Gaining experience on how AI-powered agents transform the way businesses work
Ted Rogers School of Management alumni returned to campus this year to help students gain hands-on experience with Salesforce AI agents through a Masterclass and Industry Challenge by Slalom Consulting.
Slalom Consulting (external link, opens in new window) , a human business and technology consulting company, and Business Career Hub’s Bootcamps program initially launched a partnership in 2019 to teach the Salesforce ecosystem to students and promote their organization. This led to the organization hiring a few recent Ted Rogers School graduates. Thanks to a renewed partnership with Slalom, some of those graduates returned to the school to help support current students through their learning journey.
Applying theory to practice
The 2026 Salesforce AI Masterclass explored how Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and Agentforce-powered AI agents are transforming business. There were two, 3-hour levels of learning hosted at Ted Rogers School’s Bootcamp Lab in late January, and the Industry Challenge was hosted at Slalom’s office on February 6. Approximately 34 students participated in the level-based workshops, and 29 of them took part in the Industry Challenge.
During the challenge, participants worked in teams and built Salesforce solutions for a luxury department store, demonstrating how to scale personalized shopping experiences and deepen customer relationships while maintaining a premium service ethos.
“Students consistently value the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with in-demand technologies in a way that goes beyond theory,” says Aakifah Luthfee, Manager, Bootcamps and Stakeholder Engagement. “These Masterclasses offer an accelerated learning experience and equip students with tangible, real-world skills they can carry forward into their careers and job-search.”
The first place team in the Industry Challenge was made up of Kateryna Andreiko, Alishba Raza, Aswine Krishnakumaran, Kathy Ngo and Jaskir Kaur. As winners, the team received Slalom swag and will be invited for lunch with some of the company’s senior leadership team. All challenge participants qualified to earn a badge credential that was co-branded with Slalom.
Raza, a fifth-year Business Technology Management (BTM) student, says that participating in this event provided her with a rare opportunity to translate academic knowledge into practical insight. “It reinforced that continuous learning is less about accumulating information, and more about expanding perspective – to embrace the discomfort of learning something new, which is where I believe real development begins,” she explains.
Her teammate Andreiko, a third-year BTM Co-op student, says she valued the opportunity to apply her analytical and technical skills to a real consulting scenario, which deepened her understanding of solution design and delivery.
“The Bootcamps with Slalom’s team guided the development of our case solution, and as a co-op student with client-facing experience, presenting to Slalom’s jury strengthened my ability to engage an audience, communicate solutions effectively and gain valuable real-world feedback from industry professionals,” she points out.
Alumni pay it forward
The partnership between Bootcamps and Slalom was initially launched by Ted Rogers School alumna Annilyne Dela Rosa (BTM ’07), who is currently the Enterprise Delivery Management Lead, Canada at Slalom Consulting. Through her advocacy and coordination, there were hiring opportunities put forward to select participants during the grassroots launch of the initiative in 2019. Many of those alumni have returned to continue to pay it forward and support the current Ted Rogers School community.
“Watching students translate the Salesforce and Agentforce concepts we covered into real, client-ready solutions was incredibly rewarding,” says Dela Rosa. “What impressed me most was how seamlessly they wove AI into their strategies — it wasn’t theoretical, it was embedded in their approach. Seeing how the next generation views AI as foundational to how they work gives me a lot of optimism about the future of our industry.”