Learn the Building Blocks of Agentforce for Service
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe three key foundations of Agentforce for Service.
- Explain how Agentforce deploys actions.
Trailcast
If you'd like to listen to an audio recording of this module, please use the player below. When you’re finished listening to this recording, remember to come back to each unit, check out the resources, and complete the associated assessments.
What Drives Agentforce for Service?
One of the most powerful features of Agentforce for Service is the ability to customize how the agent functions and engages with customers. This flexibility is driven by three key elements—topics, actions, and instructions—that shape the agent’s decision-making process and power the learning model.
Topics, actions, and instructions work in unison to help Agentforce deliver the best possible responses to every interaction. A topic is created first, and then actions and instructions are created and housed under the topic. Both actions and instructions must be linked to a topic. Take a closer look at each of these features.
Topics
Topics categorize the Job To Be Done and define an agent’s role by guiding it to apply the right instructions and actions during a conversation. Think of topics as a category of tasks to be done. For instance, a topic named Account Management can include all tasks related to managing a customer account. Topics guide the agent in responding to user requests in a way that suits the user’s role, their current workflow, and the stage of the conversation. They define the specific tasks the agent can manage for each job to be completed.
Topics in Agentforce for Service require these details.
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Classification description: Determines if this is the correct topic to use based on intent.
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Scope: Defines exactly what an agent can do when this topic is being used. Think of this as telling the agent, “Right now your only job is to…”.
Agentforce Builder provides standard topics as well as the ability to create custom topics.
Actions
Actions define the specific tasks an agent can perform based on the selected topic. They can determine if user input is needed to trigger the action and gather additional information during the conversation. Depending on the topic and instructions, multiple actions can be triggered simultaneously. For example, actions under the Account Management topic might include tasks like summarizing account details, retrieving account-related information from a knowledge base, or drafting email responses.
Actions can be created manually or selected from a preexisting list that your company can already use. Similar to topics, Agentforce Builder offers standard and custom actions. The standard actions included might be considered private actions, potentially needing additional configuration per your security standards to function correctly.
An agent action can be created manually from an Apex class, a flow, or a prompt template.
Action Type |
Definition |
|---|---|
Apex |
An action that uses Apex can call classes and variables, enabling it to interact with third-party APIs or external applications. Apex is ideal for handling complex logic or enforcing intricate business rules. |
Flow |
Flows are used to create, update, delete, and retrieve records. Flow Builder enables automation of processes and actions within specific topics. Existing flows can also be referenced by agent actions. |
Prompt Template |
Prompt templates can be invoked as Agentforce actions to help agents handle queries such as knowledge search, classification, and more. A prompt template directs the LLM on what and how to respond, including the ability to choose your own model. Similar to flows, Agentforce can employ prebuilt prompt templates. |
Instructions
Instructions give clear, detailed context to guide agents based on the nature of an interaction. Instructions tell agents how to make decisions. They can be highly customized to define how the agent should respond, specifying tone, style, and what types of responses to avoid. Instructions are mapped to topics and can be edited in Agentforce Builder.
Now that you understand the role of topics and actions in customizing agents, read on to explore use cases for Agentforce for Service, including use cases for custom actions.