540 million years ago, the Earth had a different definition for life. There wasn’t much of an atmosphere, so life only existed in the oceans: single-celled organisms, algae, bacteria… The most complex things swimming around were early types of jellyfish. That was it! No Internet, no Starbucks. Pretty boring stuff.
Then, the environment began to change. The climate warmed. Oxygen levels in the water rose. Erosion broke down the rock and made nutrients more available. Plus, there was all this algae and single-celled stuff to eat. The conditions were just right for something new and exciting to happen.
In a flash, there was a huge burst of new species, and life was completely redefined. We go from simple microorganisms to early forms of shrimp, sea urchins, clams, octopus, squid, worms… Ever heard of a trilobite? So far, we’ve identified 20,000 different species of trilobites alone.
During what’s known as the Cambrian Explosion, millions of new species filled the oceans, and each one was a brand new thing trying something just a little bit different from everything else. These new species were constantly bumping into each other. Some of them were friendly and could co-exist; some of them weren’t friendly at all. They competed for the same food (or maybe some were the food). They were all trying to survive in a rapidly changing ecosystem, and many of them didn’t.
What did survive? Their most successful adaptations and features. Great, new ideas and innovations like:
- Eyes
- Brains
- Bones, skeletons, shells, teeth
- Body segments (e.g. head, body, tail)
- Appendages (e.g. limbs, tentacles, joints, and fins)
- Specialized organs and systems (e.g. digestive, nervous, respiratory)
But not everything that had eyeballs or tentacles survived the Cambrian period. Only a handful of species had the right combinations of features, in the right conditions, to successfully adapt to change and evolve with the times.
But it’s 2025 and we aren’t trilobites. We’re modern day humans trying to adopt emergent AI technologies. But there’s nothing more relevant right now than the past.
Because today, we’re experiencing another Cambrian Explosion: the dawn of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Today’s GenAI marketplace is an explosion of ideas and technologies. Thousands of companies and startups are filling the ecosystem, each trying something a little bit different from the others. They’re all bumping into each other. Some are friendly and can co-exist, but many are competing. Sound familiar?
The Meteor is Already on its Way
The fact is, many of these startups and technologies won’t survive. Only a handful of them will have the right combinations of features, in the right conditions, to successfully adapt to change and evolve with customer needs and market conditions.
“There are literally thousands of [AI] startups in this industry. Most of them will fail.”
Peter Schwartz, Chief Futurist, Salesforce
The struggle is already in full swing:
- GenAI features are popping up in every aspect of digital life, and most are low value or wasteful;
- Many companies aren’t delivering functional or easily-adopted solutions;
- Startups are being acquired and absorbed, some are fizzling out entirely;
- Some technologies that defined this new era are struggling to survive their more nimble competitors;
- A few large companies are blowing their moment entirely by not acting fast enough, not delivering on their vision, or not having a vision at all;
- Some solutions that give customers something they want often expose them to all kinds of risk; and
- A lot of AI adopters are investing significant time and money in projects that aren’t achieving the results they’re looking for.
Have no doubt: this explosion of innovation will eventually have its mass extinction event, too. The trick is investing in innovation that will survive. After all, you don’t have endless time and dollars to spend implementing (and reimplementing) GenAI.
With Salesforce, You’re an Innovator – and a Survivor
If you’re looking to avoid becoming a founding member of the GenAI fossil record, Salesforce and its Agentforce AI agentic layer give you the right combinations of features, in the right conditions, to successfully adapt to change and evolve. Here are a few of the traits that ensure you’ll not just survive, but thrive:
- AI is a natural extension of the Salesforce platform. With over 25 years of innovation, evolution, and customer success, Salesforce provides a resilient, unified foundation where AI capabilities were grown organically – not as bolt-on solutions or afterthoughts.
- Salesforce has a proven track record of pioneering and adapting AI advancements. From machine learning to today’s GenAI, Salesforce has consistently incorporated the latest AI into the platform in ways that customers can actually use in the flow of work.
- Agentforce is the first fully-integrated AI agentic layer. Unlike most offerings on the market, Agentforce provides a comprehensive range of features that are enterprise-ready, secure, and scalable today. Agents are readily created through no-code configuration and take advantage of existing automation capabilities in Salesforce, but they can be further enriched with developer tools.
- Agentforce is adaptable and extensible beyond Salesforce. Agentforce agents are deployable across platforms, websites, and applications – not just within Salesforce – and can be tailored using proprietary data, fine-tuned models and LLMs of choice, and easy integration to your own systems.
- Sustained, reliable innovation. With three major releases per year filled with AI feature updates and enhancements, customers have access to the constant innovation, increasing maturity, and uninterrupted evolution that comes from the vision for Agentforce and its supporting product roadmap.
- Multitenant advantage. Since all customers are on the same version of Salesforce and upgrades are automatic, they inherit all new AI advancements without the need for costly upgrades. This reduces risk, technical debt, and the overall effort required to start realizing value from GenAI.
The Natural Selection
The Cambrian Explosion of GenAI means there are a lot of (primordial) fish in the sea. It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of short-lived trends, vague feature promises from your legacy platforms, or the unknown depths of do-it-yourself AI. Instead, seek a solution that clearly aligns to your long-term success:
- Where can I find the most comprehensive and robust set of features and capabilities in a single place, even if there are some gaps today?
- Which platform has a proven roadmap and is actively delivering on its vision?
- Which technology provider is investing in a direction that aligns with my future needs?
- Where am I least likely to incur technical debt or face the risk of rebuilding my AI stack from scratch?
As you consider how to take advantage of GenAI for serving your organization’s mission, it’s critical to make smart investments that will allow you to stand the test of time. Unlike species found in nature, you have the ability to select the adaptations that will help you and your organization thrive. Salesforce is that adaptation.
The time to evolve is now – how will you adapt?
This Old Cloud 