3.3 Connecting Agents to Channels: Digital Experiences, Email, Voice & Slack
Key Takeaways
- A connection includes channel-specific instructions, adaptive response formats such as rich links and buttons, and Omni-Channel flow settings.
- Inbound Omni-Channel flows route conversations to an agent, and each inbound flow connects to one agent; outbound flows route escalations to reps, queues, or other agents.
- Agentforce Service Agent on Email uses an email template with a legal disclosure, an email configuration, and routing addresses in Email-to-Case setup.
- Voice-enabled Service agents are created in the new Agentforce Builder with a telephony connection and are monolingual in their default language.
- Employee agents connect to Slack with the Slack connection and install from Slack admin settings; they respect each user's Salesforce permissions.
3.3 Connecting Agents to Channels: Digital Experiences, Email, Voice & Slack
Quick Answer: You deploy an agent by adding connections in Agentforce Builder. A connection supplies channel-specific reasoning instructions, adaptive response formats (images, buttons, links, videos), and Omni-Channel flow settings. Service agents reach customers through Enhanced Chat on websites and Experience Cloud sites, other messaging apps, email, and voice. Employee agents reach employees in Lightning Experience and mobile, Slack, and Enhanced Web Chat on Experience Cloud sites.
Core Concepts
| Concept | What it does | Exam-relevant detail |
|---|---|---|
| Connection | Build an agent once and add it to multiple channels. Includes behind-the-scenes instructions that adapt reasoning to the channel | Each agent template supports specific connections |
| Adaptive response formats | Structure responses as rich content, such as a Rich Link Response on Facebook Messenger | The agent picks a format based on the formats available, the action output, and its message |
| Channel | The platform where people interact: Agentforce panel, mobile app, Slack, messaging platforms, email | Channel support varies by agent type |
| Inbound Omni-Channel flow | Routes the conversation's record (messaging session, email) to the agent with the Route Work action | An agent can have multiple inbound flows, but each inbound flow connects to only one agent |
| Outbound Omni-Channel flow | Routes the conversation from the agent to a rep, queue, skill, or another agent | An agent can have multiple outbound flows, and each can reach multiple destinations |
| Escalation subagent | Launched when a person asks for a human or the conversation becomes complex | Transfers conversation history. In Agent Script, the @utils.escalate utility runs it |
Digital Experiences: Enhanced Chat and Experience Cloud
Enhanced Chat is Salesforce's messaging channel for websites and mobile apps.
| Enhanced Chat v1 (formerly Messaging for In-App and Web) | Enhanced Chat v2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Extensive UI configuration, business hours, estimated wait time and queue position, pre-chat forms, post-chat surveys, attachments, transcript download, broad client APIs, user verification with token expiration settings | Modern interface, custom rich content with Custom Lightning Types, token streaming, faster loading, a Context Events API for page URL and search activity |
| Agent support | Service agents and Employee agents | Salesforce's comparison table lists Service agents; check current Help before relying on v2 for Employee agents |
| Guidance | Use when you need complex configuration such as pre-chat forms or post-chat surveys | Recommended for new customers who don't use other messaging channels. Existing customers can migrate |
Salesforce recommends not mixing v1 and v2 deployments on the same domain, because v1 can't display Lightning Types.
To reach customers in an Experience Cloud portal, add an Enhanced Chat deployment to the site. Remember the security context from section 3.2: a customer logged in to the site with credential-based user verification runs as the site user. An Employee agent on an Experience Cloud site with Enhanced Web Chat runs as the logged-in site user and can escalate to reps through its Omni-Channel flow.
To transfer from a messaging channel, select an Escalation Flow (an active outbound Omni-Channel flow) on the Messaging connection and edit the escalation message the agent sends before transferring. The message is translated automatically based on the end user's language.
Email: Agentforce Service Agent on Email
Service agents can autonomously answer customer emails, such as "When will my package arrive?", with responses grounded in Agentforce Data Libraries. This capability applies to Service agents only.
Setup sequence:
- Create an email template for the agent's replies. It includes a placeholder that is replaced by your legal disclosure (
[[[LEGAL_DISCLOSURE]]]). - Create an email configuration (Setup → Agentforce for Service on Email → New Configuration). Choose the template, choose an active Service agent, enter a legal disclosure telling the recipient the email was written and sent by AI, and optionally select Reply All.
- Link routing addresses. From Email-to-Case setup, edit the routing address that receives inbound email and select the email configuration under Agentforce Service Agent Settings.
- Add the Service Email connection and update routing logic as needed, then test and monitor the emails the agent sends.
Permissions involved include Manage Agentforce Service Agents AND Manage AI Agents (or Customize Application) to create the configuration, and Customize Application to edit routing addresses and create Omni-Channel flows.
Voice: Agentforce Voice
Voice-enabled agents replace static IVR menus with intent-driven conversations.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Agent type | Created from an Agentforce Service agent template |
| Builder | New Agentforce Builder only. You can't create new voice agents in the legacy builder |
| Connection | A voice-enabled connection such as Telephony, using partner telephony, Salesforce native telephony (Salesforce Voice), or Enhanced Chat v2 with voice |
| Protocols | Agentforce Voice Setup offers PSTN and SIP tabs |
| Language | Monolingual. A voice agent listens and responds only in its default language. Allowed Languages applies to text agents only |
| Voice | Defaults to English (United States) with the voice "Mark". Customize voice settings to match your brand and language |
| Licensing | Requires Salesforce Voice add-ons |
| Formatting | Use @system_variables.current_modality == "voice" to format dates and numbers for speech |
After committing and activating, you still configure call routing and escalation paths for the telephony setup. Supervisors can watch live voice calls on the Agentforce tab in Omni Supervisor.
Slack (Employee Agents)
Employee agents can work where teams already collaborate:
- Connect Salesforce and Slack.
- In Agentforce Builder, add the Slack connection to the agent. In the legacy builder, you install the Slack external client app and add Slack as an external app in the Messaging connection.
- Give users access to the agent and activate it.
- Install the agent in Slack. On Pro or Business+ plans, a Slack admin installs it from Manage Agentforce. On Enterprise plans, an org admin reviews and installs it from Organization settings → Salesforce → Agentforce and chooses workspaces.
- Optionally edit the agent's Slack profile.
In Slack, the agent respects each user's Salesforce licenses, permissions, and access controls.
Lightning Experience and the Salesforce Mobile App (Employee Agents)
Deploying an Employee agent here is as simple as giving users access and activating the agent. Active agents appear in the Agentforce panel and the mobile app for users with access. Escalation transfers aren't supported from these channels.
Channel Selection Cheat Sheet
| Requirement | Channel and agent |
|---|---|
| Rich custom components and token streaming on a new customer website | Enhanced Chat v2 + Service agent |
| Pre-chat form and post-chat survey required | Enhanced Chat v1 |
| Customers on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger | Enhanced messaging channel + Service agent (Messaging connection) |
| Auto-reply to support emails with AI disclosure | Agentforce Service Agent on Email |
| Replace a phone IVR | Voice-enabled Service agent with Telephony connection |
| Employees ask HR questions where they chat all day | Slack + Employee agent |
| Reps in the Sales Console | Agentforce panel + Employee agent |
Exam Traps
- You can't test escalation in Agentforce Builder. There's no messaging session, so activate the agent and test on a connected channel.
- The escalation utility requires a Messaging or Enhanced Chat v2 connection.
- An agent tries escalation once per session. If the transfer fails, it continues with the Escalation subagent's instructions, for example creating a case with Create Case with Enhanced Data.
- Agentforce Service Agent on Email is a Service agent capability. It doesn't apply to Employee agents.
A retailer wants its Service agent to reply to customer emails automatically and tell recipients the message was written by AI. What must be configured?
An administrator connects the same inbound Omni-Channel flow to two different agents. What does Salesforce documentation say about inbound flows?
A bank builds a voice-enabled Service agent and adds French and Spanish to Allowed Languages, with English as the default. How does the voice agent behave?
A tester tries to trigger escalation to a human rep while previewing a Service agent in Agentforce Builder, and no transfer happens. Why?