June 17, 2025
EVP of Global Analytics + Media Operations
I came into Salesforce Connections as a first-timer, fully expecting a solid show, but what I got was a full-on masterclass in enterprise marketing, AI evolution, and real human storytelling.
The emergence of agent-powered, human-guided intelligence at CNX echoed what we’ve long championed at Just Global. Theia.ai, our full-funnel analytics platform built on Salesforce Marketing Cloud Intelligence (Datorama), enables smarter, faster decisions without losing the human lens that makes insights actionable.
So, I was excited to attend and get to know the latest and greatest from the Salesforce teams, as well as connect with some amazing people. And from the second I stepped into McCormick Place, it was clear that Salesforce know how to throw a great event.
If CNX had a soundtrack, it was ‘agents, agents, agents.’ And not in a gimmicky way, in a ‘this is the real direction of marketing’ way. Agentforce was everywhere: kiosks, demos, and most impressively, the Agent Showdown, where three companies put their best agent use cases to the test. Each one was smart, and deeply rooted in real-world use.
These agents aren’t trying to replace people. Think less ‘automation’ and more ‘co-pilot.’ From answering repetitive data pulls to summarizing campaign performance across orgs, the use cases were refreshingly practical.
The part of the keynote that was the most impactful for me personally was about Marketing Cloud Next. This was a full architectural rethink. Nine offerings, now rebuilt as a microservices-based application living natively on the Salesforce platform. Same data. Same personalization engine. Same customer profile. One system.
And what does that mean for marketers? Fewer integrations, less duct tape, and a single source of truth.
What really clicked: campaign creation doesn’t need to take three weeks and seven meetings anymore. The new UI and agent collaboration tools let you build, test, and launch fast. And it respects your legacy. They called it emergence…not migration. You can run old and new in parallel, then switch over when you’re ready.
An added bonus is the creative automation engine that Salesforce has in the works. Real-time asset generation, dynamic variant testing, and continuous learning loops. We’ve talked about it for years. Once it’s built in, we’ll have this as part of our future roadmap to accompany our own bespoke analytics dashboard – which uses Salesforce technology – Theia.ai.
In a breakout with the Intelligence team, they said it plainly: analytics isn’t broken… it’s just been exhausting. Multiple dashboards, inconsistent metrics, and way too much time wrangling data instead of using it.
Agents offer some relief. They surface insights on demand, pull from the same data layer across teams, and finally make it possible to stop being a data janitor and start being a decision maker again.
Conditions are everything though. This is where we’ll see some of the fastest adoption as long as the data is clean and you’re in the Salesforce stack. Start small. Let the agents earn trust. But the path forward is there if it’s the best fit for you.
One of the more personal sessions came from Andrea Tarrell, CEO + Founder of Sercante, also part of the Trilliad family, who tackled AI anxiety head-on. She didn’t try to calm the room with empty reassurance. She shared honest, grounded recommendations for navigating the overwhelm – stay curious, set boundaries, talk with your team.
It was a rare session that acknowledged the speed of AI change and gave you language to lead through it.
Learn more about Sercante in their candid session on ‘Evolving your ‘growth stack’ and driving revenue across sales, marketing, and customer success’
We’re so proud to work hand in hand with Andrea and the Sercante expert teams as we support enterprise clients to deliver growth across sales, technology, marketing, and customer success. She’s truly a leader worth following.
Bozoma Saint John showed up. Her authenticity, branding, and leadership was the emotional center of the conference for everyone who had the opportunity to attend. She told the story of being called “too passionate” in a review and deciding that instead of shrinking, she’d turn the dial up.
She also shared a powerful story of asking her daughter for help after the loss of her husband. That moment, that simple, unfiltered honesty, reshaped how she leads. It reminded me that vulnerability is a leadership tool, not a liability.
And her branding insight was gold – treat your brand like a human. Let it evolve. Let it make mistakes. Don’t suddenly show up with a British accent out of nowhere, your followers won’t trust you.
After 9,728 steps, my feet were done but my head was racing.
Salesforce are rewriting what’s possible with their new features. If you’re not leaning into AI, you’re falling behind.
Coming from a woman in leadership, the line that stuck with me came from Bozoma – “When they come into your house, they will eat your food.” In other words, don’t change yourself to fit the room. Make the room yours.
That’s what great leadership, branding, and technology should do, create spaces where real connections happen.
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