Salesforce is making its second giant push into the RIA business by selling artificial intelligence (AI) agents and dissing older software – some of which it may have sold previously to RIAs.
The San Francisco CRM’s latest pitch is worth a listen, experts say, but the drawbacks for RIAs who subscribe to its software may also apply to its artificial intelligence.
Marc Benioff: ‘Fin brings proven agent technology.’
It’ll be expensive, involved, and its efficacy is blowing in the wind.
Salesforce – – the leader among the largest RIAs – is trying to catch up in AI, after its stock was pummeled on Wall Street. Shares (CRM) have lost 41% of their value year-to-date.
The stock traded at $153 today, a 58% decline from its late-2024 peak, after ending 2025 at $265, making it the second-worst performer in its sector this year.
Almost all the losses are tied to fears Salesforce got caught napping in an AI revolution that could render its software obsolete.
“Salesforce has been having their upgrade pipeline eaten away by the Jump and Zocks of the world building phantom CRMs, and it looks like somebody decided it was time to fight back,” said Aaron Klein, founder at Contio, an AI meetings company,
“Any CRM that doesn’t create this surface area is going to have a really tough time competing. ”
Ibby Hussain, the outside PR counsel hired to deliver the news on behalf of Salesforce, did not return a phone call or respond to an email message.
Shifting paradigm
Aaron Klein: ‘Salesforce has been having their upgrade pipeline eaten away.’
Instead of pushing back against the Wall Street narrative, Salesforce is one-upping it with its own critique of mere CRM; with the release of new AI products.
Only nine days ago, June 15, it closed a $3.6-billion acquisition of Fin, an autonomous AI customer service platform. Salesforce co-founder, chairman and CEO Marc Benioff referenced “time to value” as a means for clients to play a quick game of catch-up.
“Fin brings proven agent technology… Together, we’ll help companies of every size seize this opportunity — accelerating time to value with trusted agents,” Benioff said.
Salesforce also launched Agentic Advisor, a new suite of agentic AI capabilities for financial advisors built natively into the company’s “Agentforce for Financial Services,” which automates administrative and customer-facing tasks across banking, wealth management and insurance.
“Agentic AI shifts the paradigm away from traditional software and generic point solutions,” it writes in its release.
“Unlike a blank-canvas CRM, it bypasses the heavy, expensive customization cycles traditionally required to support basic financial workflows.”
Eran Agrios, senior vice president and general manager, Financial Services at Salesforce, presents the product as the automation of human tasks that RIAs have long sought.
“Agentic Advisor gives advisors back the time they’ve been losing to administrative noise and puts them where they belong: in front of clients building trust and driving growth,” she says in the release. “The firms that move now will set the standard.”
Innovative mixed bag
Joel Bruckenstein: ‘I think everybody is doing those, or about to.’
Salesforce does not appear to have set the AI standard, based on its long, multi-faceted press release, mentioning various solutions, says Joel Bruckenstein, producer of the T3 events in an email.
“The first one (“embedding autonomous digital teammates natively for secure access to the business data”) sounds somewhat interesting if it really works to automate the whole process,” he writes. “The last one is somewhat potentially significant, but it doesn’t exist yet.
“The rest, not so interesting. I think everybody is doing those, or about to.”
Justin Mikhalevsky, chief technology officer, EP Wealth Advisors, says that applying Salesforce “Agentforce” has made enough of a dent in “administrative friction” that he is game to explore more applications.
“We’re already seeing early impact through our initial deployment of Agentforce for Financial Services, helping reduce administrative friction across advisor workflows, and we’re excited to explore additional use cases to help our team reduce manual work, better prepare for meetings, capture key client insights and create more space for meaningful human connection,” he says.
The Torrance, Calif., RIA manages about $40 billion and has more than 54 offices across 19 states.
Questions beyond technology
Klein says it is difficult to tell whether Salesforce can make the leap to AI, but one group of RIAs needs to give it a hard look.
“There’s a lot here that is ‘future and coming soon, but if you’re in the Salesforce ecosystem, it’s going to be tough not to give this strong consideration.”
The question about Salesforce’s AI capabilities extend well beyond the technology itself, says Franklin Tsung, CEO of FutureAdvice.com, whose father owns AppCrown, a Salesforce reseller and integrations company.
“It will be valuable for smaller firms, but then the costs might prevent smaller firms from subscribing,” he says.
Franklin Tsung: ‘The costs might prevent smaller firms from subscribing.’
“When you factor in the implementation fees, it could become cost-prohibitive. Most large-sized RIAs have their own agentic strategy.”
CRM island
Ashley Longabaugh, head of wealth management at Celent, also frames the Salesforce push into AI in terms of “potential” and “evolution” as opposed to a game-changer or disruption.
“That evolution from point solution to integrated platform has the potential to make AI a more foundational part of how firms operate and serve their clients,” she says in the Salesforce press release.
Still, Tsung says that the new AI product doesn’t exactly click into place, even for its existing software licensees, and “remains an island.”
“The agentic AI offerings from Salesforce does not include turnkey infrastructure integrations with the critical systems that support the wealth management industry: remains an island,” he says by email.
“This is where the gaps between CRM, an island of itself, needs the bridges and tunnels to bring data into the Salesforce island, which is what AppCrown accomplishes. ”
Tripping up AI
Still, no CRM integrations expert can overcome all obstacles – including bringing off-the-shelf Salesforce agentic workflows to RIAs that have their own ways of doing things.
“The Agentic Advisor offering will likely meet hurdles for implementation and adoption due to RIAs already establishing their own internal AI-strategy,” he says by email.”
“To rely entirely on Salesforce for ALL aspects of workflows and internal operations is a difficult proposal for independent advisors that p
Justin Mikhalevsky: ‘We’re already seeing early impact through our initial deployment.’
ride themselves with choice for their clients and choice for themselves.”
Tsung adds that RIA CRM data can trip up AI.
“From 15 years of working with advisors, the largest hurdle is trusting the data within the CRM system, especially if the demand for fragmented data needs have not been met.”
The pain of deploying the AI is only exacerbated by implementation fees that make CRM a bigger-line item expense.
“The implementation fees increase the TCO – Total Cost of Ownership,” Tsung adds.