rewrite this title Vonage, Salesforce Turbocharge CX for Agentforce Marketing with Two-Way Messaging

Vonage, part of Ericsson, has launched Vonage Conversations for Agentforce Marketing (formerly Marketing Cloud), a new integration that brings two-way customer messaging into Salesforce using Vonage Communications APIs.

The company says the product embeds popular channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, and Rich Communication Services (RCS), directly into the Salesforce platform, aiming to help enterprises connect with customers “via their preferred channels.”

Vonage says the integration allows Agentforce Marketing users to manage two-way conversations from a single interface and leverage customer data already in Salesforce for more personalized communications. It also positions the product as a way to streamline messaging workflows by blending live agents with “agentic AI,” which Vonage says enables “autonomous, always-on two-way conversations” and helps orchestrate “proactive, omni-channel customer journeys.”

“In today’s market, it’s not enough to just send messages; businesses must create meaningful connections across every customer touchpoint,” said Christophe Van de Weyer, President and Head of Business Unit API for Vonage.

“With the integration of rich, two-way messaging channels like RCS, WhatsApp, and SMS into Agentforce Marketing, Vonage is bringing these messaging capabilities to enterprises around the world. The integration of our APIs with Salesforce Marketing Cloud means marketers can now create personalized, branded conversations that strengthen loyalty, drive enhanced engagement and deliver exceptional customer experiences at scale.”

Vonage adds that its AI-powered communications APIs can automate routine tasks, analyze customer data in real time for insights, and support consistent messaging across channels “while adhering to regulatory compliance requirements across channels.” It also says the experience is designed around “a single composer” intended to improve engagement and conversions.

The vendor is also leaning into broader channel trends. It cites Juniper Research’s findings that “global RBM traffic will reach 200 billion messages by 2029.”

Vonage also cites consumer adoption figures for WhatsApp in business engagement, stating: “Globally, 57 percent of consumers rely on WhatsApp to engage with businesses or service providers, surpassing SMS usage in EMEA with a 59 percent adoption rate compared to SMS’s 46 percent.”

Vonage says the launch is part of its Vonage AI Hub and expands on Vonage Conversations for Salesforce, with the intention of unifying engagement across Agentforce Marketing, Sales, and Service via cross-cloud integration, while complementing Vonage Contact Center for end-to-end experiences. The company says Vonage Conversations for Agentforce Marketing is now available on Salesforce AppExchange.

What the Vonage and Salesforce Integration Signals for the UC/CX Market

The Salesforce Vonage pairing is arguably less about adding yet another channel and more about relocating messaging into the operational core, where journeys are built, customer records live, and governance is supposed to happen.

That direction of travel reflects a broader shift across UC, CCaaS, and CPaaS. Buyers are increasingly skeptical of “omnichannel,” which requires agents and marketers to swivel between consoles, or that stores store conversational context in systems that can’t easily be audited or linked to revenue and service outcomes.

RCS is a useful bellwether. Its promise is richer, more branded, more interactive business messaging. However, its adoption varies by region and carrier support, which is why vendors are eager to make it feel like a native choice inside mainstream enterprise platforms rather than a bespoke integration. Juniper Research forecasts that “global RBM traffic will reach 200 billion messages by 2029,” a number that vendors will cite as proof that messaging is moving up the enterprise agenda.

At the same time, WhatsApp’s role in business communications, especially outside North America, continues to pressure enterprise platforms to treat conversational messaging as a first-class citizen rather than a bolt-on. Vonage’s cited figures point in that direction.

The competitive question for the market is whether the next wave of customer engagement tooling is won by channel breadth, by AI, or by something more prosaic, such as deeper integration with the platforms enterprises already standardize on. Vonage is clearly betting on the latter.

What the Vonage and Salesforce Update Could Mean for IT and CX Leaders

For marketing operations teams, the most practical promise is speed and reduced friction. If messaging is composed, managed, and measured where customer data already sits, it becomes easier to build campaigns that behave more like conversations and less like blasts, while keeping escalation paths intact when customers respond in unpredictable ways.

For contact center leaders and frontline teams, the value hinges on continuity. Fewer broken threads between marketing-driven outreach and service-driven resolution, and fewer instances where a customer’s reply becomes a ticket with missing context. In the best case, two-way messaging in Salesforce turns routine interactions into handled conversations rather than inbound calls, pushing down cost-to-serve while improving responsiveness, particularly when a blend of automation and human escalation is appropriately designed.

For IT, security, and compliance functions, the integration raises the questions they always ask when a new customer communication surface area appears. How is consent captured and enforced, how conversation records are retained and audited, how identity and access controls work, and how “agentic AI” is governed so that autonomous interactions remain accountable. The operational test will be whether the Salesforce Vonage approach makes those controls easier to implement, or merely relocates them into a new layer.