Online shopping is getting a whole lot smarter. We've moved way beyond simple online stores into a world of intelligent, conversational experiences. Salesforce is trying to lead the charge here, pouring a ton of resources into AI for its Commerce Cloud platform with things like Agentforce and Einstein. They're painting a picture of "agentic commerce," where AI just... handles things, from personal shopping to behind-the-scenes merchandising.
So, what does Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud actually look like in practice? This guide is here to give you the real story. We'll walk through its main features, untangle the complicated setup, talk about the costs they don't advertise, and see how it stacks up against more flexible AI tools that play nicely with the tech you already use.
What is Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud?
At its core, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an e-commerce platform for both B2C and B2B companies. The "AI" part isn't one single thing; it's a mix of different technologies, mostly branded as Einstein and the newer Agentforce, that are baked into the platform.
The main idea is to use AI across the entire shopping process to:
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Make the shopping journey personal: Use AI to show customers product recommendations, offers, and search results that feel like they were picked just for them.
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Help merchants work faster: Give teams a hand with managing their storefronts, creating promotions, and even writing product descriptions.
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Bring conversation into commerce: Let customers chat with AI agents to find products, get answers, and buy things, just like talking to a person.
Salesforce has teamed up with big names like OpenAI and Stripe to make this happen. They're aiming for a world where your e-commerce platform, your customer data, and AI are all working together as one.
Core features of Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud
To get a better sense of what Salesforce is building, let's look at the key features its AI brings to the table.
Autonomous agents
Salesforce is going all-in on the idea of autonomous AI agents that can get work done without someone looking over their shoulder. These agents are designed to be smart because they’re connected to your company’s data, pulling info from CRM records, order histories, and customer profiles. Here are the three main ones:
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Agentforce Merchant: Think of this as an AI helper for your e-commerce team. It can help spin up a storefront, dream up personalized promotions, write product copy, and give you tips on how to improve a product's performance.
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Agentforce Personal Shopper: This is like a digital concierge for your customers. It uses generative AI to offer personalized shopping help right on your site or in messaging apps. It can answer questions in plain English and guide shoppers to what they're looking for.
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Agentforce Buyer: An agent built for B2B e-commerce. Its job is to make reordering easier for business clients who have pre-negotiated prices and to handle support questions like tracking an order.
AI-powered merchandising and personalization
It's not all about agents. Salesforce also weaves AI directly into how merchandising gets done, helping teams work smarter and sell more.
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Einstein Product Recommendations: AI algorithms keep an eye on what shoppers are doing and what they’ve bought before to suggest other products they might like, hopefully making their shopping carts a little fuller.
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Smart Promotions: The AI can create personalized promotions on its own based on what you’re trying to achieve, like selling off inventory that's been sitting around for too long.
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Product Descriptions & SEO Metadata: Einstein can also write SEO-friendly product descriptions and metadata. This saves your merchandisers a bunch of time and can help you show up higher in search results.
The unified data and integration strategy
The real muscle (and headache) of Salesforce's AI is how tightly it's connected to everything else in the Salesforce universe. It leans heavily on Data Cloud to pull all your customer data... into one single profile. That complete profile is what the AI uses to make its decisions.
Implementation: How Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud fits into your stack
Salesforce has a "Commerce on Core" strategy, which means its B2B Commerce tool is built right on top of the main Salesforce platform. The B2C version, however, runs on a separate system that has to connect back through the Data Cloud.
This tight, native integration is a bit of a double-edged sword. If your company is already deep into the Salesforce world, it creates a really powerful, connected system. But if you're not, it can create some serious headaches:
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Platform Lock-In: To really get the benefits of Commerce Cloud AI, you're pretty much pushed (or forced) into adopting other Salesforce products like Data Cloud, which costs a pretty penny.
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It’s Complicated: This isn't something you just switch on. Getting it running requires hiring specialized Salesforce experts, a lot of development work, and a long setup period.
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Not Very Flexible: The whole system is built to work with other Salesforce products. If you want to connect it to outside tools or knowledge sources that aren't perfectly structured, it can get difficult and expensive fast.
While having everything in one suite sounds great, it’s a huge hurdle for businesses that need to move quickly. For teams that want to use powerful AI without ripping out their current tech stack, a platform like eesel AI is a completely different story. With one-click integrations for helpdesks you already use (like Zendesk or Intercom) and your knowledge bases, you can get started in minutes, not months, and keep your workflows just the way they are.
An infographic showing how eesel AI connects with various helpdesks and knowledge bases, contrasting with the closed ecosystem of Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud.Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud pricing and limitations
When you're looking at any big enterprise platform, you have to get real about the total cost and what it can't do.
The hidden costs
Good luck finding a price tag on the Salesforce website. For Commerce Cloud and its fancy AI features, almost every page ends with "Contact for pricing."
This lack of transparency has some real-world consequences:
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Long Sales Process: You can't just sign up online. You have to go through a whole song and dance with their sales team to even get a quote.
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Costs That Creep Up: Pricing is often based on your Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). That means as your business grows and you make more money, your bill from Salesforce gets bigger, too.
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High Total Cost: The price they finally quote you is just the beginning. It doesn't include the money you'll have to spend on implementation partners, specialized admins, or other Salesforce products you'll need to make it all work.
Why the Salesforce model is a challenge
This old-school enterprise sales model is the exact opposite of modern, easy-to-use software. A platform like eesel AI has transparent and predictable pricing with clear plans and no hidden fees for every problem it solves. You can start with a monthly plan and cancel whenever you want, which lets you prove it's working without a massive upfront investment.
A screenshot of the eesel AI pricing page, highlighting its transparent and predictable plans in contrast to the hidden costs of Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud.On top of that, eesel AI is designed so you can do everything yourself. You can connect all your knowledge sources, build a custom AI agent, and even test it out in a powerful simulation mode before it ever talks to a real customer. That gives you all the control and confidence you need.
| Feature | Salesforce Commerce Cloud AI | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Hidden, "Contact us for a quote" | Transparent, public plans |
| Setup Time | Months, needs a team of experts | Minutes, you can do it yourself |
| Integration | Locks you into the Salesforce world | One-click for 100+ helpdesks & tools |
| Control | You're stuck with how Salesforce works | Fully customizable workflow & prompts |
| Testing | Limited to sales demos | Risk-free simulation on past tickets |
The verdict: Is Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud right for you?
Look, if you're a massive company and your entire business already lives and breathes Salesforce, then the AI in Commerce Cloud is a pretty logical next step. It offers an incredible level of integration within its own world and shows a clear vision for where e-commerce is headed.
But for almost everyone else, especially businesses that care about speed, flexibility, and knowing what things cost, it’s a tough sell. The high price tag, vendor lock-in, and sheer complexity make it an unrealistic choice for teams that need to solve real support problems today.
A more agile path to AI-powered commerce support
Instead of throwing out your entire tech stack and starting over, you can just make what you already have better. The quickest way to bring AI into your e-commerce world is to automate the part that takes up the most time: customer support.
With eesel AI, you can launch a smart AI agent that learns from your existing helpdesk tickets, your Shopify store, and your internal docs in a matter of minutes. It can handle your frontline support, draft smart replies for your human agents, and run a 24/7 website chatbot that actually solves customer problems. Why not see how you can get started for free and see a difference today?
A workflow diagram illustrating the eesel AI support automation process, which is a more agile alternative to a full Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud implementation.Frequently asked questions
Salesforce AI in Commerce Cloud is a suite of AI technologies, primarily Einstein and Agentforce, integrated into the e-commerce platform. It leverages unified customer data to personalize shopping experiences, enhance merchant efficiency, and enable conversational commerce through intelligent agents.
Businesses can achieve highly personalized customer journeys with AI-driven recommendations and smart promotions. It also empowers merchant teams by automating tasks like content creation, leading to increased operational efficiency and potentially higher conversion rates.
The platform heavily relies on a unified customer profile aggregated in Salesforce Data Cloud. This comprehensive dataset, drawing from sales, service, and marketing interactions, fuels the AI's ability to make intelligent recommendations and power autonomous agents.
Challenges include non-transparent pricing, a long sales and implementation process, and significant additional costs for specialized implementation partners and other mandatory Salesforce products. The pricing model often scales with your Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), leading to increasing costs as your business grows.
It is primarily best suited for large enterprises that are already deeply integrated into the broader Salesforce ecosystem. Its complexity, high investment, and platform lock-in make it a challenging fit for businesses prioritizing speed, flexibility, and transparent pricing.
Implementing this solution is a complex undertaking that can span several months and requires specialized Salesforce expertise. It often involves substantial development work and deep integration with other Salesforce products, particularly Data Cloud, to realize its full potential.
