As every Salesforce professional knows, the transition between seasons means more than just a change in the weather; it means a brand-new release packed with tools and enhancements. Winter ’26 is here, preview orgs are already live, and sandboxes will soon follow.
With AI at the center and usability improvements across the board, this release promises to make sales operations smarter, faster, and more collaborative.
Here’s a closer look at the most impactful updates for Sales Cloud and connected products.
1. Einstein Activity Capture Becomes More Powerful
For years, reporting on activities captured by EAC has been limited due to data being stored externally. Winter ’26 changes that. EAC emails are now stored as native Salesforce Activities (Task and Email Message), meaning they can be reported on, included in dashboards, and governed by standard sharing rules.
This is a significant leap forward for enterprise organizations that struggle with reporting limitations. Keep in mind: Activity 360 Reporting will retire in Summer ’26, so teams should plan and align their implementations with the new model.
2. Smarter Forecasting for Complex Orgs
Sales forecasting gets a serious boost in Winter ’26. Companies using custom fiscal years can now configure default date ranges for consumption forecasting, making predictions more precise.
Sales teams also benefit from Opportunity Product Splits in forecasts, ensuring every individual’s contribution to a deal is visible. This granular view supports better planning and performance tracking across large or distributed sales teams.
3. Agentforce for Sales Expands Its Reach
Salesforce’s AI suite continues to evolve rapidly:
- SDR Agents can now send up to 10,000 daily emails via Microsoft Exchange and track scheduling link clicks directly from Control Center.
- Orgs can deploy up to five SDR agents simultaneously, each with unique record assignments, topics, and actions.
- Sales Coach now lets managers preview and validate scenarios before activation, with personalized feedback delivered in the user’s profile language.
- A new Sales Management Agent Template supports pipeline management, reviewing recent activities and recommending updates such as opportunity stage changes.
These enhancements put AI at the center of everyday selling and coaching.
4. List View Enhancements for Everyday Efficiency
List views, a small but essential part of Salesforce, get a much-needed refresh:
- Multi-column sorting is now generally available.
- Type-ahead search makes adding fields quicker and eliminates endless scrolling.
- Permissions can be set so some users manage list views for their teams.
These simple changes lead to a smoother, faster user experience for reps and admins alike.
5. Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI) Grows Up
Teams no longer need to toggle between platforms to access meeting transcripts. With Winter ’26, conversation transcripts can be pulled directly into Salesforce using Flow, Apex, or REST API.
Other upgrades include:
- Keyword search across all transcripts (with Data Cloud).
- Out-of-the-box flows to generate recap emails post-meeting.
- A unified API to retrieve Conversation Intelligence, Insights, and Moments.
Retirement alert: The older ECI Assessor retires in October 2025. Migrate now if you haven’t already.
6. Einstein Summary for Records
Sometimes sales reps just need the highlights. With Einstein Summary, available since August 5, 2025, users can generate quick overviews of Accounts, Opportunities, Leads, and Contacts directly on record pages.
One click surfaces the essentials, with the option to dive deeper through Agentforce interactions.
7. Faster Slack Channel Creation
Collaboration takes another step forward with Salesforce Slack Channels. In Winter ’26, users don’t need to click through setup to create a channel typing directly into the chat window will automatically generate a linked Slack channel for that record.
This makes cross-team coordination faster and more intuitive, whether or not your organization is already on a paid Slack plan.
8. Sales Performance Management (SPM) Enhancements
SPM continues to evolve across its suite of tools:
- Salesforce Maps now offers managers dashboard views of mileage submissions, completed visits, and on-site time. Real visibility into field sales activities.
- Segment Assist uses AI to simplify territory and segment management, with clear summaries available instantly. No more spreadsheet gymnastics to understand territory performance.
- Agentforce-driven summaries enhance Territory Planning alignment reviews, making strategic planning more data-driven and less guesswork.
Together, these updates make planning and execution more streamlined for both sales and operations leaders.
9. AI-Powered Account Research
The spotlight feature of Winter ’26 is AI-Powered Account Research. Sales reps can instantly surface insights about customers, supported by source references, and update account records with just one click.
Planned for rollout the week of October 3, 2025, this feature requires Agentforce for Sales or Industry licensing (or Agentforce 1 Sales Edition).
10. Flow Approvals for Sales Ops
Here’s a pain point many organizations know well: Approvals often need Sales Operations management, but Sales Ops teams lacked the permissions to handle them directly.
Winter ’26 introduces the Approval Designer System Permission, allowing Sales Ops to manage approval flows without granting full “Manage Flows” access.
Caution required: Salesforce strongly recommends sandbox testing before production enablement. This is a powerful functionality that needs careful implementation.
Conclusion
The Winter ’26 release highlights Salesforce’s focus on AI, collaboration, and usability. From smarter forecasting and activity tracking to Slack integration and AI-powered account insights, these features help sales teams spend less time on admin work and more on selling.
With enhanced automation, predictive insights, and improved workflows, Winter ’26 gives organizations the tools to work smarter and close deals faster.
The key question now is: Which of these updates will have the biggest impact on your team?
