Plative Taps Agentforce in Slack for 50% Faster Prep, 50% More Upsells

Plative, a 200-person global tech consulting firm spread across three continents, runs over 100 projects simultaneously. As a remote-first company, Slack is their collaboration hub where conversations, tools, and teams connect seamlessly across time zones. But beneath that smooth coordination, critical workflows were breaking down.

Sales reps spent hours gathering data from multiple external tools just to prep for client calls. Spotting high-potential leads meant digging into customer pain points — a slow, manual process. Delivery teams had to painstakingly translate meeting notes into user stories, while recruiters struggled to extract insights from resumes and qualify candidates quickly.

To fix this, the team built an internal AI assistant, Plaito. It was a strong first step, but it wasn’t as intuitive or seamless as the tools they were used to, which meant non-technical users rarely touched it. They needed something powerful, secure, and seamlessly embedded in their existing workflow.

“We’re a remote-first company, and Slack is the connective tissue that holds everything together,” said Miftah Khan, SVP and Head of Professional Services. “Whether we’re in Salesforce, Jira, Zoom, or GitHub, there’s always a Slack window open. Naturally, we wanted AI in that flow.”

Agentforce in Slack drives a 50% boost in upsells

Plative didn’t want another standalone tool. They needed AI fully integrated into Slack and their existing systems, with security robust enough for regulated client data. That’s why they turned to Agentforce, Salesforce’s native AI agent platform, now deeply integrated into Slack.

In less than a month, Plative had Agentforce up and running, and used Agent Builder to create three core Slack-native agents:

• Account Research Agent pulls deep insights into Slack threads, from org charts to lookalike customers.
• Call Prep Agent integrates with calendars and data providers like LinkedIn, Clearbit, and Apollo to seamlessly brief sellers before meetings. (Fun fact: This agent was developed during the an Agentforce Hackathon by Kahn and his son — and won the Grand Prize.)
• Summary Agent compiles complete overviews of accounts, opportunities, and cases without switching tabs.

Now, instead of context switching or chasing down data, team members simply ask for what they need, right in Slack. Better prep and faster access to insights helped drive a 50% increase in upsell bookings, and cut sales call prep time in half.

And the impact isn’t just speed, it’s scale. With Agentforce embedded in Slack, Plative avoids hiring one additional full-time employee for every five consultants. That’s time saved and headcount optimized, without sacrificing service quality or client outcomes.

“Slack is where work already happens,” said CRO Greg DelGenio. “Embedding agents in Slack means no context-switching between Salesforce, NetSuite, calendars. The agent delivers what they need, where they are. That tight integration makes agents feel like true teammates.”

Trust built in, from enterprise-grade security to user-level control

For Plative, trust was non-negotiable. They and their clients needed a system that respected user roles, protected sensitive data, and could scale securely. They chose Agentforce and Slack not just for the AI capabilities, but for the power of the platform.

Out of the box, Agentforce provides enterprise-grade features like the Einstein Trust Layer, which masks sensitive data before it ever reaches a model. But it was the built-in permissioning that sealed the deal. “Each agent only sees what I’m allowed to see,” said Khan. “That’s why we built it on Slack and Agentforce.”

Khan compares it to teaching someone to cook. “Our original agent, Plaito 1.0, was like giving someone a recipe book: They could follow steps, but they needed exact instructions,” he said. “With Agentforce, it’s like saying, ‘Here’s your fridge, here’s your pantry — now make me something great.’ The agent doesn’t need recipes. It knows how to reason, but it also knows the rules. It won’t grab ingredients it’s not allowed to touch.”

The context-awareness is critical: Slack and Agentforce enforce built-in access controls, preventing agents from surfacing data users aren’t authorized to see.

Equally important was the native connection to CRM data and the ability to easily integrate with Salesforce Flows and APEX classes, giving Plative the control and flexibility to build powerful, compliant agents that work securely inside their existing workflows. “If you’re in a regulated industry, this is super important,” said Khan.

AI built by the people who use it

Plative went beyond security to build trust through transparency and ownership. A dedicated Slack channel, #plaito, serves as a hub where anyone can propose and vote on AI features, which means every agent capability was requested and shaped by employees.

This culture of contribution extends to hiring and onboarding. “We set the tone from day one. AI is part of how we work,” Khan said. “We hire for AI comfort, train through peer examples, and celebrate the wins. That’s why our strategy works — it’s AI for the people, by the people.”

New hires ramp up on AI quickly, and ideas flow from across the company. Designing and deploying new workflows now takes days instead of months.

Upcoming capabilities include generating Jira stories from meeting notes, tailoring outreach based on inferred customer pain points, surfacing high-potential leads, extracting resume insights for talent ops, and enabling natural language access to internal knowledge across IT, HR, sales, and more — all starting with real needs voiced by the team.

“It’s not top-down,” Khan said. “Agentforce in Slack empowers AI built by the people who use it.”