Salesforce plans to charge companies when outside AI like Claude uses its apps

Salesforce is moving to collect fees when outside AI tools, such as Claude, do work inside its business software. According to The Information, the company could start as soon as next month by requiring customers to register any outside AI agents they use with its apps.

What changed

An AI agent is a program that carries out tasks on its own, such as looking up customer records or updating them. Until now, a company could often connect an outside agent to its Salesforce data without a separate step. Registration changes that. It would let Salesforce see which agents are in use.

Registration is described as a step toward charging each time an agent updates or reads data. Salesforce is leading the software industry's effort to collect these fees, per the report.

Who it affects

The people most likely to feel this are businesses that run Salesforce and also use outside AI tools to automate work. Claude is named as one tool that could trigger the new fees. The report refers to Claude and other external AI tools, so the change may reach beyond one product.

What is not known yet

• How much Salesforce will charge
• Whether the plan starts next month as expected
• How the fees will appear on a bill
• Which customers and plans are covered

What to do

Businesses that connect AI tools to Salesforce can ask their account rep how outside agents will be billed. It also helps to list which AI tools touch Salesforce data today, so the cost of any new fee is easier to estimate.