A compelling take on where the next battleground in enterprise AI is moving and some compelling evidence that this shift is already underway. As models become more capable, abundant, and interchangeable, the source of differentiation shifts. Intelligence alone isn’t enough. Agents need trusted enterprise context — proprietary data, semantics, permissions, business logic and workflows and the ability to act on it safely. That’s why I believe the next phase of enterprise AI will be defined by the 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 around every agent. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. Data 360 ingested 104 trillion customer records this quarter, up 355% year over year, while Salesforce delivered 3.2 billion units of agentic work — nearly double the prior quarter. Agents need trusted data to work, and in turn they generate even more data and context. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹. Salesforce’s AI + Data ARR has reached $3.9B, more than tripling in a year. Agentforce alone has grown from roughly $100M to more than $1.5B in ARR in just 18 months. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: 9 of the top 10 AI companies run on Salesforce and Slack, and their combined spend with Salesforce is up 435% year over year. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹: more agents create more work, more work creates more enterprise data and context, and richer context makes the next generation of agents more valuable. Salesforce has spent decades building many of the ingredients this new world requires, deeply contextual customer data, metadata and semantics, business processes, security and governance, and the ability to take action across the enterprise. Our opportunity is to bring those pieces together into an open, trusted enterprise harness, available not just to Salesforce agents, but to any agent our customers choose. Models will keep getting better. But increasingly, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 and the infrastructure that turns intelligence into trusted action. This article captures that shift well. See you at Dreamforce 🚀 cnbc.com/2026/08/29/op-ed-sa…