General News
Salesforce and Google Expand Partnership, Introduce Gemini to Agentforce
Salesforce and Google today announced a major expansion of their strategic partnership, delivering choice in the models and capabilities businesses use to build and deploy AI-powered agents.
The AI landscape is evolving so quickly that businesses are struggling to keep pace with innovations like autonomous agents. This expanded partnership provides crucial flexibility, empowering customers to develop tailored AI solutions that meet their specific needs, rather than being locked into a single model provider.
Google Cloud is at the forefront of enterprise AI, with millions of developers using its cutting edge Gemini models and AI optimised infrastructure
This expanded partnership lets Salesforce customers build Agentforce agents with Gemini and deploy Salesforce on Google Cloud. It builds on their existing collaboration, which enables seamless data sharing between Google BigQuery and Salesforce via zero copy technology. This gives businesses the AI, data, and trust they need to integrate autonomous agents into their operations.
“Through our expanded partnership with Google Cloud and deep integrations at the platform, application, and infrastructure layer, we’re giving customers choice in the applications and models they want to use,” said Srini Tallapragada, Salesforce President & Chief Engineering and Customer Success Officer.
“Salesforce offers a complete enterprise-grade agentic AI platform that makes it easy to deploy new capabilities easily and realise business value fast. Google Cloud is a pioneer in enterprise agentic AI, offering some of the most powerful, capable models, agents, and AI development tools on the planet. Together we are creating the best place for businesses to scale with digital labour.”
“Salesforce’s selection of Google Cloud as a major infrastructure provider means enterprise customers can now deploy some of their most critical applications on our highly secure,
AI-optimised infrastructure — with minimal friction,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.
“Our mutual customers have asked us to be able to work more seamlessly across Salesforce and Google Cloud, and this expanded partnership will help them accelerate their AI transformations with agentic AI, state-of-the-art AI models, data analytics, and more.”
“At Wayfair, we’re deeply committed to using data and AI to create exceptional customer experiences,” said Fiona Tan, CTO of Wayfair. “The Salesforce and Google Cloud partnership, particularly the availability of Salesforce on Google Cloud infrastructure and the integration of Agentforce and Gemini, offers powerful new capabilities to personalise interactions and empower our teams to better serve our customers.”
Why it matters:
Agentic AI isn’t just emerging, it’s already here and represents a $2 trillion market opportunity, according to a study from Salesforce. In fact, 84% of CIOs believe AI will be as significant to businesses as the internet. To fully realise this potential, businesses need an agentic strategy with openness, trust, and choice at the centre.
This includes:
● Data: Highly secure and unified access to all your data, no matter where it resides, with a zero-copy architecture and enriched metadata for deeper insights. This breaks down data silos across platforms so customers don’t have to sacrifice choice for an integrated experience, unlike solutions that hoard data access or require users to cobble together disparate solutions.
● AI: Unparalleled choice and flexibility with leading AI models, including predictive, generative, and multi-modal options. This allows businesses to tailor solutions to their specific needs and avoid being locked on a single provider’s AI capabilities.
● Trust: A multi-layered approach to protect your data and infrastructure with encryption, data residency options, and a choice of infrastructure providers. Additionally, robust guardrails, bias detection, explainability, and toxicity controls are built-in to ensure responsible AI development and deployment.
● Actions: Seamless integration of automation, analytics, and applications across platforms to streamline workflows and drive efficiency across the organization. This allows businesses to maximize the impact of AI agents by connecting them to their existing tools and systems, unlike solutions with limited integrations or closed Ecosystems.
Data: Real-Time Responses in Agentforce with Google Search
Agentforce will be able to leverage Grounding with Google Search through Vertex AI, building on the secure data foundation established through the zero copy partnership between Salesforce Data Cloud and Google BigQuery. This integration empowers Agentforce agents with the ability to reference up-to-the-minute data, news, current events, and credible citations, substantially enhancing their contextual awareness and ability to deliver accurate, evidence-backed responses.
For example, in supply chain management and logistics, an Agentforce agent could track shipments and monitor inventory levels in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and proactively identify potential disruptions using real-time data from Google Search, including weather conditions, port congestion, and geopolitical events. Availability is expected in the coming months.
AI: Unlocking the Power of Choice and Flexibility with Gemini and Agentforce
Businesses need the freedom to choose the best models for their needs rather than be locked into one vendor. In 2025, Google’s Gemini models will also be available for prompt building and reasoning directly within Agentforce.
With Gemini and Agentforce, businesses will benefit from:
● Agents with multi-modal capabilities: Gemini’s native multimodality lets agents “see” and interpret the world, enabling AI to recognize images (like error codes) and detect emotions in voice. Integrating this into Agentforce creates smarter agents that respond to audio, video, and text.
● Expanded contextual understanding and reasoning: Gemini’s 2 million-token context window lets agents retain and reference massive amounts of information, like entire codebases, years of customer interactions, or product documentation.
● Increased speed and efficiency: Google’s Tensor processing Units (TPUs), combined with advanced techniques like those used in Google’s NotebookLM, enable Gemini to process and understand information with exceptional speed and efficiency, delivering real-time responses even for complex queries. This translates to faster response times and reduced operational costs.
For example, an insurance customer can submit a claim with photos of the damage and an audio voicemail from a witness. Agentforce, using Gemini, can then help the insurance provider deliver better customer experiences by processing all these inputs, assessing the claim’s validity, and even using text-to-speech to contact the customer with a resolution, streamlining the traditionally lengthy claims process. Availability is expected this year.
Trust: Salesforce Platform deployed on Google Cloud
Customers will be able to leverage Salesforce’s unified platform (Agentforce, Data Cloud, Customer 360) on Google Cloud’s highly secure, AI-optimized infrastructure, benefiting from
features like dynamic grounding, zero data retention, and toxicity detection provided by the Einstein Trust Layer.
Once Salesforce products are available on Google Cloud, customers will also have the ability to procure Salesforce offerings through the Google Cloud Marketplace, opening up new
possibilities for global businesses to optimize their investments across Salesforce and Google Cloud and benefitting thousands of existing joint customers.
Action: Enhanced Employee Productivity and Customer Service with AI-Powered
Integrations
Millions use Salesforce and Google Cloud daily. This partnership prioritizes choice and flexibility, enabling seamless cross-platform work. New and deeper connections between platforms like Salesforce Service Cloud and Google Cloud’s Customer Engagement Suite, as well as Slack and Google Workspace, will empower AI agents and service representatives with unified data access, streamlined workflows, and advanced AI capabilities, regardless of platform.
Salesforce and Google Cloud are deeply integrating their customer service platforms – Salesforce Service Cloud and Google Cloud’s Customer Engagement Suite – to create a
seamless and intelligent support experience.
Expected later this year, this unified approach empowers AI agents in Service Cloud with:
● Real-time Voice Translation and Sentiment Analysis: Google Cloud AI in Service Cloud will enable real-time voice translation breaking down language barriers. New agent assist features within the Service Cloud desktop will analyse tone of voice and audio cues for deeper customer sentiment understanding.
● Agent-to-Agent Intelligent Handoffs: Across all channels, virtual agents built on Google Conversational Agents will be able to seamlessly connect with Agentforce in Service Cloud for more efficient management of multi-step, customer interactions. Salesforce and Google Cloud are also exploring deeper integrations between Slack and Google Workspace, boosting productivity and creating a more cohesive digital workspace for teams and organisations. The companies are currently exploring use cases such as:
● The ability for users to leverage enterprise search in Slack to access and act on files in Google Drive.
● The ability to more easily share information between Gmail and Slack, enhancing communication and knowledge sharing.
The result is a more connected and productive work environment, where businesses can choose the best tools for their needs from employee productivity to customer service while
benefiting from a seamless and intelligent workflow across platforms.
Expanding Partnership Capabilities and Integrations
This partnership goes beyond core product integrations to deliver a more connected and intelligent data foundation for businesses. This is just the beginning; Salesforce and Google
Cloud are committed to ongoing innovation and deeper collaboration to empower businesses with even more powerful solutions. Expected availability throughout 2025.
● Deeper integrations across Data Cloud, BigQuery, and Cortex Framework will make it easier than ever for customers to securely ground their AI agents in all of their enterprise data.
● New native Tableau, Looker, and BigQuery integration will allow customers to manage and visualise business data across all platforms in one single UI with standardized business logic and data definitions.
General News
MSMEs Paucity of Funds Receives Boost as Senate Backs Bill Seeking to Unlock Cash for them
Businesses across Nigeria, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), may soon be able to convert unpaid invoices and credit sales into immediate cash without relying on conventional bank loans following the passage of the Factoring, Assignments and Receivables Financing Bill for second reading in the Senate.
The bill, which seeks to establish a legal framework for factoring and receivables financing, is expected to improve access to credit, boost liquidity for businesses and enhance domestic and international trade.
It also seeks to provide legal certainty for the assignment of receivables through factoring, promote transparency, modernise assignment laws and facilitate greater access to credit for businesses across the country.
Leading debate on the bill which was sent from the House of Representatives for concurrence, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said on Tuesday that the proposed legislation would create an enabling environment for debt factoring to thrive in Nigeria while defining the rights and obligations of creditors, factors and debtors involved in such transactions.
He explained that the bill provides for factoring contracts between sellers and factors and clarifies the legal relationship among parties in receivables financing arrangements.
According to Bamidele, the legislation has already passed all legislative stages in the House of Representatives and has complied with the Senate’s procedural requirements under Order 78(3) of the Senate Standing Orders.
He told lawmakers that the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Compliance, chaired by Abdul Ningi, had scrutinised and cleared the bill for concurrence.
“The committee confirmed that all procedural requirements for consideration and concurrence by the Senate have been fully met,” he said.
Seconding the bill, Adetokunbo Abiru said the legislation would provide businesses with an alternative source of financing by enabling them to turn credit sales into cash and improve their working capital.
Abiru noted that factoring has become increasingly popular across Africa over the last decade, largely through initiatives supported by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
He disclosed that the African factoring market is currently valued at over $50 billion, but Nigeria’s participation remains below one per cent.
According to him, countries such as Egypt and Morocco have benefited significantly from the financing model, adding that Nigeria risks missing out on the growing market without a clear regulatory framework.
“I think that passing this major legislation will help support our micro, small and medium enterprises in terms of converting most of their credit sales into cash without going through the normal borrowing arrangement,” Abiru said.
In his remarks, Ningi also assured lawmakers that the compliance committee had reviewed the bill and found no legal impediments to its passage.
Following a voice vote, the Senate approved the bill for second reading and subsequently referred it to the Committee of the Whole for clause-by-clause consideration.
The IMF on Tuesday warned of risks surrounding Nigeria’s plan to borrow up to $5 billion through a derivatives agreement with First Abu Dhabi Bank, saying such transactions are often opaque and complex.
Recall that the Senate in April gave its approval to the agreement, joining other Africa borrowers like Senegal and Angola who have tapped similar arrangements over the past year.
“Our view is that the transaction in these types of structures carry risks. Usually they are opaque so the terms are not always very transparent when we reviewed these instruments across countries,” Christian Ebeke, IMF resident representative in Nigeria, told reporters.
Ebeke said Nigeria could instead issue eurobonds to finance its deficits or other means to raise funding, including on concessional terms.
Nigeria intends to use proceeds from the total return swap, or TRS, to refinance expensive debt and pay for infrastructure.
In its latest Article IV review, the Fund praised Nigeria’s sweeping reforms, saying they had strengthened economic stability and investor confidence, but warned that the benefits had yet to reach millions of citizens and could be undermined by global shocks, including the Middle East conflict.
The reforms since 2023 under President Bola Tinubu – including fuel subsidy removal, tighter monetary policy and exchange rate liberalisation – had rebuilt buffers and improved macroeconomic management, the IMF said.
However, it cautioned that the reforms were also contributing to social strain, with poverty levels at 63% and millions facing food insecurity, underscoring a widening gap between macro gains and household realities.
The IMF said improved policy credibility and forex reforms had helped Nigeria regain access to international capital markets and attract portfolio inflows, while reducing risk premiums. The central bank says gross reserves are at $50 billion, the highest in 17 years.
But reliance on volatile foreign portfolio investment poses rollover risks, the IMF said, urging a shift towards more stable, long-term capital such as foreign direct investment.
Security Skills Development Company (SSDC) has released its 2026 Security Outlook, highlighting four major security challenges expected to shape Nigeria’s business and operating environment as the country moves closer to the 2027 general election.
The report, developed from a nationwide survey and expert contributions at the recently concluded Security Thought Leadership Roundtable, identifies internal security threats, protection of national assets, cyber risks and election-related instability as the most significant concerns facing organisations and institutions in the coming year.
According to SSDC, findings from the survey and stakeholder discussions reveal growing concern over the increasing complexity of security challenges and their potential impact on business continuity, economic stability and public confidence.
A substantial number of respondents identified internal threats within organisations as an emerging risk, pointing to the need for stronger corporate governance, workforce integrity measures and structured risk management systems.
Security experts at the roundtable noted that weaknesses in critical public infrastructure and national assets could have far-reaching consequences for the economy and national development if not adequately addressed.
The report also highlights cybercrime as a persistent and evolving threat to both public and private sector institutions.
Participants stressed the importance of strengthening cyber resilience through proactive monitoring, investment in technology-driven safeguards and improved security awareness.
Another key concern raised in the outlook is what SSDC described as the “2027 Election Shadow.” Many respondents expressed concerns about the possibility of heightened political tension as the election season approaches, warning that uncertainty and security disruptions could affect business operations, investment decisions and overall economic confidence.
Speaking on the report’s findings, Mike Igbodipe, managing director, SSDC, called for a more strategic approach to security management across both public and private sectors.
He said organisations must move beyond reactive security measures and integrate security considerations into their broader strategic planning and decision-making processes. He also advocated the development of a gold-standard, locally certified training programme for security professionals tailored to Nigeria’s unique security environment.
SSDC, a security training and consulting firm focused on advancing professional standards in Nigeria’s security sector and strengthening industrial resilience through capacity building and strategic expertise, said the Security Outlook forms part of its ongoing thought leadership initiative aimed at promoting informed dialogue on national security, institutional resilience and risk management.
The company reaffirmed its commitment to supporting stakeholders through research, training and strategic advisory services designed to improve preparedness and response to emerging security challenges.
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