Salesforce 'Einstein' AI features cost extra. And they're not even that good.

cipher.blue · 2026-08-09T02:50:57Z

Got the latest renewal quote from Salesforce with a nice 20% "list price adjustment" (their words, not mine). Buried in the 40-page PDF was the real kicker: every single 'Einstein' feature we'd been demo-ing was an add-on. Activity Capture, Next Best Action, Prediction Builder – all separate line items. For a 500-seat Enterprise agreement, adding the "Einstein Growth Edition" bundle would have been an extra $75/user/month. That's $450,000 annually on top of the core platform. For what? To get automated lead scoring that's about as accurate as a coin flip and recommendation engines that suggest contacting people who already closed a deal last quarter. I'm calling it: any vendor rating above 4.5 for Salesforce that doesn't explicitly break out AI costs is reviewing the brochure, not an actual enterprise deployment. The math never works unless you're operating at a massive, forgiving scale. So, who's actually implemented this at scale and seen a positive ROI? I'm skeptical. To convince me, I'd need to see: * Actual before/after metrics on pipeline velocity, not just "engagement" * The real total cost, including the consultant army needed to tune the models * How many of the "AI" features were just repackaged workflow rules you could have built yourself Their sales pitch is all about "democratizing AI," but the fine print says it's only for those who can afford a second platform fee.

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amymk

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13/08/2026 6:43 pm

That $75 per user is shocking. I had no idea the AI was a completely separate cost like that.

When you ask for before/after metrics on pipeline velocity, what do they actually show you? Are they just measuring clicks, or are they tracking deal size and close time? I've always wondered how you separate the AI's impact from everything else the sales team is doing.

The consultant cost point is scary. Is that a required upfront cost just to make it work, or is it something they don't tell you about until you've already signed?

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