Podcast Summary: Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart

Episode 22: "Agentic AI for Hyper-Personalization at Scale: Insights from Steve Hammond, Salesforce"
Date: November 5, 2025
Guest: Steve Hammond, General Manager & EVP, Agentforce Marketing (Salesforce)
Host: Alan B. Hart

Overview

In this forward-looking episode, host Alan B. Hart interviews Steve Hammond at Dreamforce about how Salesforce is evolving marketing through the introduction of Agentic AI via Agentforce Marketing. Their conversation unpacks the shift toward hyper-personalized, two-way customer experiences at scale, the practical and organizational shifts this demands, and the implications for the future of marketing professionals and consumers alike.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Steve Hammond’s Personal & Professional Journey

• Steve's background includes an unexpected path from intending to become a dentist, to scaling a small tech business with his father, and eventually moving from Omniture to Adobe and now Salesforce.
• Personal hobbies (mountain biking, farming) help Steve find work-life balance.
  • [01:20] Steve Hammond: "I'm a big fan of getting out in nature... I also have a farm... it's just completely different from working on technology."
• Living and working in multiple countries fostered his appreciation for cultural diversity and customer perspectives.
  • [20:57] Steve Hammond: "Living with people in different cultures has given me a deep respect for the way that people think and that I'm not always right."

2. The Rise of Agentic AI in Marketing

• Agentic AI is transforming digital marketing from static, one-way experiences into dynamic, conversational, and hyper-personalized engagements—at scale.
• Historically, two-way customer conversations were only feasible in-person; digital channels were largely a broadcast medium. Agentforce unlocks this interaction digitally by utilizing AI agents.
  • [02:46] Steve Hammond: "We have agents that assist [marketers]... to create campaigns and content... do analysis... and... create a conversation with their customers, which historically has been impossible at scale."
• Hammond emphasizes these agentic interfaces should be immersive, beautiful, and not merely text-based.
  • [08:46] Steve Hammond: "A brand can and should have its own interface that is more agentic... It needs to be beautiful and immersive."

3. Organizational Shifts For The AI Era

• Embracing agentic and AI-driven marketing is as much an organizational challenge as a technical one.
• Leadership buy-in and clear strategy are critical; customer data needs to be centralized and accessible, not siloed.
  • [08:58] Steve Hammond: "The top level leadership needs to believe in it...and have a strategy... AI is only really as good as its source of information."

4. People + Technology: Evolving Marketer Roles

• The relationship between people and technology is evolving: AI can automate "syntax" and repetitive processes, freeing marketers to focus on strategic, creative, and outcome-driven work.
  • [10:59] Steve Hammond: "Now...we can let AI have that understanding of the integrations and the data...people can spend more time driving creativity and strategic and personalization..."
• Developers—and now marketers—are shifting from technical operators to strategic thinkers.
  • [13:32] Alan Hart: "You're elevating the role...getting back to the root problem you're trying to solve..."

5. Salesforce’s Transformation: From Marketing Cloud to Agentforce Marketing

• Salesforce has spent years integrating its array of technologies (acquired and native) into a unified, modern platform called Data360 (formerly Data Cloud).
• This foundation enables real-time, cross-departmental personalization, supporting marketing, sales, service, and commerce in a holistic manner.
  • [14:36] Steve Hammond: "We've been modernizing our marketing technology...creating common ground across [systems]... we have been calling Data Cloud...now relabeled as Data360."
• Personalization engines are now available to all channels and departments, not limited to marketing, thanks to Agentforce integration.
  • [18:18] Steve Hammond: "...with personalization...we've said, okay, we're going to create this engine on top of this common data set...available to all systems to use...linked into our Agent Force technology. And Agent Force is actually hyper-personalization."

6. Hyper-Personalization & The Role of LLMs

• The latest AI models can dynamically understand user intent (even with slang/natural language), responding with hyper-personalized content in (near) real-time.
  • [19:45] Steve Hammond: "...Now you can run that same input through an agent that uses these LLMs...they can feed that back into our system...and render back...an experience that was impossible even a year ago."
• Generative AI removes the historical bottleneck of content creation, making true personalization finally achievable at scale.
  • [19:49] Steve Hammond: "At the time...the limiting factor wasn't the ability to understand a profile or make a decision. It was how do you match that back to content...Now...LLMs...can generate...everything on the fly. Now the sky's the limit."

7. Reflections on Adaptability, Learning, and the Future

• Steve credits experiences selling door-to-door and living abroad as key to developing empathy and anticipation for customer needs.
• His advice: specialize, persevere, and always deliver (rather than just ideating).
  • [22:24] Steve Hammond: "...focus on getting really good at something and being an expert...believing in himself to continue pushing forward...keep delivering."
• Continual curiosity is vital—especially regarding AI’s societal, job market, and practical applications.
  • [23:28] Steve Hammond: "AI is just changing so fast...I want to try to figure out...how is this AI going to really play out?"

8. Marketing’s Biggest Threat & Opportunity

• The single greatest risk for marketers is apathy—failing to act in the midst of rapid change.
• Already, up to 40% of web traffic for some companies comes from agents, not people; waiting to adapt means falling behind.
  • [26:28] Steve Hammond: "Apathy. I think apathy works on both sides, but I think the biggest threat is not doing something right now because the world’s changing around us."
  • [26:56] Steve Hammond: "That's saying these used to be people...now these are agents...it's going to happen faster and faster..."
• Practical example: Salesforce enables emails, websites, and SMS to become two-way, agent-mediated conversations—brands must enable agents to interact with up-to-date, rich data and content.
  • [28:27] Steve Hammond: "I can now send out an email. That email isn't a dead end...I have an agent...someone can ask questions and I can inform them at the speed and scale of that email..."

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 01:20 | Steve Hammond | "I'm a big fan of getting out in nature...I also have a farm...completely different from working on technology." | | 02:46 | Steve Hammond | "We have agents that assist them in doing that...it also allows...an organization to create a conversation with their customers, which historically has been impossible at scale." | | 08:58 | Steve Hammond | "The top level leadership needs to believe in it...AI is only really as good as its source of information." | | 10:59 | Steve Hammond | "We can now let AI have that understanding...people can spend more time driving creativity and strategic and personalization..." | | 14:36 | Steve Hammond | "We've been modernizing our marketing technology...now relabeled as Data360." | | 18:18 | Steve Hammond | "...Now...personalization...available to all systems...linked into our Agent Force technology. And Agent Force is actually hyper-personalization." | | 19:45 | Steve Hammond | "...Now you can run that same input through an agent that uses these LLMs...and render back...an experience that was impossible even a year ago." | | 19:49 | Steve Hammond | "At the time...the limiting factor...was how do you match that back to content...Now...LLMs...can generate...everything on the fly." | | 22:24 | Steve Hammond | "...focus on getting really good at something and being an expert...keep delivering." | | 26:28 | Steve Hammond | "Apathy. I think apathy works on both sides, but I think the biggest threat is not doing something right now because the world's changing around us." | | 28:27 | Steve Hammond | "I can now send out an email. That email isn't a dead end...I have an agent...someone can ask questions and I can inform them at the speed and scale of that email..." |

Notable Moments & Practical Takeaways

• Steve’s father’s boating invention inadvertently launched his digital career and entrepreneurial mindset (04:00–06:15).
• Salesforce’s technical evolution from legacy silos to unified Data360, paving the way for seamless customer experiences (14:36–17:54).
• Urgent call to action for marketers: Up to 40% of some web traffic now comes from AI agents; brands need to adapt their content and engagement strategies immediately to avoid irrelevance (26:28–28:27).
• Agentforce-enabled marketing assets (emails, websites, SMS) can now host live, two-way interactions with customers via AI agents, representing a seismic shift in marketing communication (28:27–29:13).

Conclusion

This episode offers a vital look at how AI and agentic interfaces are fundamentally altering the landscape of marketing—impacting both the customer experience and the very organization of marketing teams. Steve Hammond’s insights urge marketers to embrace organizational alignment, focus on data, and act quickly to leverage agentic AI or risk being left behind. The future is immersive, conversational, and hyper-personalized—and it’s already here.