THE APEX TIMES
Salesforce says IDC ranked it #1 CRM provider for 13 straight years, citing 20% market share
The company points to IDC’s latest Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker - along with separate top rankings across Sales, Service, Marketing, and platform categories - as it pushes its Agentforce strategy.
Salesforce is renewing its push for “agentic” enterprise software after International Data Corporation (IDC) ranked the company as the No. 1 CRM vendor for the 13th consecutive year. In a June 4 statement, Salesforce said IDC’s latest Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker placed it at the top of the CRM market, with a 20.0% market share in 2025.
Salesforce said IDC’s CRM category is based on several functional submarkets - covering sales force productivity and management, marketing campaign management, customer service, contact center, advertising, and digital commerce applications. Under that scope, the company reiterated that it led all CRM vendors in 2025, according to IDC.
Beyond the top overall CRM ranking, Salesforce highlighted additional “long-standing leadership” metrics across major parts of customer relationship management. The company said it ranked No. 1 in Sales for 14 consecutive years, No. 1 in Customer Service for 13 consecutive years, and No. 1 in Marketing for seven consecutive years. It also cited No. 1 positions in Model-Driven Application Platforms for 11 consecutive years, Enterprise Community for 11 consecutive years, and Integration for four consecutive years.
Salesforce also pointed to a newer measurement category from IDC: Agent Build and Deploy. The company said this is the first time IDC has published market shares for that area, described by Salesforce as currently in “hypergrowth.” Salesforce stated it grew faster than other players in the segment and took the No. 2 position with a 17.5% market share, citing IDC’s Semiannual Core AI Software Tracker for H2 2025.
In its remarks, Salesforce framed the rankings as validation of what it calls the “Agentic Enterprise” - an organization where teams automate sales, service, and marketing with humans working alongside AI agents. Salesforce said it is putting Agentforce “at the heart of our strategy,” and quoted David Schmaier, President and Chief Strategy Officer, linking the CRM ranking to customer outcomes and the company’s agent-focused roadmap.
Agent Build and Deploy, as Salesforce characterizes it, refers to the tooling and capabilities that help enterprises create and launch AI agents - rather than using agents only as prepackaged chat or automation. By tying its CRM leadership to a separate agent category, Salesforce is effectively arguing that its market position extends from traditional workflow software into the next generation of AI-enabled customer operations.
In a broader technology context, CRM remains a highly competitive corner of enterprise software where vendors are increasingly adding AI features to speed up sales outreach, service resolution, and marketing targeting. IDC’s decision to publish market shares for Agent Build and Deploy indicates that “agentic” workflows are being treated as a measurable market segment rather than a general product trend. Salesforce’s emphasis on consecutive rankings suggests it wants to anchor that transition in its established customer base and suite of connected applications.
Still, key details that would normally help an outside reader evaluate the methodology - such as the exact vendor inclusion rules inside IDC’s CRM definition, and how IDC aggregated the underlying functional markets - are not fully reproduced in Salesforce’s summary. In addition, the full IDC report itself was not accessible from the Salesforce page during this write-up, limiting verification beyond the company’s reported figures and timeframes.
What to watch next is whether IDC’s Agent Build and Deploy segmentation continues to expand in future tracker editions, and whether Salesforce can improve from its stated No. 2 position there. Investors and customers will also likely look for whether Salesforce’s agent strategy is accompanied by measurable operational outcomes - such as adoption of Agentforce across Sales and Service workflows - rather than rankings alone.
Why It Matters
- CRM remains a foundational enterprise application category, so a top IDC market-share ranking can influence customer perception of vendor staying power.
- By linking CRM leadership to an “Agent Build and Deploy” category, Salesforce is trying to position itself as a bridge from legacy customer workflows to agent-driven operations.
- Consecutive-year category leadership across Sales, Service, Marketing, and platform components suggests Salesforce is investing across multiple layers of the CRM stack rather than only adding AI features on top.
- IDC’s inclusion of agent build/deploy market shares implies buyer demand is shifting toward measurable agent infrastructure, not just AI add-ons.
Key Facts
- IDC ranked Salesforce as the No. 1 CRM provider for 13 consecutive years, according to Salesforce’s June 4 statement.
- Salesforce said IDC estimated its CRM market share at 20.0% in 2025.
- Salesforce cited additional No. 1 rankings: Sales (14 consecutive years), Customer Service (13 consecutive years), and Marketing (seven consecutive years).
- Salesforce said IDC ranked it No. 1 in Model-Driven Application Platforms (11 consecutive years), Enterprise Community (11 consecutive years), and Integration (four consecutive years).
- Salesforce said IDC first published market shares for Agent Build and Deploy, and that Salesforce took the No. 2 spot with a 17.5% market share, citing IDC’s Semiannual Core AI Software Tracker for H2 2025.
- Salesforce attributed the rankings to customer success and said its Agentforce initiative is central to its “Agentic Enterprise” strategy.
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