on standard profiles by default, but the minimum access profile probably should handle everything instead - except the feature might get bloated there too.
Salesforce Announces 3 Replacement Editions, Bundling AI, Slack, and Security
https://www.salesforceben.com/salesforce-announces-3-replacement-editions-bundling-ai-slack-and-security/
Salesforce just rolled out three new package tiers - Core, Advanced, and Max - that bundle everything customers need into one deal. Each edition comes packed with built-in AI tools, Slack for teamwork, analytics through Tableau Next, top-notch security, and a Premier Success Plan covering support. The main difference between tiers is how many Flex Credits are included - Core gets 500,000, Advanced gets 1M, and Max gets 2.75M. Here's the sweet part: folks already using Agentforce 1 Edition can jump to Max for free and gain up to $500 in extra value, plus Salesforce claims Max delivers 60% more value than the old edition at no extra cost. Down the road, Max editions will also get Headless 360 capacity included.
Salesforce MCP: The Connection Stopped Being the Hard Part
https://www.theskyplanner.com/salesforce-mcp-llm/
Salesforce connections used to be huge projects requiring months of work and serious money. Now that's changed - the actual connecting part is super easy. A client recently wanted their team to ask questions about Salesforce data using plain language from tools they already use. Five years ago, that would've meant a massive integration project. Today, the technical connection is basically simple. The real challenge isn't hooking things up anymore - it's figuring out what to connect and how to use it. That shift is the biggest deal, even though it gets buried under all the product announcements.
Should You Get Anthropic Certified as a Salesforce Professional?
https://www.salesforceben.com/should-you-get-anthropic-certified-as-a-salesforce-professional/
Anthropic certification helps Salesforce pros pick up AI skills and show they know their stuff - basically, it's a solid add-on to prove expertise to the community. Salesforce certification stays crucial for your career, but Anthropic certification gives you extra credibility on the AI side. Here's the thing - comparing which one matters more misses the point, since both bring different value to the table. Just keep in mind that only Anthropic partners can access this certification program, so if you're not working with an Anthropic partner organization, you won't be able to take the exam. Whether it's actually worth your time depends on where you're at in your job and where you want to go career-wise.
Is the SaaSpocalyse Over?
https://www.salesforceben.com/is-the-saaspocalyse-over/
Everyone's been freaking out about the "SaaSpocalypse" - basically worried that SaaS companies would crash and burn thanks to AI and other changes. Salesforce's Marc Benioff recently called all that doom-and-gloom talk "nonsense" and said people need to chill out, but let's be real - he's got skin in the game so that's easy for him to say. Thing is, the landscape is actually shifting now - Salesforce launched Claudeforce, major AI companies are teaming up with SaaS platforms, and the stock market is starting to show signs that maybe things aren't as apocalyptic as everyone thought. So yeah, the panic might actually be cooling down.
Which Salesforce Certifications Do I Get Next?
https://salesforcebreak.com/2026/09/02/certifications/
Getting tons of Salesforce certs in a month used to be a quick path to a job - companies were hiring anyone with one or two certifications during the remote work boom when they needed admins fast. But things have changed. Employers now care way more about what candidates actually know and can do rather than just collecting certificates. The "get certified in 90 days, get hired" story is done. Companies want people with real specialized skills and technical chops, not just someone who passed tests. If a job involves coding or advanced stuff, it should be labeled as developer work and paid like it - not lumped in with basic admin roles.

Job Market

New Salesforce Ecosystem Jobs of 2026
https://www.salesforceben.com/new-salesforce-ecosystem-jobs-of-2026/
Salesforce jobs are shifting because of AI tools shaking things up - some traditional roles are changing or getting tougher for newcomers to land. People keep debating whether AI will kill certain jobs, but supporters say the same thing: yes, some repetitive tasks disappear, but new opportunities pop up instead. Now that Salesforce's Agentforce has been around for nearly two years, it's worth looking at exactly what's actually happening in the Salesforce job market and what fresh roles have shown up.

For devs

Increased Apex Heap Size in Winter '27
https://bobbuzzard.blogspot.com/2026/09/increased-apex-heap-size-in-winter-27.html
Salesforce Winter '27 bumped up Apex heap limits big time - synchronous Apex jumped from 6Mb to 10Mb (66% increase) and asynchronous Apex went from 12Mb to 25Mb (108% increase), which is pretty surprising given how much memory AI data centers are hogging right now. There's a handy feature in Apex Settings that lets non-production orgs use Summer '26 limits during the transition, so developers don't accidentally ship code relying on bigger heap sizes to orgs that can't handle it. Testing showed that while a 28Mb zip file processed fine with the new limits, jumping to 75Mb or 100Mb files still crashed when pulling the file body - compression algorithms don't scale linearly, so the extra heap space has limits depending on what developers are actually doing.

For architects

Next Generation Salesforce DevOps Center: Get Hands-On
https://www.salesforceben.com/next-generation-salesforce-devops-center-get-hands-on/
Salesforce just dropped a major upgrade - the Next Generation DevOps Center is now built right into production instances starting Spring '26, ditching the need for a separate managed package. This new version keeps the core ideas from the original but feels like a complete overhaul - fixing old problems, removing limits, and adding AI-powered features. The article breaks down how it actually works step-by-step, shows you the source control behind the scenes, and explains what's different between the old managed package version and this shiny new native app. If DevOps is new to you, check out the previous article first to get the basics down before diving in.
How Metadata and Runtime Telemetry Reveal Which Enterprise System Problems to Fix First
https://engineering.salesforce.com/how-metadata-and-runtime-telemetry-reveal-which-enterprise-system-problems-to-fix-first/
Karishma Lalwani's team at Salesforce tackled a huge challenge - monitoring massive enterprise systems processing billions of daily transactions. The tricky part was connecting configuration data with constantly changing runtime information spread across different systems with varying access levels and freshness. Instead of throwing every possible issue at customers, the team built a smart system that figures out what actually matters and prioritizes fixes that make the biggest impact with the least effort. They transformed a basic health report into an intelligent in-app experience, created over 400 signals across security, automation, customization, and data areas, and turned messy enterprise data into clear, context-aware recommendations that guide what to fix next.
Salesforce Architects Are Chasing a CTA Certification They Don't Fully Trust
https://www.salesforceben.com/salesforce-architects-are-chasing-a-cta-certification-they-dont-fully-trust/
Salesforce architects are doing something weird - they're actually going for the CTA certification even though most don't think it's worth the time or money. Last year, plenty of architects skipped it, but this year's survey shows the majority are either already certified, working toward it, or planning to get it. Problem is, a bunch of those same people still aren't convinced it's actually valuable. Basically, architects are chasing something they don't fully trust - and somehow, both things are happening at the same time.

Reddit Discussions

"Problem Verifying Your Identity" error after phishing resistant MFA rollout
https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/1vqyfmv/problem_verifying_your_identity_error_after/
NGO's System Admin accounts started getting a "need higher access level and identity verification" error after Salesforce rolled out phishing resistant MFA - thing is, the error pops up before even entering a password or passkey, just at the email prompt stage. Clearing cookies and browser cache fixes it temporarily, but it comes back hours or days later. Weirdly, it only hits Windows 11 users on Edge and Chrome, while macOS users are fine. Login history shows nothing - no failed attempts logged anywhere, which suggests something's breaking before it even reaches the system logs, possibly a stale session token. Identity Verification settings haven't been touched since the predecessor set them up, and passkeys are stored in 1Password. Nobody else experiencing this since the MFA update?
Revoking data import permissions for the entire sales team on monday
https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/1vrmast/revoking_data_import_permissions_for_the_entire/
Frustrated Salesforce admin dealing with a disaster - head of sales tried importing thousands of rows of sketchy "premium" leads with totally invalid data like "N/A - call him" and emoji strings in email fields. When validation rules caught it, sales blamed the admin's "overly strict" logic instead of their garbage data. Now admin's stuck on a Tuesday evening manually cleaning the mess with MailTester.Ninja to save their sending reputation before Pardot ruins it. Fed up with being the digital janitor while salespeople make big commissions, admin's revoking everyone's import permissions come Monday morning.
Claude might be making Salesforce technical debt worse.
https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/1vsma75/claude_might_be_making_salesforce_technical_debt/
Claude's getting so good at building Salesforce stuff that it's making things faster - a task that took half a day now takes 20 minutes - but here's the problem: nobody's documenting why things exist or how they work together. So six months later, when someone asks why a Flow even exists, nobody has a clue. The worry is that AI is making it way easier to create messy, confusing technical debt in Salesforce than it is to actually clean it up and keep things organized.
PSA: Be Careful With Your Agentforce and Salesforce Credits
https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/1vsx4jj/psa_be_careful_with_your_agentforce_and/
Heads up - Agentforce and Salesforce features have zero built-in limits, and that can get expensive fast. Someone enabled the new Customer Experience Intelligence feature in production and woke up to a warning that 2.1 million flex credits had been burned overnight. By day two, it hit 4.1 million. Turns out the CXI feature was triple-dipping into consumption credits - not just the CXI Signal credits purchased, but also Data Service credits and regular Flex Credits. Support hinted this happens to other customers too, and yeah, the bill still has to get paid for all that usage. The lesson: if you're running scheduled Flows with Agentforce or using features like CXI in Data 360, massive amounts of data can torch your credits without warning. Best to test carefully and be ready for consumption spikes, or expect a nasty surprise bill in your Digital Wallet.
5 years of Salesforce experience taught me less than I thought
https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/1vth39t/5_years_of_salesforce_experience_taught_me_less/
Someone with 5 years of hands-on Salesforce experience thought they could ace the Platform Administrator cert without studying, but started prepping and realized how much they actually missed - turns out there's tons of stuff happening behind the scenes that regular users don't need to know about. Their practical experience with objects and fields definitely helped, but the actual studying showed gaps in their knowledge, so they're grateful for the honest feedback that pushed them out of their comfort zone. Now they're asking what certification to tackle next since they work in RevOps and want to build a real career in that space - they found a potential path (Platform Admin → Agentforce Sales Consultant → Revenue Management Consultant) but want to hear from actual Salesforce and RevOps people about whether this makes sense or if there's a better route for someone focused on RevOps growth rather than becoming an admin or developer.

For AI enthusiasts

Setup with Agentforce: Everything You Need to Know
https://salesforcetime.com/2026/09/01/setup-with-agentforce-everything-you-need-to-know/
Agentforce is Salesforce's AI tool that lets businesses add smart, self-working agents into their everyday tasks - and now it's helping Salesforce admins too. The new "Setup with Agentforce" feature brings AI power right into the admin area, making it easier to manage things behind the scenes. This post breaks down what this feature is, how it actually works, and what admins can really do with it to make their jobs simpler.
Skip the Agent: Use Prompt Templates for AI-Powered Workflows in Salesforce
https://www.salesforceben.com/skip-the-agent-use-prompt-templates-for-ai-powered-workflows-in-salesforce/
Salesforce keeps pushing AI agents as the answer to everything, but here's the thing - not every AI workflow actually needs one. Agents can make things way more complicated than necessary when a simple prompt template would work just fine. The point is choosing the right tool for the job instead of assuming bigger always means better. Prompt templates and agents solve different problems, so figuring out which one fits what situation is actually key to building smarter workflows without adding extra headaches.

View upcoming Salesforce events (next 7 days)

Grzegorz Skaruz

https://skaruz.com

If you no longer want to receive messages from me, you can always unsubscribe

This is the web version of the newsletter which you can subscribe »