Salesforce’s Agentic AI Ambition Meets Data Access Backlash

Salesforce wants to automate the modern marketing team while keeping tighter control over the data that fuels it. In its latest push into generative AI, the cloud software giant has rolled out Marketing Cloud Next, a suite of tools powered by autonomous AI agents that handle everything from campaign strategy to execution. These agents create audience segments, draft email and SMS copy, personalize website content in real time, and monitor ad performance—tweaking spend or messaging as needed, without human intervention. The pitch is simple: let AI do the grunt work, so marketing teams can move faster and focus on strategy. “We’re going to see cost savings if we’re putting more of the segmentation decisions on AI and being more narrow in our targeting,” said Ariel Kelman, Pre