Dreamforce 2026: Everything we saw at Salesforce's big event in San Francisco

Hello from San Francisco! We're excited for a week of Dreamforce, so stay tuned for all the latest updates as they happen.

The event kicks off tomorrow (Tuesday 15) so we'll try and get a sneak peek at the site (affectionally known as the Campgrounds) and anything else we spy.

I've just been to pick up my badge (no photos allowed of that, for obvious reasons) and the Dreamforce grounds are taking shape nicely...it's beautiful weather here too in San Francisco, hopefully that continues all week!

That's all for Day -1 here at Dreamforce - but be sure to be back here tomorrow at 10am PST for Marc Benioff's opening keynote - you won't want to miss it!

Good morning - it's day one of Dreamforce 2026! We're just rousing ourselves and finding some coffee before heading out to the event.

As a reminder, Dreamforce 2026 kicks off today at 10am PST with the traditional opening keynote from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff - be sure to check back here for all the updates.

We're on our way in now - the Dreamforce campgrounds are looking as lovely as ever in the California sunshine!

It's about an hour until the keynote starts, so we're going to head down soon - as the main attraction of the week, it always fills up fast.

We're in and seated - with a little while to go, it's time to go see the real MVPs - the Salesforce mascots.

Astro and Codey have the longest lines, as you might expect, but there's also big attention for Brandy the Fox and Cloudy the goat - but sadly Slackbot is a bit isolated (for now).

A Dreamforce tradition to start off - the Akaka family aloha welcome, always a highlight to start the event.

First Matthew McConaghey spot - the Hollywood star and honorary Salesforcer is on video talking about Salesforce's Trailblazer community - I'm sure it won't be the last time we see him today though.

And to start off the party properly - Gwen Stefani is here! She's playing the conference-ending Dreamfest party tomorrow night, so this is very much a little preview for those of us lucky enough to be in the room.

Time for a stripped-back version of Underneath it All and Don't Speak (maybe not the best choice ahead of a keynote?)

And now - it's time for the main event...it's keynote time.

But first - of course, it's another McConaghey video - in this time of AI agents getting smarter and more capable, isn't it right for them to start knowing about you and your work? It's time for the age of AIforce (but more on that later...)

Here he is - Salesforce CEO and chair Marc Benioff takes to the stage.

"We have never been more excited about a Dreamforce in our history," he tells us.

He once again teases AIforce, noting that Salesforce is using it internally, to great advantage.

Benioff tells us that a lot of the new releases today will be about unlocking value for businesses which has been trapped in their data

Up close and personal, Marc Benioff tells us that business really can be the greatest platform for change - highlighting how Salesforce has given nearly $970 million to good causes.

"It's been 10 years of pioneering AI in the enterprise...it's been an amazing journey," Benioff says, addressing an elephant in the room immediately.

"We've been hearing all kinds of crazy nonsense about the SaaSpocalypse, isn't that wild?"

"This is not about the end of software, but it may be about the end of software that makes humans do all the work."

Salesforce is a very much agentic enterprise, Benioff notes, being customer zero for many of these new releases.

"AI has opened a door which has never been opened before," he says, giving the example of San Francisco's Waymo self-driving taxis.

Benioff notes that when talking to customers, he has seen an unevenness - with some customers stuck in the old world, not getting the full benefit of AI.

Models alone can't run an enterprise, Benioff notes, as enterprise intelligence runs across a number of key systems.

To solve this, Salesforce is transforming how these core systems work - with AIforce, Agentforce, Customer 360 and Data 360 all working together to help your business get the most out of AI.

This will be powered by metadata, something Salesforce is rich in.

AI is creating an interface revolution, Benioff notes, going from command line to GUI, to web to mobile - and now to AI.

This is the next generation of applications and the way we interact with them - this is AIforce.

AIforce is nothing less than a whole new layer for your systems, Benioff says.

Intelligent and dynamic, secure and governed, AIforce is a new live interface for Salesforce, unlocking trapped values and finding patterns and answers across your data.

"This is really the most exciting thing I've ever seen for Salesforce," Benioff says.

And it has zero data retention - "your data is your data, it doesn't go into the models," he says.

"Salesforce products are built with zero data retention...your data is your data, you aren't training any other models," he says.

It's time to look at Claudeforce - what Benioff describes as "the number one AI meets the number one CRM," and something already used within Salesforce.

Slack also gets a shout-out - it's been six years since Salesforce acquired it, and Benioff says "a ton of money" has been invested in it.

This includes into Slackforce - the new dynamic, intelligent AI layer for the platform, and Slack Code, which lets teams code and create together.

Quick fit check for Mr Benioff as well (as I do every year) - it's all business this year, no trainers, which is a shame - and a rather elegant cut suit and tie - this year, it's all about smartness and business!

Now, to see all these great new tools in action - it's time for some demos, and to show it all off, Patrick Stokes, new Salesforce President of Applications and Marketing.

"Other companies think their product is the UI - that's not what we think," he says, ready to introduce us to a new interface - an agentic interface, starting with Claude Cowork.

Stokes gives us a run-through of what the interface can do, quickly identifying any issues or problems which need addressing.

Workers can drill down into the real specifics of your data, connecting not just Salesforce, but also Slack and Claude Cowork.

Now to focus on the makers of Claude - Dario Amodei is here.

Benioff asks him about the state of the AI market right now - Amodei likens it to the motor industry, where safety records can be conflated, but companies can learn from each other - and he also seems keen to open things up internationally to set standards.

Benioff asks Amodei about the biggest surprises Amodei has had over the last decade - he replies the "pace of the progress" - not just in the technology, but the economic side of it too.

Amodei notes that his company didn't appreciate how quickly certain companies would grow and become central to everyday life.

Benioff asks what actions Amodei would like the public to take when using AI - a big question.

Amodei says that even the technology was frozen right now, we'd only be using maybe 5-10% of the possible value we could get.

Making use of all the information with platforms such as Claude could open up new areas of business - "there's so much diffusion left," Amodei says.

And with that, he's off - but he'll be back later this week for a 1:1 with Marc Benioff.

Stokes is back, and it's time to talk about Agentforce.

Since its launch two years ago, Stokes notes it now has 30,000 customers, and become the number one agentic platform around today.

It's time for some more demos - Katy O'Neil from the Salesforce team is here to talk about how Siemens is using Agentforce to push success.

Benioff is back, and after a quick chat with Siemens CEO Roland Busch, now it's time to look at CRM.

Salesforce has been the king of CRM for some time, with new sales, marketing and service tools being added to the platform to offer even more capabilities.

But there's something else - today, Salesforce is announcing Koa, a new CRM model built alongside Nvidia on Nemotron, and trained on 27 years of Salesforce data, fine-tuned with public and synthetic data.

To hear more, there's another guest here too - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang grabs a mic to talk to Benioff.

Benioff is taking Jensen on a slightly chaotic walkabout around the hall as they talk about the future of technology.

"We're going through a new industrial revolution," Huang notes, talking us through how Nvidia has gone through its own transformation.

"We can go anywhere," he says, taking control of the proceedings like only Jensen can - it's a nice light-hearted moment in the center of this rather serious chat.

Benioff asks Huang about the current debate on pacing in the AI market.

"Safety is paramount...in many ways, it's job one," Huang says - noting that this is an engineering problem.

"It's a false choice - you can definitely have both at the same time," Huang says.

Benioff asks Huang about his vision for the next few years - and what he wants to see from Salesforce.

Huang says he wants to Agentforce every company - tongue firmly in cheek - with the aim of "really deploying AI...you don't want to be left behind, this is too important of a technology revolution...if it doens't work for you straight away, don't give up on it."

"The most important thing - don't get left behind."

He also notes how AI has got "really useful" in recent months - admitting this was a "bit of a surprise" and that he believes "the end of software is nonsense", as AI will offer an extra layer.

He also repeats his point that AI won't lead to job cuts, pointing out that "Of course AI is becoming productive and useful now," but that as closed models are being adopted at a growing rate, these transitions will become more powerful, and companies will become more ambitious than ever - therefore needing more employees.

"The sky's the limit for us," he notes.

This keynote has gone completely off the rails, as Benioff and Huang trade jokes about height and travel.

"We're going to pivot right into comedy," Benioff jokes, as he bids Huang farewell.

Back to reality - and time to talk about Data 360.

We're reaching the end - Benioff returns to the stage to wrap things up.

"Dreamforce is where everybody transforms," he declares.

We're off to get some refreshment and fresh air, but we'll be back with some more insights from Marc Benioff soon, so stay tuned...

Well, apologies for the radio silence - I had hoped to report from Marc Benioff's traditional media scrum in our press lounge, but it was so packed, there was no room to sit and type! An article will be coming soon though...

It's been quite the day at Dreamforce - we've heard not only from Marc Benioff and other Salesforce leaders, but from a number of leaders in the wider technology world.

Perhaps most insightful was Benioff's talk with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, where the two covered a huge range of topics and Altman revealed his thoughts on AI regulation and worries, but also his hopes for the future of the technology.

Elsewhere, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also shared their thoughts on AI - revealing some interesting differences in opinion.

But for now, that's all from us for Dreamforce day one - join us tomorrow for more news and updates as it happens!