Ai 'Agents' are coming...

Goodlabs’ managing director Matt Wilson shares his thoughts about AI-influenced changes to the Salesforce brand and wider product offering

It’s corporate logo is a blue cloud with the word Salesforce in it. The brand presides over a huge range of interconnected digital data products, many with “cloud” in the title. But now many are being re-badged with “agent” instead — part of a serious pivot to AI. Recent articles circulating after this year’s Dreamforce, including one reporting Marc Benioff’s comment that he might even rename the company Agentforce, made me stop and think about what this could mean for the #nonprofit sector.

And why, despite my reservations about the terminology, I’m genuinely excited about what AI agents could mean for charities. I’ll share three reasons.

My business introduces lots of charities to Salesforce, largely because of its core CRM strengths and the generous discounts available for smaller organisations. But every time I demo the system to a new prospect, I have to start with: “Why would a charity be interested in a product with ‘Sales’ in its name?” I’d be quite happy not to have to do that any more.

That said, I’m not convinced that the words Agent and AI naturally go together in most people’s minds. There’s a real risk of confusion. But if we put the branding to one side, the underlying direction of travel is fascinating — because AI agents could genuinely reshape how busy charities manage and report on their services.

Here are three reasons I’m excited.

1. More human referral journeys
Referral pathways for people seeking help can be long, clinical, and complicated. AI agents could make them feel far more human. Instead of navigating complex forms, someone could describe their situation in their own words and be guided through a gentle, conversational process that captures exactly what a service needs. The same outcomes, but with greater dignity and far less friction.

2. Reporting that feels like insight, not admin
Salesforce reports and dashboards already help to reduce the stress around impact reporting — but the learning curve is still steep. AI could flatten it. Imagine asking, “Show me referral trends over the past six months and highlight anything unusual,” and receiving a dashboard, a narrative summary, and suggested next questions. Not replacing good measurement practice, but making it accessible to every organisation.

3. Training and support woven directly into the CRM
Many frontline workers don’t see themselves as ‘tech-confident’, and they shouldn’t have to be. AI assistants could sit within the CRM as a calm, patient guide: helping staff complete tasks, record interactions accurately, follow safeguarding steps, or simply remember where a field lives. Real-time support embedded in daily work, improving confidence and data quality simultaneously.

If Salesforce is serious about reframing its ecosystem around agents and AI, I hope our sector doesn’t just brace for the change — but sees the opportunity in it. Done well, these tools could help charities spend less time wrestling with systems and more time doing what they do best: supporting people.

CRM for Veteran's Charity

Charities come in all shapes and sizes, serving all sorts of different groups in society. We were pleased to be asked to support a Veterans charity for the first time.

Veteran’s HQ Liverpool provides much-needed support to hundreds of ex-servicemen and women right across the Merseyside region. The leadership team of the charity and its committed volunteers were beginning to struggle to keep track of all the many diverse requests for support and a busy schedule of participation in a range of groups and activities.

Using our Cimpl CRM application which utilises the security and versatility of the Salesforce platform we were able to deliver a user-friendly and cost-effective solution. In order to ensure that new users to the system had the best possible start we travelled to Liverpool to deliver in-person training.

In particular the in-built report and dashboard features that Cimpl offers have transformed the way that the charity reports back to its various funders, really taking the sting out of producing detailed reports on activity and impact.

Don’t be shy to get in touch if you’d like a demo of how our Cimpl CRM could make a difference to the way your charity manages its data.

Cimpl arrives in Cumbria

The roster of charities around the UK switching to our Cimpl CRM continues to grow with the latest deployment on behalf of a charity in Kendal serving those who are homeless, vulnerable housed, lonely or needing support.

As is often the case, the charity had an existing CRM but it was no longer meeting their needs. The legacy system was causing staff and volunteers a lot of frustration, sapping their time, and all sorts of workarounds were needed to account for its inability to adapt their ever-evolving service.

Having got to know the charity first through a piece of strategic work looking at Theory of Change and a new outcomes framework we were well versed in the impact that the charity was making and the demands of its funders with respect to reporting on that impact.

At Goodlabs we always encourage an ‘impact-first’ approach. This ensures data management is constructed around measuring the things that matter most. Upskilling staff is key to this too, because however well designed the CRM may be ultimately the reports and dashboards it presents are only as good as the data going in. Patiently overcoming system-adoption anxieties is key, including when necessary going at the pace of users who need additional hand-holding.

Feedback from the charity has been really encouraging. It’s great to know that we’ve been able to deliver on our promise to “make impact easier”.

If you’d like a demo of Cimpl drop a line to: cimpl@goodlabs.uk

Pic by Jonny Gios, Unsplash

New CRM system for Rape Crisis

Rape Crisis Tyneside & Northumberland belongs to the national network of Rape Crisis centres, providing vital services for women who have experienced sexual abuse, exploitation and violence. Our connection came via our delivery relationship with Lloyds Bank Foundation, one of RCTN’s funders, along with the Ministry of Justice and others.

Like many charities in receipt of funding from major public and corporate sector sources RCTN has to navigate a vast array of statistics about the work that it is delivering. Historically this had been done via a Microsoft Access database but this technology was fast becoming obsolete and its limitations myriad.

Goodlabs supported RCTN through a multi-phased project that involved reflecting critically on systems and processes for client/case management, along with development of a Theory of Change and Outcomes Framework. This was followed by the production of a detailed specification outlining the essential functionality of the new CRM, and then taking this to the market via a proportionate tendering process. Systems were demoed, providers shortlisted and interviewed and eventually a decision made.

Finally Goodlabs provided arms-length project management through the build and implementation phase, support with export and import of historic data, plus the coaching and training of key staff to ensure rapid adoption of the new platform (a custom iteration of the Salesforce based ‘In-Form’ supplied by Homeless Link).