AppExchange Is Gone, AgentExchange Is the New Game in Town

Recently, Salesforce made some major announcements about their long-standing AppExchange marketplace for platform-compatible software applications. The impact of the new changes will certainly be felt by Salesforce customers and partners alike. 

The most obvious change is to the name—it is now known as AgentExchange instead of AppExchange. This name-swap is further evidence of Salesforce leaning hard into Agentforce AI functionality as its vision for the 360 platform’s future. The marketplace also has a new section offering apps and solutions for Slack, which it calls the “platform (that) brings your entire tech stack together. It’s scalable, secure, and purpose-built for bringing agents and AI to every business.”

This may indicate that Salesforce will be emphasizing apps which incorporate agentic properties more than the traditional-type apps from Salesforce partners historically found in the previous AppExchange. However, to be fair, this remains to be seen.

New Functionality Has Been Added to Agentforce 

For sure, we do know that a number of new ways to use the marketplace have been introduced. One of the most noticeable is its Search function. While the previously traditional ways to search remain, for the most part, the behind-the-scenes rankings have evolved to reflect AI search functionality.

Users will need to adapt to this new interface in order to find what they want. And it will be less of a self-guided journey. Salesforce will be playing a larger role than ever in discovery by suggesting pre-filled prompts (up to five per search). Peter Ganza explains in a LinkedIn Pulse Article: 

"It’s subtle, but important. The old model reacted to what you typed. This one shapes what you type in the first place.
Which means discovery doesn’t begin when a buyer searches anymore. It begins before they even decide what to search for.
Autocomplete used to suggest keywords. Short, obvious, often repetitive phrases. Now it returns ideas. Not “data integration” or “data backup,” but things like “achieve maximum security for sensitive data” or “admin tools for monitoring org health.”
That’s not just helping you type faster. That’s shaping how the problem itself is framed."

Obviously, this is creating predetermined pathways nudging searchers based on what Salesforce would like them to find. And Salesforce partners who depend on the marketplace to offer solutions will be impacted, but in ways that are yet to be fully understood. It is a safe assumption that the AI is actively learning. Peter Ganza explains further:

"AppExchange isn’t just a marketplace anymore. It’s becoming a decision layer that determines how a problem should be solved and then ranks options within that decision.
For partners, that changes the game more than any ranking tweak ever could.
It’s no longer enough to optimize for keywords or even to outperform direct competitors. You have to align with how the system interprets intent and where it believes your listing belongs within that interpretation.
Because the biggest loss isn’t dropping a few spots in the results.
It’s not being considered at all.
AppExchange didn’t just evolve.
It's learning how to decide."

New Rules Require New Ways of Working 

This applies to both users and partners seeking to optimize use of the Salesforce platform through the solutions offered at AgentExchange. As mentioned above, it is not trying to successfully guess at what you think (e.g., auto-complete); it is telling you what to think (e.g., hard-coded prompts). But the specific pre-determined prompts attached to primary keywords/terms do provide a window into what Salesforce is thinking about the chosen topic— its interpretation, its recommended pathway, and its value assigned.

When users click on these prompts, they are presented with a ranked listing of tiles for Apps & Solutions, Consultants, and Agents (and the first two categories may list 1500 or more ranked choices, 12 per screen at a time). Obviously with that many choices, partners appearing on the first screen is important. And again, the list reveals what Salesforce thinks about the match between the specific prompt and the offering.

Here at Passage Technology, we like to know what Salesforce thinks about the value of our portfolio of apps as well as our Business Development Consulting Services. Probing through the various keywords and associated new prompts that might apply to our products, we got our answers:

• Rollup Helper, our highly rated/reviewed and most popular app, landed in the top four spots with 14 related prompts (about half in the #1 spot—such as “automate custom forecast rollups for complex hierarchies”).
• Lookup Helper, an “Admin App” cousin of Rollup Helper, is more of a niche product, but scored a top-four slot on eight related prompts (with six in the #1 slot—such as “automatically match and relate records”).
• Data Quality Helper, a newer addition to the “Admin App” lineup and with a short history in the marketplace, recently incorporated Storage Helper functionality. With 16 related prompts, it was displayed on the first screen top 12 (with 12 of those in the top 4 and 6 of those #1—such a “best app for proactive data quality and duplicate prevention”).
• Milestones PM+, one of the few 100% Salesforce-native project management and resource allocation solutions, competes in a densely competitive enterprise market for project planning. It was featured in the first screen top 12 in 25 prompts (with 11 of those in the top 4—such as “best project management apps with interactive gantt charts” at #3).

Of course, this is just a snapshot in time (although we certainly like what it says about our apps). Still, we don’t know what goes into the black box that determines these rankings. It is likely a moving target for users and providers, and will assuredly evolve over time. Meanwhile we’ll continue to do our best to expand and improve our products everyday, to build and extend Salesforce value for its users.

But for now, we stand with Salesforce’s search confidence in us and ask you to give our apps a try. There are free versions to start, and if you like what you see, you can upgrade to the expanded functionality of the premium versions.