Salesforce now brings CRM data and actions into the major AI assistants rather than asking everyone to work inside Salesforce. Sellers can work with Salesforce from ChatGPT through the Agentforce Sales app, from Gemini Enterprise through Agentforce Sales agents, and from Claude through Claudeforce's Salesforce in Claude plugin; developers can also connect any of them through Salesforce's hosted MCP servers and APIs. In each case Salesforce says the assistant sees only what the user can already see in Salesforce. Most of these surfaces were still in beta in 2026, so check status and licensing for your org before planning a rollout.
What connects to what today?
| Assistant | How Salesforce connects | Status and requirements |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Agentforce Sales app in ChatGPT: view and prioritize leads, update records and hand tasks to agents from the conversation | Open beta since December 2025, for Agentforce for Sales add-on and Agentforce 1 Edition customers; Salesforce has also said Agentforce Coworker will come to ChatGPT |
| Gemini Enterprise | Agentforce Sales agents inside Gemini Enterprise for lead engagement, meeting briefs, deal risks and CRM updates | Open beta announced April 2026; Salesforce and Google also plan zero-copy access to Google lakehouse data |
| Claude | Claudeforce: the Salesforce in Claude plugin with prebuilt sales skills, plus Claude as a reasoning model inside Agentforce | Announced August 2026; Salesforce listed Claudeforce in beta at Dreamforce in September 2026 |
| Any assistant or custom app | Salesforce-hosted MCP servers and APIs, running as a signed-in user or integration user | Hosted MCP servers available for Enterprise Edition orgs and above; check terms for your org |
| Microsoft Teams | Agentforce Coworker in Teams, alongside Microsoft's own Copilot Studio agents | Announced by Salesforce for later in 2026 |
Do permissions carry over?
Salesforce's position across these integrations is consistent: the assistant acts as the signed-in user, sees only records that user can access, and routes changes through Salesforce so validation rules and sharing still apply. That makes your Salesforce access model the main control over what any assistant can read or change. If a profile or sharing rule is too broad today, every connected assistant inherits the problem.
How should you choose which assistant a team uses?
- Start from where the team already works. A company standardized on Google Workspace will get more use from Gemini Enterprise; one where sellers live in ChatGPT or Claude should start there.
- Check licensing first. The ChatGPT and Gemini integrations were tied to specific Agentforce licenses, and Claudeforce has its own terms.
- Pick one or two workflows, such as meeting prep or pipeline updates, and compare accuracy and time saved before rolling out widely.
- Avoid running every assistant for the same task; it splits training, governance and support.
- Confirm each vendor's data handling and retention terms with security and legal before connecting customer data.
What should IT and security review?
- Which Salesforce users and profiles may connect each assistant.
- Which actions can write to Salesforce, and whether any need approval.
- How assistant activity appears in Salesforce audit and event logs.
- Data residency, retention and model-training terms in each AI vendor's enterprise agreement.
- How access is removed when someone leaves or changes role.
