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Seven of the ten largest companies on Earth from 25 years ago are gone. Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce, says silos killed them, and in the age of AI, silos will kill companies even faster.

Josh Matthews and Scott Stafford sit down with Vala for a masterclass on what "AI-ready" actually means. Salesforce went from zero AI agents to 300 digital workers in two years and redeployed 3,000 employees into new roles instead of cutting them. Vala breaks down exactly how, and what it means for every company from 30 people to 30,000.

In this episode:

• The four stages of AI maturity — and why most companies are stuck at stage one
• SUDA: the autonomous operating model behind Waymo, Amazon's million robots, and Salesforce's agent workforce
• Why 2026 may flip us from "human-led, machine-assist" to "machine-led, human-assist"
• How to inventory your own job: which work moves to agents, and which work makes you irreplaceable
• Cooks vs. chefs: the first-principles mindset shift that separates AI users from AI builders
• Vala's story — from refugee to engineer to patent-holding evangelist — and why sponsors beat mentors

Whether you're a solo consultant or leading an enterprise team, this is the playbook for staying on the right side of digital Darwinism.

Connect with Vala Afshar on LinkedIn and X (@ValaAfshar).

The Hiring Edge with Josh Matthews and Scott Stafford — helping leaders navigate the age of AI and build teams people never want to leave.

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The Salesforce job market is finally showing a pulse, but it is not a comeback story. We sit down with Sasha Semyonova, a leading tech journalist at Salesforce Ben, to unpack what the latest hiring signals really mean for Salesforce careers, from admins and developers to architects and ISVs. If you have been watching job boards fill up with “unicorn” roles and deflating salaries, you are not imagining it, and we explain why it keeps happening.

We talk candidly about the realities candidates face right now: market saturation, ghost jobs, layoffs, and the growing influence of AI on staffing decisions. Sasha shares what she is seeing across the Salesforce ecosystem, including the shift toward specialized specialists who can blend platform knowledge with business analysis, architecture thinking, and practical AI skills. We also dig into why blasting out AI-generated resumes is a losing strategy for most people and how being undeniably human can still cut through the noise when everyone else looks the same on paper.

Then we look ahead. Headless Salesforce, a Slack-first workflow, Agentforce, and rapid UI changes are reshaping how users interact with the platform and what employers will expect next. For ISVs and partners, we cover the pressure to build agent-oriented solutions and the simple question that matters most: what do customers actually want from AI?

Subscribe for more honest market breakdowns, share this with someone job hunting in Salesforce, and leave a review with your biggest question about where the ecosystem is headed next.

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Josh Matthews hosts a live TDX 2026 breakdown with three guests who were in the room: Sally ElGhoul (brand new Golden Hoodie winner and founder of Code with Sally), Beach Horn (Salesforce architect and Salesforce Ben contributor), and co-host Scott Stafford.

What they cover:
- What TDX 2026 was really trying to land — and what Parker Harris's headless vision means for your career
- Agentforce Vibes 2.0 and AgentScript: why deterministic agents are the biggest developer shift in years
- Why demand for Salesforce architects is up 27% while supply is only up 4%
- The AI developer split — why skipping fundamentals is just as dangerous as ignoring AI
- Security, React on Core, and the surfaces nobody's watching closely enough
- How to get the most out of Dreamforce and Dreamin' events (and why you need to book your hotel today)
- Sally's Golden Hoodie moment: what it felt like, and why she still just wants you to come say hi

The Hiring Edge covers hiring strategy, career development, and the forces reshaping the Salesforce ecosystem. New episodes every two weeks.

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For jobs, visit thesalesforcerecruiter.com