Salesforce signs $5.6B deal to inject agentic AI into the US Army
- Reference: 1769536519
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/27/salesforce_5b_deal_agentic_ai_us_army/
- Source link:
Salesforce [1]announced the 10-year deal on Monday, which it said would equip the Army with a Salesforce-based cloud data analytics system "as the foundation for its agentic enterprise," though the company also suggested in its release that Army agentic AI is still a plan for the future, not a thing that's being deployed alongside the new deal.
The cornerstone of the deal is Salesforce's [2]Missionforce , its product portfolio launched in September 2025 to address the needs of government defense, intelligence, and aerospace agencies.
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According to Salesforce Missionforce and Government Cloud CEO Kendall Collins, the deal brings Missionforce into service across the Army, unifying data and analytics while laying the groundwork for broader DoD use.
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"This new contract ... will operationalize Missionforce across the Army and DOW, delivering trusted data and seamless interoperability, and supporting the DOW's transformation into an agentic enterprise," Collins said, referring to the DoD as the Department of War, its [6]unofficial nickname Trump assigned via executive order last year.
According to Salesforce, Missionforce will provide a one-stop shop for the Army and DoD to manage personnel from hiring to retirement, merge data sources under one dashboard to enable quicker decision making, streamline workflows, and lay the aforementioned "agent-ready foundation" for the Army's eventual widespread adoption of agentic AI.
[7]Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI get $800M to hop in bed with Pentagon
[8]Benioff retreats from idea of sending troops in to clean up San Francisco
[9]Prompt injection – and a $5 domain – trick Salesforce Agentforce into leaking sales
[10]Tech employees demand their leaders take a stand against ICE
It's worth pointing out that an agentic AI-powered Army isn't something Salesforce dreamed up – the Army itself, and the DoD as a whole, have been looking at adopting AI agents for some time. A [11]report [PDF] from the Army's Defense Technical Information Center recommended an agentic AI adoption plan last year, and the Pentagon signed a large deal with Scale AI in March 2025 to bring agentic AI into the [12]planning and operations sphere with help from Anduril and Microsoft.
In other words, this isn't Salesforce hoping to break new ground as much as get a slice of a pie that's already being served up.
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This also isn't Salesforce's first foray into making deals with the US Army, as it previously integrated its technology into the Army Human Resources Command as part of a modernization effort, and into the Army Accessions Information Environment to "accelerate and optimize recruiting pipelines," a move that appears to have already paid off for the branch, as 2025 recruiting numbers [14]skyrocketed after years of [15]declines , though that hasn't plugged the hole in high [16]attrition rates .
Salesforce didn't immediately respond to questions for this story. ®
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[1] https://investor.salesforce.com/news/news-details/2026/U-S--Army-Awards-Salesforce-5-6B-Contract-to-Accelerate-Military-Modernization-and-Department-of-War-Readiness/default.aspx
[2] https://www.salesforce.com/government/defense-it-technology-solutions/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/agenticai&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXlDnwikQXIQDYnSZ2ACpAAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/agenticai&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXlDnwikQXIQDYnSZ2ACpAAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/agenticai&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aXlDnwikQXIQDYnSZ2ACpAAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/09/new_cybersecurity_compliance_rules_dod/#:~:text=Hey%2C%20what%20about%20the%20Department%20of%20War%3F
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/14/pentagon_ai/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/13/marc_benioffs_new_dream_force/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/26/salesforce_agentforce_forceleak_attack/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/26/ice_shootings_tech_employees_demand_action/
[11] https://csiac.dtic.mil/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TI-Response-Report_CSIAC_Agentic-AI-Strategic-Adoption-in-the-DoD_.pdf
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/dod_taps_scale_to_bring/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/agenticai&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXlDnwikQXIQDYnSZ2ACpAAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.army.mil/article/286027/army_meets_fiscal_year_2025_recruiting_goals_four_months_early
[15] https://usafacts.org/articles/is-military-enlistment-down/
[16] https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/07/army-losing-nearly-one-quarter-of-soldiers-first-2-years-of-enlistment.html
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
It's even funnier that security services in the West got caught lacking. Tax payers should get their money back from those lame ducks.
"When the British fire the Germans duck. When the Germans fire the British duck. When the Americanskyi Oblast fire everybody ducks."
Too late
If they had this before, maybe they could use it as an excuse for murdering people on boats in the Caribbean. /s
Don't forget the basics.
I once asked a friend in the Singaporean navy what their naval warfare was expected to be like. I was thinking in terms of EMCON and staying as hidden as possible (I read too much Tom Clancy), only to be told that no-one really cares about naval 'stealth' any more - they happily radiate an electronic 'bubble' and have all sorts of 'RF Visible' telemetry and drones etc. happening. When I asked what happens when your SATCOM fails or get taken out in the early stages of conflict, I was again surprised to be told that (and i paraphrase here) 'When it comes to data, if we can't do it at 300 Baud over HF Radio, then we're not very interested'.
I believed him on both counts (He was a Major / Lieutenant Commander then, on their 'fast track' and very honest.).
Here's hoping that someone realises that the 'agentic mission' will probably be useless if the agents can't talk to each other!
Re: Don't forget the basics.
The US navy is far too powerful and technologically advanced to need mere [1] humans controlling the ships
[1] https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/us-naval-accidents-revisited
Turbo...
...enshitification!
"But it goes to eleven, see?"
weasel words
All just marketing weasel words.
No specific or practical examples of what these AI agents would/will do.
Sounds like a typical US defense contract.... ill defined, scope to change often, low ROI and lots of contractor teat sucking.
Bluck
Re: weasel words
You don't believe in "operationalize Missionforce " ?
AI with weapons. What could possibly go wrong.
Vladimir Putin and 3 other dictators like this.
Re: AI with weapons. What could possibly go wrong.
"Not me, guv. Twas AI"
It's keeping the old adage alive for a new era, just change the names were applicable.
"When the British fire the Germans duck. When the Germans fire the British duck. When the Americans fire everybody ducks."