Data Cloud’s ability to seamlessly connect, harmonize data from multiple, disparate sources, integral for agentic AI

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Salesforce has been named as a Leader in two IDC MarketScape Customer Data Platform (CDP) market evaluations.

The reports, IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Customer Data Platforms Focused on B2B and B2C Users 2024-2025 vendor assessments, recognized Salesforce for strengths in Data Cloud momentum, artificial intelligence, data governance, Data Cloud integrations within the Salesforce Platform, data-driven predictive and generative AI, and data schema and encryption. 

Salesforce recognized as a Leader in IDC MarketScapes for Worldwide Customer Data Platforms Focused on B2B & B2C Users 2024-2025.

The IDC MarketScape report noted, “Data Cloud provides unified customer data to Agentforce, enabling generative AI agents to operate with context and automate manual or repetitive tasks, delivering agentic AI experiences.”

Data Cloud provides unified customer data to Agentforce, enabling generative AI agents to operate with context and automate manual or repetitive tasks, delivering agentic AI experiences.

The IDC MarketScape Report

Data Cloud removes the technical barriers to building and deploying contextually-aware insights for Agentforce, enabling enterprises to harness the complete set of enterprise data with unprecedented ease. With Data Cloud, teams can quickly create context-rich, intelligent Agentforce interactions that deliver real impact — all while significantly reducing the costs associated with data integration and retrieval.

Evolving B2C needs require a new type of CDP 

The CDP market has undergone a massive transformation in the past few years, reflecting broader shifts in consumer demands. Consumers now expect hyper-personalized interactions across all channels, and B2C organizations need CDP technologies that can unify and activate that customer data to drive business forward. 

IDC data suggests a primary driver of CDP adoption in the B2C market is the need to facilitate cohesive, real-time engagement across multiple channels. Historically, CDPs have struggled to find, integrate, access, and use all of the data and metadata from across the enterprise and in third-party data repositories. They’ve also lacked a common platform for personalizing customer experiences across marketing, sales, service, commerce, and other business disciplines. As a result, organizations have struggled to deliver personalized product recommendations, targeted offers, and timely communications during customer journeys. 

According to the IDC MarketScape report, rapidly changing preferences and behaviors, consumers demanding transparency around data collection and usage, and a challenging macroeconomic environment have raised the stakes as B2C and B2B organizations must meet the needs of a diverse, multigenerational customer base or risk losing them to competitors. 

Alignment of CDP technology with overall CX strategy, customer data value measurement, and strong data and AI governance are needed to help B2C companies elevate customer relationships and drive demonstrable business outcomes. 

B2B firms demand seamless omni-channel journeys

IDC research suggests that CDPs have become essential for B2B organizations seeking to bridge traditional siloed systems and consistency across CRM, marketing, automation, content management, and more. Eighty-one percent of IT leaders say data silos hinder digital transformation. For B2B use cases in particular, there are higher expectations for CDPs to require advanced data modeling capabilities, opportunity levels for segmentation, hierarchies, scores, and more. 

With the continued adoption of generative AI, B2B firms are looking to CDPs to have built-in domain-specific data and knowledge to support richer insights and allow them the ability to engage with buyers in more meaningful ways. 

The Data Cloud advantage 

Salesforce believes these reports recognize how Data Cloud is instrumental in harnessing the power of automation, AI, and real-time data, by integrating with the Salesforce Platform. Built-in AI and generative AI capabilities also mean that organizations can personalize customer experience and real-time analytics across marketing, sales, service, and more for B2B customers. 

“The company built Salesforce Data Cloud on a common metadata layer and fully integrated it into the Salesforce Platform,” IDC said in its MarketScape report for Customer Data Platforms Focused on B2C Users. “By augmenting it with Zero Copy integration, the unified data from Data Cloud can flow into Salesforce applications based on set governance and security policies, giving teams a 360-degree view of the customer for AI-driven segmentation, acquisition and retention, and omni-channel engagement.”

Data Cloud helps companies address rising customer expectations for hyper-personalized experiences with a platform that helps organizations collect the data they need to understand what people really want at any given time. What’s more, it gave them a way of feeding that vital information into the emerging generation of autonomous AI agents they’re building with Agentforce. Companies like The Adecco Group, FedEx, Wyndham, Air India, and more are deploying Data Cloud to support a limitless digital workforce. 

“Our business customers expect us to know everything about their needs and relationship with us,” said Mark Columbo, Senior Vice President, Solutions and Sales, FedEx. “We work really effectively now across sales and marketing, and Data Cloud has enabled us to do that.”

Learn more:

• To receive a complementary excerpt of the IDC MarketScape reports, download them here
• Learn more about Data Cloud
• Explore how Data Cloud powers Agentforce 
• Explore Agentforce and Data Cloud Customer Stories
• Explore Data Cloud Resources
• Join the Datablazer Community
• See why unstructured data is critical for Agentforce 
• Learn more about what makes an AI agent
• Learn more about Data Cloud’s Zero Copy integration

IDC, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Customer Data Platforms Focused on B2B Users 2024–2025 Vendor Assessment, #US50514223, December 2024; IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Customer Data Platforms Focused on B2C Users 2024–2025 Vendor Assessment, #US51778724, December 2024

IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of technology and suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each supplier’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures supplier product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of supplier strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Supplier market share is represented by the size of the icons.

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