Einstein Bots entered maintenance mode on August 17, 2026. Existing bots keep working and stay supported, but Salesforce will add no new features and recommends Agentforce for new AI agent work. You don't have to migrate on a deadline, but every improvement you want from now on will come from Agentforce. Salesforce's Upgrade Agent tool converts a bot's dialogs, intents and actions into a draft Agentforce agent while the original bot keeps running, which makes a staged migration practical.
Do you have to migrate off Einstein Bots now?
No. Maintenance mode means support continues without enhancements. A bot that handles a stable, scripted job, such as collecting an order number and routing to the right queue, can keep doing it.
The pressure comes from elsewhere. One bot feature has already been retired: Article Answers, which let bots answer from your knowledge base, stopped delivering knowledge content after December 31, 2025; Salesforce recommends Generative Knowledge Answers for enhanced bots instead. And any new channel, language or self-service goal will need Agentforce. Most service teams should plan a migration over the next few quarters rather than rush one.
What does the Upgrade Agent tool convert?
Salesforce's Upgrade Agent tool, offered through Agentforce Labs and highlighted at Dreamforce in September 2026, analyzes an existing bot and generates an Agentforce Service Agent or Help Agent. According to Salesforce's documentation it:
- Groups dialogs with similar intents into subagents in the new agent
- Turns bot action steps into agent actions
- Handles bot variables as described in Salesforce's upgrade considerations; check which you need to recreate
- Builds the agent separately, so the existing bot stays live while you review
Salesforce's help documentation listed Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited and Developer editions with Foundations or Agentforce 1 as prerequisites when we reviewed it; with the new Core, Advanced and Max editions, confirm eligibility for your contract.
Should you keep, hand off or replace each bot?
Decide per bot, not per org. Salesforce has also documented patterns for an enhanced bot to hand a conversation to an Agentforce agent, so a hybrid is a legitimate end state.
| Option | Fits when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Keep the bot | The flow is short, scripted and stable, and customers rarely go off-script | No new features; any change in scope means migrating later anyway |
| Hybrid hand-off | The bot handles authentication or triage well, and open-ended questions should go to an agent | Two configurations to maintain and test; clear rules for when the hand-off happens |
| Replace with an agent | Customers ask varied questions, you want answers from knowledge and records, or you are adding channels | Instruction design, testing, Flex Credit consumption and escalation to people |
How do you plan the migration?
- Inventory every bot: channels, dialogs, actions, variables, the flows and Apex it calls, and how many sessions it handles a month.
- Pull transcripts and outcomes to see which dialogs customers actually use and where they abandon or ask for a person.
- Choose keep, hybrid or replace for each bot, starting with the one where a better experience matters most.
- Run the Upgrade Agent tool to create a draft, then rewrite subagent instructions in plain language and tighten action descriptions.
- Fix the knowledge base before the agent depends on it: retire outdated articles and fill the gaps transcripts reveal.
- Define escalation: when the agent hands to a person, which Omni-Channel queue receives it and what context travels with the conversation.
- Test with real transcripts, including edge cases and attempts to push the agent off topic, before any customer sees it.
- Launch on one channel or a share of traffic, compare containment and satisfaction with the old bot, then retire the bot.
How does the cost change?
Bots and agents are metered differently. Agentforce actions draw on Flex Credits; Salesforce prices a standard action at 20 credits and a voice action at 30, and each conversation may use several actions. Before you replace a high-volume bot, estimate actions per conversation in testing and multiply by the bot's monthly sessions, then compare with the credits in your contract. A hybrid that keeps the bot on simple, high-volume steps can be the cheaper design.
What should you not carry over from the bot?
Bot-era habits tend to make agents worse. Long scripted menus, rigid button paths and dialogs that exist only to work around a bot's limits rarely belong in an agent. Keep the business rules and the actions; rethink the conversation. And keep the old bot's reporting until the agent has run long enough to compare results fairly.
