Salesforce’s introduction of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent2Agent (A2A) capabilities to Agentforce could push it ahead of the competition in the customer relationship managment (CRM) market, according to analysts.
“Their implementation of MCP is one of the most ambitious interoperability moves we have seen from a CRM vendor or any vendor. It positions Agentforce as a central nervous system for multi-agent orchestration, not just within Salesforce but across the enterprise,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, lead of the CIO practice at The Futurum Group.
Rivals such as HubSpot and Microsoft haven’t gone this deep on open protocols, Hinchcliffe said. “Salesforce is betting big on agentic composability, and for now, they’re out front.”
Key to Salesforce’s success in the integration of agent interoperability frameworks is the introduction of agent gateway — a tool that sits in the Agent Builder inside Agentforce, according to Brian Landsman, CEO of Salesforce AppExchange.
“The agent gateway is going to allow you (enterprise users) to provide governance effectively and administration around all of those registered MCP or A2A experiences. If you’re an admin, you can make sure that you’re managing the MCP server or multiple of them appropriately,” Landsman said.
While Salesforce is not stopping enterprises from using an MCP server, for security reasons, it suggests using the MCP servers it has listed on the AgentExchange — currently about 35, including from partners such as AWS, Box, Cisco, Google Cloud, IBM, Notion, PayPal, Stripe, Teradata, and Writer.
