Meet the Next Generation of Builders: How They Work and What They're Making

Salesforce’s Futureforce program, which recruits interns and new graduates, prepares early-career professionals for full-time roles with an 80% conversion rate. Participants like Rebecca Hampton identify gaps in product design by questioning assumptions in customer workflows, such as service territory structures, and use AI to propose solutions that improve usability. The program emphasizes long-term strategy, selecting candidates based on anticipated organizational needs two years ahead, ensuring alignment with evolving business demands.

Raymond Dinh, a 2024 Futureforce graduate, rapidly contributed to Salesforce’s Agentforce platform by building a Lightning web component and launching Agentforce Consultations, which became standard learning tools for customers. His work on Buildify, a demo-planning tool, and a live demo at the FY27 Company Kickoff in March 2026 showcased the program’s ability to deliver tangible results. Interns and new hires are immersed in customer-facing projects, shadowing teams and building real solutions, often reenergizing senior colleagues with fresh perspectives and AI-driven efficiency.

Emerging talent at Salesforce leverages AI daily at four times the rate of experienced hires, with entry-level roles costing one-third less to fill than external hires. The program’s success highlights a shift in hiring strategy, where early-career professionals learn, unlearn, and relearn at the pace of technological change. Alex Murray, Senior Director of Programs and Marketing for Global Futureforce, notes that today’s entry-level workers often perform roles that required years of experience just a few years ago, driven by AI augmentation and rapid skill adaptation.

Futureforce graduates like Ireoluwa Bayo-Tofowomo and Liz Awad emphasize storytelling and empathy in their work, using AI to visualize customer journeys and prototype solutions in real time. The program fosters bidirectional learning, with new hires challenging senior colleagues to adopt AI tools and embrace curiosity. The Salesforce Emerging Talent Playbook codifies these practices, encouraging managers to engage directly with emerging talent, as demonstrated by Murray’s experience with Dinh, which left her reenergized and rethinking approaches to recruitment and development.