Catch The Salesforce Scoop
What’s New with Salesforce?
Spring ’26 Release: AI Everywhere, But Is Your Org Ready?
Salesforce’s Spring ’26 release is rolling out now, and the headline theme is hard to miss: artificial intelligence is no longer a separate layer bolted onto the platform. It is becoming embedded in the core product experience across Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and beyond.
Einstein Copilot is expanding its reach significantly in this release, with new capabilities that surface contextual recommendations directly inside standard record pages, opportunity workflows, and case management. Agentforce enhancements are also live, giving customers more tools to build and deploy autonomous agents without writing custom code. For organizations already invested in Salesforce, this release represents a meaningful step forward in what the platform can do out of the box.
But here is where many teams run into trouble. These AI features do not operate in a vacuum. They rely on clean, well-structured data, clearly defined automation logic, coherent permission models, and a metadata environment that is not working against itself. When those foundations are shaky, enabling Einstein or Agentforce does not unlock productivity. It amplifies existing problems and introduces new ones.
What This Means in Practice
Organizations with legacy Process Builder or Workflow Rules still running alongside newer Flow automations may find that AI-driven processes fire at unexpected times, produce inconsistent results, or simply fail to trigger at all. Duplicate or poorly governed data leads to Copilot surfacing irrelevant or misleading recommendations. Overly permissive security models raise the stakes on every autonomous action an agent takes.
The Spring ’26 release is a good moment to take stock. New capabilities are available, and your competitors are evaluating them. The question is not whether to engage with these features, but whether your Salesforce environment is structured to benefit from them rather than be destabilized by them.
If you want a clear picture of where your org stands, our complimentary Salesforce Metadata Analysis gives you an objective view of your automation health, data model, permission design, and overall readiness for AI-powered features. It highlights exactly what needs attention before you build on top of it.
Contact Sam@cloudadoption.solutions for more information.
There’s a lot of Salesforce news, and it’s hard to keep up! As always, Cloud Adoption Solutions aims to bring the best and most important Salesforce news to you so you don’t have to do all of the work. Keep following along with us and make sure to subscribe to our blog posts for more! – Sam
User Adoption Research: Details from my PhD Research
Change Management should NEVER be redlined out
In my doctoral research on CRM User Adoption, I interviewed users, and then coded their responses to themes and sub-themes. The study was based on three primary academic theories, one of which was Change Management.
I’m struck by how Change Management Theory also applies to the return-to-office debate. Communication will impact the success of the change – and many companies have issued a mandate to RTO with not much explanation of what the benefits are to the individual, group, or the company.
Here’s an excerpt of my dissertation that may help you to think about communication for change management:
Designing and Delivering Communication and Training of System with Change Management Consideration. Group interaction, training, and communication consistent with Lewin’s three-step model of change provides a guide to effective behavior change and adoption of cloud technology (Landreville, 2016, pp. 224-227). The quality of the communication, including an identified communication strategy, affects the success of the change (Hayes, 2018, p. 164). Training and communication which begins by drawing on the lived experience of the adult learner and providing multiple methods of a training experience, such as projects, cases, and role play, will encourage learners to be more open and connected to the new concepts (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p. 51). Effective communication can aid in adoption of innovations, by showing positive role models and relative advantage (Rogers, 2003, p. 236). When training is focused not only on technical features, but rather on how the CRM technology will improve process and relative advantage, the connection is made at a deeper level (Rutherford, 2015, p. 10). Rote training on CRM technology features rather than deeper connection to the technology limits the adoption and ultimate usage of the CRM tool (Weinstein, 2008, p. 5). According to Grattan (2012), the “organization must invest in change management process,” including CRM training (p. 24).
WANT EVEN MORE INFO on this critical CRM user adoption research? I have a journey built that you can follow if you click here. Or, shoot me a message to have us help you develop your adoption strategy. – Shannon
Tips on YouTube
Salesforce: CAS Come and See Videos
Stop Ruining Your Salesforce Data!
Trade shows are a goldmine for data, but if you aren’t careful, they can become a nightmare for your CRM. In this video, Katie McAfee breaks down the “John Miller” problem and explains why the best time to fix bad data is before it ever hits Salesforce.
Whether you’re dealing with badge scanners, CSV exports, or manual uploads, this deep dive covers the native and third-party tools you need to keep your reporting clean and your sales reps happy.
In this video, we cover:
- The “John Miller” Problem: Why trade show leads are the #1 source of dirty data.
- Standardization & Normalization: How to handle variations like “USA” vs. “United States” before the import.
- Salesforce Best Practices: Setting up picklists and validation rules that actually work.
- Native vs. Third-Party Tools: When to use Salesforce Duplicate Rules and when to level up to DemandTools, DataGroomer, or Insycle.
- Cross-Object Matching: How to prevent creating leads for people who are already your customers.
Let us know if you have any requests for our next CAS Come & See Video!
To watch this video click here!
INTERESTED IN SEEING MORE?
Cloud Adoption Solutions puts out great Come-And-See videos on YouTube, so subscribe to our channel to stay in the know! Watch as the team shows new trends, shows instructional videos, and keeps you up to date on all things Salesforce. Subscribe to never miss a thing: we show you something new every week. – Sofee
Advice from an Expert
Send your Qs to info@cloudadoption.solutions
Q: What is the best way to find new tools for Salesforce?
A: So, there are a few awesome places to find new tools for Salesforce!
First, we always recommend starting with the AppExchange. There’s a reason the Apple App Store has a similar design; it is simply the best place to do research and find new fresh apps for Salesforce. However, there are some limitations we see, particularly when it comes to finding hidden gems that maybe are lying somewhere in the AppExchange where you can’t find them.
This is when you bring in the classic Google search, and see that there are tons of awesome lists being made by your favorite Salesforce bloggers! Hundreds of lists are simply a search away, and they are often titled things such as “Top 20 apps for Salesforce in {your industry}” or “Best new Salesforce apps 2026.” It sounds simple and that’s because it is, so take a look and see what’s out there…or ask your favorite Salesforce nerd (me) to help!
GOT MORE QUESTIONS?
Send them to us at info@cloudadoption.solutions! Who knows; you may end up as our featured questions of the month! – Andrew
Content Corner
- STREAMING: If you haven’t binged “Dark Matter” on Apple TV+ yet, consider this your sign! While it’s a sci-fi thriller about the multiverse, it is actually a fascinating metaphor for Data Versioning and “What-If” Analysis. The show follows a man fighting to get back to his original life after being kidnapped into an alternate reality. For the tech community, it’s a gripping look at how one single variable or “split-test” can change an entire ecosystem. It’s the ultimate “Sandbox vs. Production” nightmare—stream it now!
- APPS WE LOVE: In the spirit of keeping our Customer Success teams lean and mean, you have to check out Coefficient! We know everyone loves their spreadsheets, but the “manual copy-paste” era is officially over. Coefficient live-syncs your Salesforce data directly into Google Sheets or Excel. What makes it a 2026 essential is its new GPT-Powered Data Cleaning feature—it can actually detect and fix formatting errors in your CRM data before they ever hit your reports.
- TRAILS WE LOVE: Now that you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to level up with the Agentforce for Service module! Since 2026 is the year of the “Autonomous Employee,” this path is critical for anyone looking to scale their support without adding headcount. It moves past simple chatbots and teaches you how to build agents that actually reason through complex customer issues using your existing Knowledge Base. It’s the perfect deep dive into shifting your strategy from “Reactive Support” to “Proactive Resolution!”
WANT TO BE A GUEST COLUMNIST?
We’d love to feature your hot take on Salesforce on our blog, YouTube channel, or both! Email us and let us know your idea! – Shannon
Special Events
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- 4/30/2026, Boston, MA: Precision in Clinical Trials Summit
- 5/4/2026, Philadelphia, PA: MidAtlantic Dreamin’
- 6/18/2026, London, UK: Agentforce World Tour London
- 7/9-10/2026, Austin, TX: Texas Dreamin’
HAVE AN EVENT TO LIST?
We’d love to share! Email us and let us know the details!
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Contact us with your Salesforce challenges at info@cloudadoption.solutions – we love to help! Cloud Adoption Solutions is a 100% woman-owned registered Salesforce partner, specializing in implementation, integration, and optimization for Technology, Healthcare/ Life Sciences, and Financial Services/ Professional Services organizations in the small and mid-commercial sectors.
