It feels like every business is talking about AI assistants these days. We’re all looking for that tool that can boost productivity, make workflows a bit less clunky, and help us find the needle of insight in a giant haystack of data. Salesforce, being the CRM giant it is, has obviously entered the chat with its own offering: Salesforce Copilot.
You might have heard of this tool under a different name. It started its life as "Einstein Copilot" and is now part of the company’s bigger "Agentforce" strategy. But name changes aside, what does it actually do? And more importantly, is it the right tool for your team?
Let’s cut through the noise. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about Salesforce Copilot. We’ll get into its key features, what it takes to get it set up, how much it costs, and some real limitations you should think about before you dive in
What is Salesforce Copilot?
At its heart, Salesforce Copilot is a generative AI assistant that lets you have a conversation with your CRM data. Instead of spending your day clicking through menus and running reports, you can just ask it questions in plain English, get summaries, and even tell it to handle tasks for you.
This video provides a brief overview of how the conversational AI in Salesforce Copilot works to deliver trusted, data-grounded responses.
The history is a little tangled. It launched as Einstein Copilot, but Salesforce has since shifted its positioning. As one CX Today article pointed out, the feature is now often labeled as "Agentforce (Default)" when you’re setting it up. This seems to be part of Salesforce’s plan to frame it as just one of many AI "agents" you can use.
The goal is pretty straightforward: make your team’s life easier. It’s built to answer questions, whip up content like sales emails, summarize lengthy case notes, and automate little jobs across Salesforce apps like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. The big selling point, according to Salesforce, is that it’s plugged directly into your company’s private data via the Salesforce Data Cloud, giving the AI the context it needs to be genuinely helpful.
Key features of Salesforce Copilot
Salesforce Copilot’s main strengths come from being so tightly woven into the Salesforce world. Let’s take a look at what it can do and where you might find its edges.
Grounded responses with Data Cloud
The star feature of Salesforce Copilot is its link to the Salesforce Data Cloud. The idea is to bring all of your customer data from different Salesforce products into one place. This gives the AI a complete picture of your customer relationships, so it can provide answers that are accurate and relevant to your business.
But that strength is also a pretty big string attached. It works great if all your company’s important information is already living happily within the Salesforce ecosystem. The reality for most of us is that company knowledge is all over the place. You’ve got crucial docs in Confluence, project plans in Google Docs, and important chats happening in Slack. Trying to move all of that into a single platform just to make an AI tool work is a massive project. An alternative like eesel AI flips this on its head by connecting to over 100 sources you already use, without needing a painful data migration project.
Standard and custom actions
Copilot isn’t just for chatting; it’s designed to actually do things for you. It uses "Copilot Actions," which are basically pre-built skills that let the AI take care of tasks. For example, you could ask it to:
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Give you the highlights of a sales opportunity.
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Write a draft follow-up email to a new lead.
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Create a new sales opportunity from a customer support ticket.
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Update a contact’s phone number.
Salesforce admins can also create custom actions with tools like Flow Builder, letting them shape the AI to fit specific company processes.
The only snag is that building these custom actions requires a Salesforce admin who has the technical skills and, just as importantly, the time to do it. This can be a serious bottleneck for teams that just want to get started. In contrast, a tool like eesel AI is built to be completely self-serve. You can create your own custom actions, connect to other tools like Shopify, and get everything running in minutes, not months.
Industry-specific functionality
Salesforce has also put together a library of actions tailored for different teams and industries. They have "Sales Actions" for sales reps, "Service Actions" for support agents, and even specialized skill sets for fields like banking and healthcare. This lets companies tune the copilot to match the specific workflows of different departments.
This really shows that Salesforce is aiming at large, enterprise companies that can afford to invest in these specialized packages. If your business needs a more flexible, cross-functional solution without getting locked into one industry’s toolkit, a more agile platform might be a better choice. With eesel AI, you can easily set up different bots for different teams, like IT, HR, and customer support, all under one simple, clear plan.
Setup, customization, and limitations of Salesforce Copilot
Getting Salesforce Copilot up and running isn’t quite as easy as flipping a switch. Here’s a look at the process and why a different approach might work better for some teams.
How to get started with Salesforce Copilot
To begin, a Salesforce admin has to dig into the setup menu, turn on the Generative AI and Einstein Copilot features, and then give the right permissions to users. After that, all the tweaking happens in the "Copilot Builder," where admins can add actions, change the AI’s personality, and set boundaries on what it can do.
graph TD
A[Admin logs in] ---> B{Setup Menu};
B ---> C[Enable Generative AI];
C ---> D[Enable Einstein Copilot];
D ---> E[Assign User Permissions];
E ---> F[Open Copilot Builder];
F ---> G[Add/Customize Actions];
G ---> H[Deploy to Users];
The entire process hinges on an admin. This means regular users can’t get any value from the tool until someone with the right permissions has the time to set it all up. This is a big difference from the self-serve approach of eesel AI, where you can sign up, connect your helpdesk, and start seeing results in minutes, often without needing to talk to a salesperson or sit through a mandatory demo.
The Einstein Trust Layer
Data security is a huge deal with AI, and Salesforce handles this with its Einstein Trust Layer. This is a bundle of features built to keep your AI interactions private and safe. It includes things like masking personally identifiable information (PII), checking AI responses for toxic language, and making sure your company data isn’t kept by third-party language models.
This level of security is quickly becoming the standard for any serious business AI tool; it’s not unique to Salesforce. For example, eesel AI also ensures your data is never used for general model training, is encrypted everywhere, and uses SOC 2 Type II-certified partners. It also offers EU data residency, giving you top-notch security without locking you into one CRM platform.
The challenge of testing and deploying Salesforce Copilot
Inside the Copilot Builder, admins have a "Conversation Preview" to test how the AI answers different questions. While that’s handy for a quick check, it’s not really enough to launch a new AI tool with confidence. You can’t be sure how it will perform when faced with real, messy customer questions or complex internal requests.
This is one area where more specialized tools really pull ahead. For instance, eesel AI’s powerful simulation mode lets you test your setup against thousands of your own past support tickets. You can see exactly how it would have answered in real situations, get accurate predictions on resolution rates, and find gaps in your knowledge base, all before a single customer ever interacts with it. This risk-free way of deploying AI is a massive plus for any team that wants to roll out new tools responsibly.
Salesforce Copilot pricing
When it comes to the price tag, Salesforce’s approach can feel a bit like navigating a maze. The pricing is complex and often seems built for huge companies with very deep pockets.
According to Salesforce’s official info, there are two main ways to get Salesforce Copilot:
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Einstein 1 Editions: These are pricey, all-in-one bundles that include CRM, Data Cloud, AI, Slack, and Tableau. Copilot is part of the package, but you’re paying for a massive suite of tools you might not need.
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As an Add-on: You can buy it as an add-on for their Enterprise and Unlimited Editions, but you have to get on a call with a sales rep for a custom quote.
The main takeaway here is that Salesforce doesn’t list a simple, standalone price for Copilot. The cost is wrapped up in these big, complicated bundles or a custom quote, which means unpredictable costs and a high barrier to entry for a lot of businesses.
This can be a real problem for teams that want to start small, prove that AI is worth it, and then scale up. This is where eesel AI’s transparent pricing is a breath of fresh air. With clear, flat-fee plans and no charges per resolution, your costs are always predictable. You can even start with a monthly plan and cancel whenever you want, which offers a kind of flexibility that’s pretty rare in the enterprise software world.
| Feature | Salesforce Copilot | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Bundled in expensive editions or a custom add-on | Transparent, flat-fee monthly/annual plans |
| Per-Resolution Fees | Unclear (tied to overall license cost) | No, never |
| Free Trial | Requires talking to sales | Yes, get started in minutes for free |
| Contract Flexibility | Typically requires an annual commitment | Monthly plans available, cancel anytime |
Is Salesforce Copilot the right tool for you?
So, what’s the final word? Salesforce Copilot is a powerful, deeply integrated AI assistant that makes perfect sense for teams who live and breathe inside the Salesforce world. If your company is already heavily invested in Salesforce, uses the Data Cloud, and has admins ready to handle the setup, it can definitely make your work smoother and your data easier to access.
But it does come with some pretty big trade-offs. The heavy reliance on the Salesforce platform, the admin-heavy setup, the confusing pricing, and the lack of a robust, risk-free way to test it are all important things to think about. For teams that need a more nimble, affordable, and flexible solution that works with their entire set of tools, not just Salesforce, it’s worth looking at other options.
An AI tool should make your life simpler, not lock you into a massive platform commitment. If you want to automate support by connecting all the knowledge sources you already have and go live in minutes with predictable pricing, try eesel AI for free. It works seamlessly with the tools your team already uses, including Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Slack, while giving you powerful simulation tools and complete control over your AI.
Frequently asked questions
Salesforce Copilot is a generative AI assistant integrated with your CRM data. It allows users to interact with their data in plain English, get summaries, generate content like sales emails, and automate tasks across Salesforce applications. Its primary goal is to boost productivity and streamline workflows.
Salesforce Copilot relies on the Salesforce Data Cloud to ground its responses. By centralizing customer data from various Salesforce products, the Data Cloud provides the AI with a comprehensive, accurate context for its answers and actions, ensuring relevance to your business.
Yes, Salesforce Copilot supports both standard and custom actions. While there are many pre-built actions, Salesforce admins with technical skills can use tools like Flow Builder to create tailored actions that fit specific company processes and workflows.
Salesforce Copilot’s pricing is often complex, not available as a simple standalone purchase. It’s typically included in expensive "Einstein 1 Editions" bundles or can be purchased as an add-on for Enterprise and Unlimited Editions, usually requiring a custom quote from a sales representative.
Salesforce Copilot incorporates the Einstein Trust Layer to ensure data security and privacy. This layer includes features like masking personally identifiable information (PII), checking for toxic language in AI responses, and preventing third-party language models from retaining your company’s private data.
Setting up Salesforce Copilot requires a Salesforce admin to enable features, grant permissions, and configure actions in the Copilot Builder. This admin-centric process can be a bottleneck, and adequately testing its performance with real-world scenarios before full deployment can also be a challenge.
