Salesforce Summer ’25: Key Updates and What You Need to Know

The Salesforce Summer ’25 release is here, and with it comes a wave of innovations, critical updates, and strategic changes that every organization using the platform needs to be aware of. This release signals Salesforce’s continued shift toward more modern, flexible, and AI-powered solutions, particularly through Flow and Agentforce. Whether you’re an admin preparing your org, a developer maintaining integrations, or a business leader looking to scale smarter, there’s something in this release that will impact you. 

Let’s unpack what’s changing, what’s new, and what it all means. 

The End of an Era for Legacy Tools 

One of the biggest signals coming from this release is Salesforce’s commitment to phasing out older automation tools. With the Winter ’26 release (just a few months away), Salesforce will officially end support for Workflow Rules and Process Builder. That doesn’t mean they’ll stop working overnight, but if you run into issues, support won’t help. This is the final nudge for organizations to transition their automations to Flow, Salesforce’s powerful and evolving automation tool. To help you navigate the transition, click to read the following article: Your Guide to Transitioning from Salesforce Workflow Rules and Process Builder Before End of Support.  

In parallel, Salesforce is also retiring support for API versions prior to v30. That version was released all the way back in Spring ’14, and if you’re still using it (perhaps through old integrations or outdated Data Loader processes), now’s the time to modernize. After the Summer ’25 release hits your org, any calls to deprecated APIs will fail. It’s essential to identify and test your integrations now using a sandbox on the Summer ’25 preview. 

Even outbound messaging is getting a tune-up. Salesforce is reducing the timeout window from 60 seconds to 20 seconds. This likely won’t impact most orgs, but it’s worth stress-testing any high-volume workflows that depend on outbound messages to ensure they still perform reliably. 

Flow Enters a New Phase 

The Summer ’25 release gives Flow a host of new enhancements that make it easier to build, manage, and debug powerful automations. 

The Flow Builder canvas itself has been redesigned. It now loads faster, allows for more responsive layouts, and introduces sizing controls for individual form elements. This means admins can finally design compact, user-friendly flows without long, unwieldy forms. And thanks to the new device preview functionality, you can now see exactly how a flow will look on a tablet or mobile device before you deploy it. 

One of the most useful enhancements is the ability to build rich email bodies directly within a flow using a new in-line editor. Instead of having to create external templates, admins can use merge fields, formatting, colors, and more, all in one place. The “send email” action has officially grown up. 

Testing has also taken a leap forward. Flow now supports debugging of fault paths (i.e., the logic branches that handle errors), allowing for more complete test scenarios. And for organizations that repeat common patterns, flows can now be saved as reusable templates—a long-requested feature that enables consistency and speeds up development. 

Introducing Flow-Based Approval Processes 

One of the biggest structural changes in this release is the introduction of flow-based approval processes—a modern replacement for the classic approval builder. 

While Salesforce isn’t retiring the traditional approval process tool just yet, the writing is on the wall. Flow-based approvals offer more power, more flexibility, and more customization than ever before. With these new tools, admins can build multi-step approval processes entirely in Flow, complete with subflows for notifications, record updates, and decision logic. 

What sets this new experience apart is how deeply customizable it is. You’re no longer confined to static approval chains or limited assignment options. Now, you can dynamically route approvals to users based on roles, ownership, or even custom logic. For example, you can automatically assign an approval step to an account owner—a task that was notoriously difficult with the old method. 

Salesforce has also introduced a new “Approvals” app where users can manage their approvals in one central place. If you’re an approver, you’ll see records awaiting your decision. If you’re waiting on an approval, you can track its progress. Behind the scenes, approval records are now stored in a new object, “Approval Work Items”, replacing the old “Approval History” related list for flow-based processes. This change brings more transparency and reportability to the approval lifecycle, though it may require updates to existing reports. 

Agentforce Becomes More Intelligent (and More Useful) 

Agentforce, Salesforce’s AI-powered virtual agent platform, continues to evolve. What started as a tool primarily aimed at customer support is now expanding into internal use cases and field service automation. 

One of the standout features in this release is the ability to embed Lightning Web Components directly into chat conversations. Instead of just receiving a wall of text, users can interact with buttons, pick appointment times, and engage with a fully customized interface – all within the chat window. This dramatically improves the user experience and opens the door to more sophisticated, self-service interactions. 

For internal use cases, Salesforce is introducing new Agentforce templates designed for employee service scenarios like onboarding and time-off requests. These prebuilt flows make it easier to automate common HR and operations tasks using the same tools and technologies you might already be using for customer service. 

Field reps will also see a big upgrade in Salesforce Field Service. Thanks to new context awareness, agents can now respond to queries based on the record the user is already viewing, removing the need for back-and-forth clarification. Agentforce also integrates with Siri, allowing mobile users to access job information through voice commands. And if appointments need to be rescheduled, agents can now handle that interaction with customers, negotiate times, and send updates, all automatically. 

Sales and marketing teams haven’t been left out either. Email-based agents now offer better testing capabilities and can support multilingual communications. Whether you’re prospecting in Paris or onboarding a new customer in São Paulo, Agentforce can tailor its communications to match the language of your customer. 

Making Life Easier for Salesforce Admins 

Beyond automation and AI, Salesforce continues to deliver admin-focused improvements that reduce friction and increase control. 

For example, object-level permissions can now be managed directly from the Object Manager. Previously, setting up access meant jumping into individual permission sets one by one, which was a time-consuming process that often led to errors. With this update, admins can now manage permissions in bulk from a central screen, much like how field-level security is managed. 

Permission set summaries also continue to improve. In Summer ’25, a new “Tabs” section makes it easy to see what tab access is granted by a permission set. Similarly, the user access summary now includes public groups and queues, making user management easier during onboarding, offboarding, or role changes. 

When is the Salesforce Summer ’25 Release? 

The Summer ’25 release rolls out in phases, beginning with sandbox previews on May 9. Production environments will receive the update on one of three weekends: May 16, June 6, or June 13. To find your org’s specific release window, visit status.salesforce.com. 

Breaking Down the Salesforce Summer ’25 Release 

If there’s one overarching theme in this release, it’s this: Salesforce is investing heavily in its next-generation platform, and it’s time for users to do the same. The age of Workflow Rules and Process Builder is ending; API compatibility isn’t guaranteed forever; and “good enough” automations are giving way to smarter, more intuitive experiences. 

Now’s the time to prepare your systems, explore the new capabilities, and lean into the tools that will shape the next era of the platform.  

In this video, you can hear more about the updates and see a demo of key enhancements. 

Your Salesforce Summer ’25 Release Checklist 

To help you prepare, here’s a quick checklist of what Salesforce admins should consider for this release: 

Migrate Legacy Automation 

• Inventory all existing Workflow Rules and Process Builders. 
• Begin or continue transitioning to Flow-based automations. 
• Review and test any third-party packages that may still rely on deprecated tools. 

Update Integrations 

• Audit all API integrations to ensure they are using v31 or higher. 
• Replace or upgrade any tools or scripts still calling legacy APIs (v30 or earlier). 

Review Outbound Messaging 

• Identify any processes using outbound messages. 
• Load test and validate behavior with the new 20-second timeout. 

Pilot Flow-Based Approval Processes 

• Test the new flow approval builder in sandbox. 
• Evaluate which current approval processes may benefit from a rebuild using Flow. 
• Consider creating a custom “Submit for Approval” button if needed. 

Test Flows Thoroughly 

• Use the new Flow debugger to test fault paths and logic branches. 
• Apply the inline email editor to reduce reliance on legacy email templates. 

Simplify Permissions Management 

• Use Object Manager to manage object access more efficiently. 
• Review Access Summaries and update user/group assignments as needed. 

Explore Agentforce Enhancements 

• Consider piloting Agentforce for internal service or field service use cases. 
• Evaluate integration potential with Siri and custom chat components. 

Know Your Release Date 

• Check status.salesforce.com to find your org’s specific release date. 
• Refresh or create preview sandboxes for safe testing. 

Need Help Navigating the Changes? 

Salesforce continues to evolve, and keeping up with these changes while managing day-to-day operations isn’t always easy. Whether you need help migrating legacy automation, optimizing Flow, piloting Agentforce, or just making sure you’re release-ready, Sikich is here to help. 

Our Salesforce experts can guide your team through the Summer ’25 updates and beyond, ensuring your systems stay secure, scalable, and aligned with your business goals. 

Let’s talk about what’s next.