Generative AI - gettectonic.com - Page 14
Autodesk Enhancements with Einstein 1

Autodesk Enhancements with Einstein 1

Autodesk Enhances Customer Service and Agent Productivity with Salesforce AI Integration Autodesk, a leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, has strengthened its partnership with Salesforce by incorporating Salesforce AI technology into its service agent workflow. This integration aims to boost agent productivity and enhance customer satisfaction. Autodesk Enhancements with Einstein 1. Impact of Salesforce Integration By leveraging Salesforce’s CRM, trusted AI, and data solutions, Autodesk has unified data access and developed an AI-powered self-service application. This initiative aims to foster deeper customer relationships and enhance employee productivity. The integration with Salesforce is transforming Autodesk’s customer engagement and agent workflow efficiency. Key Benefits for Autodesk Accelerating Self-Service: Autodesk uses the Einstein 1 Platform, which employs AI to create actionable data and streamline processes. This has enabled the development of a comprehensive, intuitive service cloud application for Autodesk’s team. At the conclusion of customer-agent interactions, Einstein for Service generates AI-powered case summaries, reducing the time agents spend summarizing chats by 63%. Creating Frictionless Experiences: MuleSoft has been pivotal in advancing Autodesk’s automation strategy by providing integrated and unified data access across cloud solutions. This has allowed Autodesk to modernize, simplify, and connect existing SaaS applications, resulting in smoother operations. Minimizing Disruption: Salesforce Professional Services provides real-time, 24/7 monitoring, equipping Autodesk with tools to identify and resolve potential performance issues before they affect customers. Salesforce also enhances data access monitoring, leading to a 30% reduction in ongoing maintenance. Customer Perspective Prakash Kota, SVP and CIO of Autodesk, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership: “We are thrilled to partner with Salesforce as Autodesk continues to innovate, grow, and scale with the customer at the center of our business. Our teams are excited to put generative AI to work across the enterprise, enhancing the productivity of our service agents. Saving time on tasks enables our employees to focus on higher-value work.” This partnership underscores Autodesk’s commitment to customer-centric innovation and operational efficiency, leveraging Salesforce’s advanced technologies to drive continued growth and customer satisfaction. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Salesforce Agentforce Platform

Salesforce Agentforce Platform

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has hinted at the upcoming launch of a new AI and automation platform geared towards customer support. Salesforce Agentforce Platform. In anticipation of September’s Dreamforce event, Benioff used X, formerly Twitter, to offer a sneak peek into the platform, specifically highlighting its customer-facing “Einstein Service Agent.” In his post, Benioff underscores the essential features of the virtual agent, emphasizing how it will seamlessly blend digital and human-assisted support to expedite case resolutions. This blended experience appears to build upon the technology integrated into Salesforce following its acquisition of Airkit.ai in 2023. Airkit.ai provides a low- to no-code bot-building platform that empowers businesses to orchestrate AI-driven conversational experiences. Primarily used for service automation, Airkit enables firms to design and automate complex cross-platform workflows, enhancing automated customer interactions across Salesforce applications. The Einstein Service Agent, positioned within Salesforce’s broader Einstein 1 vision, leverages Data Cloud to create a unified, cross-functional data ecosystem. Benioff hints at the agent’s capability to span service, sales, marketing, and commerce functionalities, underscoring its pivotal role within the Salesforce ecosystem. Expanding on Airkit.ai’s foundational capabilities, Salesforce has integrated Mulesoft to enable insights triggering cross-platform automations, alongside real-time data harmonization within Data Cloud. Moreover, the platform now incorporates generative AI (GenAI), enhancing its ability to interpret text, images, and audio/video for diverse customer engagement scenarios. Despite these advancements, Benioff acknowledges that no virtual agent, even with GenAI augmentation, can resolve every customer query alone. Salesforce ensures omnichannel transfers and human handoffs to address more complex issues effectively. In an era where many vendors offer similar conversational AI capabilities, Salesforce distinguishes itself through ecosystem integration and orchestration. Benioff emphasizes the value of low- to no-code workflow orchestration, democratizing AI technology for non-programmers and fostering an inclusive AI revolution. Expect Benioff to elaborate further on these themes and unveil more details about the Agentforce Platform during his keynote at the 2024 Dreamforce event. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Cool AI Tools for Business

Cool AI Tools for Business

This insight is to share the best AI tools to save you time and money. Instead of listing them with zero explanation, we show you how to use these tools and what we’ve created with them. Cool AI Tools for Business. You can then customize it manually or with AI. Although Decktopus is great, it’s not the only AI presentation tool out there. Just submit a video clip of yourself talking in any language. Read the instructions to ensure the AI can learn effectively. If you don’t want to clone yourself, use HeyGen to create presentations by choosing a voice actor and giving it a script. It supports any language, just like your AI clone. One of the coolest things about this tool is a way to create a really nice professional headshot. 4. Murf AI: Text-to-Speech AIMurf AI turns text into realistic voices for ads, voiceovers, translations, and more. Unlike old text-to-speech synthesizers, Murf uses professional voice actors in multiple languages. As a business person, use Murf for voiceovers, sales pitches, and more. You can create similar clips in different languages and voices. ContentShake’s content editor suggests improvements for your posts. This tool can help draft content and draw inspiration. For example, we asked it to create a blogging site about “How to use Artificial Intelligence in business and sales,” and got results in about a minute. You can customize the site by clicking and dragging elements. It’s great for small businesses without professional web designers. 8. Grammarly: AI ProofreaderGrammarly analyzes your text in every window, spotting and highlighting mistakes. We use it every day at Tectonic. Grammarly makes it easy to fix mistakes with suggested corrections. It’s a Chrome extension, so it works in every tab. However, ChatGPT makes silly assumptions and hallucinations. It predicts words but doesn’t know or experience things. As a content writer, you may struggle as you find it can’t write engaging blog posts that attract visitors. Test these Cool AI Tools for Business, as most are free, saving you time and money so you can focus on your business! Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more Top Ten Reasons Why Tectonic Loves the Cloud The Cloud is Good for Everyone – Why Tectonic loves the cloud You don’t need to worry about tracking licenses. Read more

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AI Agents in Line at HR

AI Agents in Line at HR

AI Agents in Line at HR may only be a satirical cartoon for a very short time. Sorry, Farside, but your AI bits may not be able to keep up with AI. July, 2034 — A new software unicorn has just emerged inbehind a bar in a pub in East London. Unicorn, by the way, descibes a startup company valued at over $1 billion, not necessarily with a billion dollar concept. Back to East London behind the soggy bar. Hey, its our fantasy. Besides if Amazon can start in a garage, isn’t anything possible? The CEO logs in as usual and gathers daily updates from the team. The Chief Technology Officer is suggesting a new feature to deploy. The Chief Product Officer wants to redesign the CRM (or whatever CRM has evolved to) integration. The Chief Revenue Officer is showing off the new pipeline, forecast by Accountant in a Box. The Chief Customer Officer is discussing the latest customer levitation tools and product feedback. The Chief Information Security Officer has found a new privacy conflict, which they are addressing with a newly-revised infrastructure set-up. And the Head of HR is fretting about the latest round of IT candidates. This sounds like every software business you’ve ever heard of. But the difference is that the CEO’s teammates are entirely AI, not human: The CTO is Lovable. The CPO is Cogna. The CCO is Gradient Labs. The CRO is 11x. The CISO is Zylon. Back to 2024: The Rise of AI Agents In 2024, the hottest topic in software is AI agents, or Agentic AI. Founders are rapidly standing up agentic applications that can solve specific needs in functions like sales and customer services — without a human required. Software buyers, seeing real opportunities to quickly improve their P&L, are swiftly building or purchasing these agentic products. Investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into startups in this space in recent months. Even Salesforce wasn’t launched with a silver AI spoon in its mouth. Salesforce began investing in artificial intelligence (AI) in 2014, when the company started acquiring machine learning startups and announced its Customer Success Platform. In 2016, Salesforce launched Einstein, its AI platform that supports several of its cloud services. Einstein is built into Salesforce products and includes features like natural language processing, machine learning, and predictive analytics. It helps organizations automate processes, make decisions based on insights, and improve the customer experience. YouTube How To Increase Revenue Using AI for CRM: Salesforce … Feb 12, 2024 — What is Salesforce Einstein? Salesforce Einstein is the first trusted artifici… TechForce Services How does Salesforce Use AI for Business Growth? Jan 31, 2024 — Powered by technologies like Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, im… saasguru · LinkedIn · 7mo History of Salesforce AI From Predictive to Generative – LinkedIn Published Nov 27, 2023. In 2014, Salesforce, under the visionary leadership of… Twistellar AI in Salesforce: History, Present State and Prospects Organizations generate tons of data on marketing and sales, and surely your sales managers… Wikipedia Salesforce – Wikipedia In October 2014, Salesforce announced the development of its Customer Success Platform. Less than ten years ago, folks. Salesforce’s large database of data has helped the company address AI challenges quickly and with quality. The company’s data cloud offering provides AI with the right information at the right time, which can reduce friction and improve the customer experience.  Salesforce’s AI-powered solutions include: To catalyze this evolution, Salesforce strategically acquired RelateIQ in 2014. This move injected machine learning into the Salesforce ecosystem, capturing workplace communications data and providing valuable insights. Europe is home to many of these exciting companies. For example, H, a French AI agent startup, raised a $220 million seed round in May. Beyond RPA: The New Wave of AI Agents AI agents represent a significant step-change from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots, which, as explored last year, have several limitations due to their deterministic nature. Next-generation AI agents are non-deterministic, meaning that instead of stopping at a “dead end,” they can learn from mistakes and adjust their series of tasks. Not entirely unlock the mouse running the same maze over and over for the cheese. Eventually Mr. Squeakers learns which paths are dead ends and avoids them by making better choices at intersections. In AI Agents this makes them suited to complex and unstructured tasks and means they can transform the journey from intent to implementation in software development. They can deliver “pure work,” rather than acting only as a helpful co-pilot. The rise of AI agents is not only an opportunity to expand automation beyond what is possible with RPA but also to broadly redefine how knowledge work is performed. And by who. And even how is it defined. Given the right guardrails, next-generation AI agents have the potential to effectively and safely replace knowledge workers in many business scenarios. AI Agents in Action These agents are about to revolutionize the world of work as we know it and are already getting started. For example, Klarna recently revealed that its AI agent system handled two-thirds of customer chats in its first month in operation. While HR may not be swamped with AI CVs yet, it is certainly fathomable. One would suppose those candidates would have to be reviewed and interviewed by IT, not just HR. Here’s another deep thought. The internet of things (IoT) first appeared in a speech by Peter T. Lewis in September 1985. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical devices that can collect and transmit data over the internet using sensors, software, and other technologies. IoT devices can communicate with each other and with the cloud, and can even perform data analysis and be controlled remotely. The IoT concept was smart homes, health care environments, office spaces, and transportation. Only recently have we begun to think of the IoT as including the actual computers, or AI, in addition to sensored devices. It isn’t exactly a chicken and the egg question, but more of a

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RevOps Sute for Salesforce Data Management

RevOps Suite for Salesforce Data Management

Traction Complete Launches Revolutionary “RevOps Data Management Suite for Salesforce” In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing business, Traction Complete is proud to announce the launch of “The RevOps Data Management Suite for Salesforce.” This groundbreaking suite is the first data management solution designed specifically for Revenue Operations professionals, empowering users to fully leverage their data by ensuring it is clean, connected, and ready for AI adoption. RevOps Sute for Salesforce Data Management. Importance of Data Integrity “The importance of clean and connected data can’t be stressed enough, especially in the age of AI. Without a solid foundation of reliable data, businesses are navigating in the dark, unable to make strategic decisions.” David Nelson, CEO of Traction Complete RevOps Suite for Salesforce Data Management Stephen Daniels, Vice President of Revenue Operations at Cresta, echoes this sentiment: “There is a cost to bad data. If we didn’t have a solution like Traction Complete in the first place to scale off, we would be building on a bad foundation that would cause hundreds of thousands of dollars of headaches in the future.” The Impact of Poor Data Poor data is more than just a nuisance; it’s a significant barrier to success. And it is expensive. It leads to distrust in CRM systems and lost productivity, ultimately impacting business revenue. Traction Complete’s mission is to tackle these challenges head-on, ensuring that data is accurate and seamlessly integrated across the Salesforce platform. This foundation enables businesses to adopt the latest technology seamlessly. Recent findings from McKinsey highlight the critical role of data quality in AI adoption: “Fifty-six percent of companies say ‘inaccuracy’ is the biggest risk posed by adopting generative AI. Yet only 32% of companies have systems in place for mitigating such inaccuracies.” Expertise and Innovation Traction Complete, born from the recently Salesforce-acquired Traction on Demand, draws on over 1.4 million hours of consulting experience to build trusted data management solutions that improve data quality. “At the pace that AI and machine learning are expanding and changing how we operate, businesses can’t afford to overlook the importance of data quality. Any businesses not setting their data foundation right now will be left behind,” adds Nelson. The Future of Data Management As organizations continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, the message is clear: the time to invest in data management is now. With the RevOps Data Management Suite for Salesforce, Traction Complete is leading the way, providing the tools necessary for businesses to thrive in the age of AI and beyond. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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DHS AI Hires

DHS AI Hires

DHS Makes First AI Corps Hires to Enhance Federal AI Capabilities The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced its first 10 hires for the newly formed AI Corps, as detailed in a release exclusively shared with Axios. Why It Matters U.S. officials emphasize the need for more expertise to determine the best ways to safely leverage artificial intelligence tools within the federal government. The AI Corps Initiative The new 50-person AI Corps, modeled after the U.S. Digital Service, will explore AI applications across DHS’s portfolio, including: Key Quote “The interest in it has been phenomenal,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Axios. “We need that expertise to really fuel our interest in leading the federal government in the safe and responsible deployment of AI to advance our mission.” New AI Corps Members According to a press release, the following individuals are joining DHS’s AI Corps: Between the Lines Competition for these roles has been intense. Mayorkas previously mentioned in April that over 3,000 applications were received for the 50 positions. The selected members come from diverse backgrounds, including current government employees, Big Tech, startups, and the research community. Hiring Practices and Future Moves New flexible hiring practices for AI-related jobs have enabled DHS to compete with private sector roles and fast-track AI Corps hires. “Things move more rapidly, and so we’re moving more rapidly, as well, to meet the moment,” Mayorkas added. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more Top Ten Reasons Why Tectonic Loves the Cloud The Cloud is Good for Everyone – Why Tectonic loves the cloud You don’t need to worry about tracking licenses. Read more

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Breaking Down Data Silos with Zero Copy Data Federation

Breaking Down Data Silos with Zero Copy Data Federation

Siloed data slows communication, delays data-driven insights, and creates extra work. Learn ways for Breaking Down Data Silos with Zero Copy Data Federation. Overview In today’s data-driven business world, organizations amass vast amounts of data across various touchpoints, centralizing it in data warehouses or lakes to derive business insights. While this data is primarily used for analytics and machine learning, it remains largely inaccessible to business users in Sales, Service, and Marketing, hindering their ability to make data-driven decisions. To address this challenge, Salesforce and Amazon have collaborated to create Zero Copy Data Federation between Salesforce Data Cloud and Amazon Redshift. This integration empowers businesses by providing seamless access to Redshift data within Salesforce Data Cloud, enhancing data integration, and enabling real-time insights without the need for data replication. Benefits of Zero Copy Data Federation This new solution allows businesses to: Salesforce Data Cloud Salesforce Data Cloud unifies all company data into the Einstein 1 Platform, offering a comprehensive 360-degree view of the customer. It integrates diverse datasets such as telemetry data and web engagement data, creating a holistic customer profile that is easy to access and understand. This unified view enables Sales, Service, and Marketing teams to build personalized customer experiences, drive data-driven actions, and leverage trusted AI across all Salesforce apps. Amazon Redshift Amazon Redshift is a fast, fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service designed for efficient data analysis using existing business intelligence tools. It offers superior price-performance compared to traditional data warehousing solutions and supports datasets ranging from a few hundred gigabytes to petabytes. Redshift’s AI-powered massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture facilitates quick, cost-effective business decision-making. Zero Copy Data Federation Zero Copy Data Federation, a feature of Salesforce Data Cloud, enables secure, real-time access to Redshift data without copying it. This capability maintains data in its original location, eliminating replication overhead and ensuring current information access, thus enhancing data integration while preserving data integrity and efficiency. Data federated from Amazon Redshift is represented as a native data cloud object, powering various Data Cloud features, including marketing segmentation, activations, and process automation. This allows businesses to enrich unified customer profiles in Salesforce Data Cloud with transactional data from Redshift, gaining insights, harnessing predictive and generative AI, and delivering highly personalized experiences. Setting Up Zero Copy Data Federation To configure Zero Copy Data Federation in Salesforce Data Cloud: Use Cases Zero Copy Data Federation enables various use cases: Conclusion Zero Copy Data Federation between Salesforce Data Cloud and Amazon Redshift empowers businesses to dismantle data silos, enhance customer experiences, and drive operational efficiencies. By enabling real-time access to Redshift data within Salesforce Data Cloud, organizations can make informed decisions, personalize customer interactions, and optimize resources across various functions. This integration sets a new benchmark for data-driven business success in the digital age. Check out the Salesforce Zero Copy Data Federation announcement for more details. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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AI Safety and Responsibility

AI Safety and Responsibility

The Future of AI: Balancing Innovation and Trust Authored by Justin Tauber, General Manager, Innovation and AI Culture at Salesforce, ANZ. AI Safety and Responsibility AI holds the promise of transforming business operations and freeing up our most precious resource: time. This is particularly beneficial for small businesses, where customer-facing staff must navigate a complex set of products, policies, and data with limited time and support. AI-assisted customer engagement can lead to more timely, personalized, and intelligent interactions. However, trust is paramount, and businesses must use AI power safely and ethically. The Trust Challenge According to the AI Trust Quotient, 89% of Australian office workers don’t trust AI to operate without human oversight, and 62% fear that humans will lose control of AI. Small businesses must build competence and confidence in using AI responsibly. Companies that successfully combine human and machine intelligence will lead in AI transformation. Building trust and confidence in AI requires focusing on the employee experience of AI. Employees should be integrated early into decision-making, output refinement, and feedback processes. Generative AI outcomes improve when humans are actively involved. Humans need to lead their partnership with AI, ensuring AI works effectively with humans at the helm. Strategies for Building Trust One strategy is to remind employees of AI’s strengths and weaknesses within their workflow. Showing confidence values — how much the model believes its output is correct — helps employees handle AI responses with the appropriate level of care. Lower-scored content can still be valuable, but human reviews provide deeper scrutiny. Prompt templates for staff ensure consistent inputs and predictable outputs. Explainability or citing sources for AI-generated content also addresses trust and accuracy issues. Another strategy focuses on use cases that enhance customer trust. The sweet spot is where productivity and trust-building benefits align. For example, generative AI can reassure customers that a product will arrive on time. AI in fraud detection and prevention is another area where AI can flag suspicious transactions for human review, improving the accuracy and effectiveness of fraud detection systems. Salesforce’s Commitment to Ethical AI Salesforce ensures that its AI solutions keep humans at the helm by respecting ethical guardrails in AI product development. Salesforce goes further by creating capabilities and solutions that lower the cost of responsible AI deployment and use. AI safety products help businesses use AI power without significant risks. Salesforce AI products are built with trust and reliability in mind, embodying Trustworthy AI principles to help customers deploy these products ethically. It’s unrealistic and unfair to expect employees, especially in SMBs, to refine every AI-generated output. Therefore, Salesforce provides businesses with powerful, system-wide controls and intuitive interfaces to make timely and responsible judgments about testing, refining responses, or escalating problems. Salesforce has invested in ethical AI for nearly a decade, focusing on principles, policies, and protections for itself and its customers. New guidelines for responsible generative AI development expand on core Trusted AI principles. Updated Acceptable Use Policy safeguards and the Einstein Trust layer protect customer data from external LLMs. Commitment to a Trusted AI Future While we’re still in the early days of AI, Salesforce is committed to learning and iterating in close collaboration with customers and regulators to make trusted AI a reality for all. Originally published in Smart Company. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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MuleSoft Compostability

MuleSoft Composability

MuleSoft: Enabling AI Integration with Composability Solutions – MuleSoft Composability MuleSoft, a subsidiary of Salesforce, is enhancing its portfolio with new capabilities to help organizations build AI services that serve as the building blocks for more complex applications. The company announced a new AI-powered composability solution designed to assist organizations in constructing discrete AI services to form sophisticated systems and applications. The Power of APIs in AI“We believe the world of AI is really the world of APIs,” said Param Kahlon, Salesforce EVP and GM of Automation and Integration. “Accessing AI in the enterprise fundamentally involves the ability to call a model.” This applies whether the AI model is an internal large language model (LLM) or a foundational model built by a third party. “Using an LLM within the company or federating requests across multiple LLMs through LangChain involves API calls,” Kahlon added. “These API calls need to be managed and governed.” AI Integration with MuleSoftMuleSoft’s goal is to provide a platform that integrates AI, especially generative AI, with business processes. For instance, MuleSoft aims to manage API calls to external LLMs using its API management tools and enable APIs to act as actions for copilot conversational agents in the enterprise. This allows agents to execute backend actions using natural language, such as granting customer credit or escalating orders. The MuleSoft solution enables you to connect data, automate workflows, and build an AI-ready foundation in a single unified platform. The pulse of innovation never stops, and neither does the pressure to cater to employees and customers. In fact, 84% of IT leaders share the need for IT to step up its game and better address shifting customer expectations.  The MuleSoft Composability Solution The MuleSoft composability solution comprises three main pillars: Anypoint Platform: Used to define, design, build, and deploy APIs.API Management: Manages the deployment of APIs throughout their lifecycle, whether built with Anypoint or other technologies.Automation: Includes MuleSoft RPA and MuleSoft Intelligent Document Processing (IDP).While these components are part of MuleSoft’s existing portfolio, the company introduced new features, such as support for AsyncAPI, to facilitate the adoption of event-driven architectures (EDAs). AsyncAPI Support and Real-Time CommunicationCurrently in open beta, AsyncAPI support will be generally available later this year. It will enable systems to add real-time communication for processes with fluctuating data sets, like predictive maintenance, dynamic pricing, or fraud detection. For example, a bank could use AI models for fraud detection by analyzing transactional data and user behavior. This model can be transformed into a service callable by various applications. Enhancing Security and GovernanceSecurity and governance are crucial components of the composability solution. When applications make API calls to LLMs and other external models, it’s vital to ensure that valuable data is encrypted and/or masked. MuleSoft’s API gateways, Anypoint Flex Gateway, and Mule Gateway can act as LLM gateways with custom policies to secure and manage APIs. For example, a financial institution could use an API gateway to implement a custom policy checking for sensitive customer information before sharing data with a third-party LLM. To increase internal collaboration and efficiency, IT leaders are leaning into automation and AI – but these initiatives are not here to replace the human touch, rather to liberate human potential. These technologies free up IT experts to dive into the more “human” aspects of their roles, think innovation, communication, and collaboration. Picture it as IT superheroes, if you will, donning capes of automation. MuleSoft is at the forefront of enabling AI integration and innovation in enterprise environments. By breaking down data silos and fostering interoperability, MuleSoft’s composability solution enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of AI applications, ensuring secure and seamless integration across business processes. MuleSoft has a goal to empower everyone with AI. Salesforce announced AI-powered enhancements to its MuleSoft automation, integration, and API management solutions that help business users and developers improve productivity, simplify workflows, and accelerate time to value.  MuleSoft’s Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) helps teams quickly extract and organize data from diverse document formats including PDFs and images. Unlike other automation solutions, MuleSoft’s IDP is natively integrated into Salesforce Flow, which provides customers with an end-to-end automation experience. Additionally, to speed up project delivery, MuleSoft has embedded Einstein, Salesforce’s predictive and generative AI assistant, in its pro-code and low-code tools. This empowers users to build integrations and automations using natural language prompts directly in IDP, Flow Builder, and Anypoint Code Builder.  Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Gemma 2 Available

Gemma 2 is now available to researchers and developers

News from Google – Gemma 2 is now available! Introducing Gemma 2: Advanced AI for Everyone Expanding Access to AI AI has the potential to solve some of humanity’s most pressing issues, but this can only happen if everyone has the tools to build with it. Earlier this year, Google introduced Gemma, a family of lightweight, state-of-the-art open models based on the same research and technology used to create the Gemini models. They’ve since expanded the Gemma family with CodeGemma, RecurrentGemma, and PaliGemma, each offering unique capabilities for various AI tasks. These models are easily accessible through integrations with partners like Hugging Face, NVIDIA, and Ollama. Launching Gemma 2 Google is now officially releasing Gemma 2 to researchers and developers worldwide. Available in both 9 billion (9B) and 27 billion (27B) parameter sizes, Gemma 2 offers higher performance and greater efficiency than its predecessor, along with significant safety enhancements. The 27B model provides competitive alternatives to models more than twice its size, achieving performance levels that were only possible with proprietary models as recently as last December. This performance is now achievable on a single NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU or TPU host, significantly reducing deployment costs. Setting a New Standard for Efficiency and Performance Gemma 2 is built on a redesigned architecture, engineered for exceptional performance and inference efficiency. Here’s what sets it apart: Designed for Developers and Researchers Gemma 2 is not only more powerful but also easier to integrate into your workflows: Supporting Responsible AI Development Google is committed to providing resources for responsible AI development, including their Responsible Generative AI Toolkit. The recently open-sourced LLM Comparator helps with in-depth evaluation of language models. You can now use its companion Python library to run comparative evaluations and visualize the results. Additionally, we are working on open-sourcing our text watermarking technology, SynthID, for Gemma models. When training Gemma 2, Google followed rigorous safety processes, filtering pre-training data and performing extensive testing and evaluation to identify and mitigate potential biases and risks. They publish their results on public benchmarks related to safety and representational harms. Projects Built with Gemma The first Gemma launch led to over 10 million downloads and numerous inspiring projects. For instance, Navarasa used Gemma to create a model rooted in India’s linguistic diversity. Looking Ahead Gemma 2 will enable even more ambitious projects, unlocking new levels of performance and potential in AI creations. We will continue to explore new architectures and develop specialized Gemma variants for a broader range of AI tasks and challenges, including an upcoming 2.6B parameter model designed to bridge the gap between lightweight accessibility and powerful performance. Getting Started Gemma 2 is now available in Google AI Studio, allowing you to test its full performance capabilities at 27B without hardware requirements. You can also download Gemma 2’s model weights from Kaggle and Hugging Face Models, with Vertex AI Model Garden coming soon. To support research and development, Gemma 2 is acessable free of charge through Kaggle or a free tier for Colab notebooks. First-time Google Cloud customers may be eligible for $300 in credits. Academic researchers can apply for the Gemma 2 Academic Research Program to receive Google Cloud credits to accelerate their research with Gemma 2. Applications are open now through August 9. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more Top Ten Reasons Why Tectonic Loves the Cloud The Cloud is Good for Everyone – Why Tectonic loves the cloud You don’t need to worry about tracking licenses. Read more

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Deep Dive Summer 24 Release

Deep Dive Summer 24 Release

Deep Dive Summer 24 Release Get ready, Salesforce fans! The Summer ’24 release is here, and it’s like Christmas morning for tech geeks. We’re talking about new features, enhancements, and improvements that will make you wonder how you ever lived without them. This Tectonic insight is your ultimate guide to all the exciting updates, changes, and key considerations for this release. So hang on tight to your keyboards and let’s dive into the Christmas treat bag of goodies coming your way! Key Highlights – Deep Dive Summer 24 Release What’s New in Einstein AI? 1. Einstein for Flow Meet your new best friend for building Salesforce workflows, Salesforce Flow. Just describe what you need in plain English, and Einstein will whip up the workflow for you. For example, say “Notify sales reps when a lead converts,” and boom, it’s done. Automation just got a whole lot easier and way cooler. How to: Einstein for Flow makes complex processes feel like a walk in the park, letting you deliver solutions faster than you can say “workflow.” Considerations: 2. Einstein for Formulas No more tearing your hair out over formula syntax errors. Einstein for Formulas will not only tell you what’s wrong but also suggest fixes, saving you from endless hours of debugging. How to: Einstein for Formulas cuts down errors and speeds up formula creation, making your life exponentially easier. Like easier squared. Easier to the nth degree. Considerations: UI/UX Enhancements 1. Add New Custom Fields to Dynamic Forms-Enabled Pages Say goodbye to limitations! You can now add new custom fields directly to Dynamic Forms-enabled pages, aligning fields with your ever-changing business needs. Considerations: 2. Use Blank Spaces to Align Fields on Dynamic Forms-Enabled Pages Finally, a way to make your Dynamic Forms pages look neat and tidy with blank spaces for perfect alignment. Considerations: 3. Set Conditional Visibility for Individual Tabs in Lightning App Builder Now you can make specific tabs visible based on user profiles, record types, or other criteria. Customization just got a whole lot more precise. Considerations: 4. Create Rich Text Headings in Lightning App Builder Make your headings pop with bold, italic, and varied font sizes. Your Lightning pages are about to get a visual upgrade. Considerations: Flow Updates 1. Automation Lightning App A one-stop shop for managing and executing all your automation tools and processes. Considerations: 2. Lock and Unlock Records with Action Gain more control over your processes by locking records during critical stages and unlocking them when done. Considerations: 3. Check for Matching Records (Upsert) When Creating Records Avoid duplicates by checking for existing records before creating new ones. One can never have too many de-dupe tools. Considerations: 4. Transform Your Data in Flows (Generally Available) Now generally available, perform calculations, data transformations, and more with the Transform element in Flow Builder. Considerations: Admin Enhancements 1. Field History Tracking Manage tracked objects and fields more efficiently with a centralized page in “Setup.” Considerations: 2. See What’s Enabled in Permission Sets and Permission Set Groups (Generally Available) Enhanced permission set viewing improves visibility and control over security configurations. Considerations: 3. Get a Summary of User’s Permissions and Access Quickly view user permissions, public groups, and queues from the user’s detail page. Help and Training Community: Salesforce is simplifying Permission Set management by phasing out Profiles. Data Cloud Vector Database Vector search capabilities allow the creation of searchable “vector embeddings” from unstructured data, enhancing AI applications’ understanding of semantic similarities and context. Considerations: Deep Dive Summer 24 Release The Salesforce Summer ’24 release is packed with features designed to enhance your Salesforce experience. From a sleek new interface to powerful automation tools, enhanced analytics, and expanded integration options, this release aims to elevate workflow efficiency and data protection. Jump into the exciting updates, and let’s make automation simpler and more user-friendly together! Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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AI Impact on Workforce

AI Impact on Workforce

About a month ago, Jon Stewart did a segment on AI causing people to lose their jobs. He spoke against it. Well, his words were against it, but deep down, he’s for it—and so are you, whether you realize it or not. AI Impact on Workforce is real, but is it good or bad? The fact that Jon Stewart can go on TV to discuss cutting-edge technology like large language models in AI is because previous technology displaced jobs. Lots of jobs. What probably felt like most jobs. Remember, for most of human history, 80–90% of people were farmers. The few who weren’t had professions like blacksmithing, tailoring, or other essential trades. They didn’t have TV personalities, TV executives, or even TVs. Had you been born hundreds of years ago, chances are you would have been a farmer, too. You might have died from an infection. But as scientific and technological progress reduced the need for farmers, it also gave us doctors and scientists who discovered, manufactured, and distributed cures for diseases like the plague. Innovation begets innovation. Generative AI is just the current state of the art, leading the next cycle of change. The Core Issue This doesn’t mean everything will go smoothly. While many tech CEOs tout the positive impacts of AI, these benefits will take time. Consider the automobile: Carl Benz patented the motorized vehicle in 1886. Fifteen years later, there were only 8,000 cars in the US. By 1910, there were 500,000 cars. That’s 25 years, and even then, only about 0.5% of people in the US had a car. The first stop sign wasn’t used until 1915, giving society time to establish formal regulations and norms as the technology spread. Lessons from History Social media, however, saw negligible usage until 2008, when Facebook began to grow rapidly. In just four years, users soared from a few million to a billion. Social media has been linked to cyberbullying, self-esteem issues, depression, and misinformation. The risks became apparent only after widespread adoption, unlike with cars, where risks were identified early and mitigated with regulations like stop signs and driver’s licenses. Nuclear weapons, developed in 1945, also illustrate this point. Initially, only a few countries possessed them, understanding the catastrophic risks and exercising restraint. However, if a terrorist cell obtained such weapons, the consequences could be dire. Similarly, if AI tools are misused, the outcomes could be harmful. Just this morning a news channel was covering an AI bot that was doing robo-calling. Can you imagine the increase in telemarketing calls that could create? How about this being an election cycle year? AI and Its Rapid Adoption AI isn’t a nuclear weapon, but it is a powerful tool that can do harm. Unlike past technologies that took years or decades to adopt, AI adoption is happening much faster. We lack comprehensive safety warnings for AI because we don’t fully understand it yet. If in 1900, 50% of Americans had suddenly gained access to cars without regulations, the result would have been chaos. Similarly, rapid AI adoption without understanding its risks can lead to unintended consequences. The adoption rate, impact radius (the scope of influence), and learning curve (how quickly we understand its effects) are crucial. If the adoption rate surpasses our ability to understand and manage its impact, we face excessive risk. Proceeding with Caution Innovation should not be stifled, but it must be approached with caution. Consider historical examples like x-rays, which were once used in shoe stores without understanding their harmful effects, or the industrial revolution, which caused significant environmental degradation. Early regulation could have mitigated many negative impacts. AI is transformative, but until we fully understand its risks, we must proceed cautiously. The potential for harm isn’t a reason to avoid it altogether. Like cars, which we accept despite their risks because we understand and manage them, we need to learn about AI’s risks. However, we don’t need to rush into widespread adoption without safeguards. It’s easier to loosen restrictions later than to impose them after damage has been done. Let’s innovate, but with foresight. Regulation doesn’t kill innovation; it can inspire it. We should learn from the past and ensure AI development is responsible and measured. We study history to avoid repeating mistakes—let’s apply that wisdom to AI. Content updated July 2024. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more Top Ten Reasons Why Tectonic Loves the Cloud The Cloud is Good for Everyone – Why Tectonic loves the cloud You don’t need to worry about tracking licenses. Read more

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Salesforce's Bold Predictions for Holiday 2024 Sales

Salesforce’s Bold Predictions for Holiday 2024 Sales

Salesforce’s Predictions for the 2024 Holiday Shopping Season Salesforce’s Bold Predictions for Holiday 2024 Sales include that trade routes, artificial intelligence, pricing, and Chinese shopping applications will significantly influence the 2024 holiday shopping season. Here’s a breakdown of their insights: Changes in Holiday Shopping Experiences Salesforce, the software giant known for its e-commerce platform and cloud services, predicts a “challenging season” for both retailers and consumers. The company notes that shoppers have been delaying major purchases in hopes of finding discounts. As a result, retailers will need to adapt to changing consumer behaviors and economic pressures. Consumer Behavior and Economic Pressures Salesforce observes that consumers, resilient through four years of economic uncertainty, are finally feeling the impact of persistent inflation and supply chain issues. A significant 32% of global consumers have increasingly turned to alternative credit options like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) this year. Holiday Shopping Timeline Salesforce defines the holiday shopping season as running from November 1 to December 31. In 2022, 76 of the top 2000 online merchants in North America, using Salesforce as their e-commerce platform, generated over $116.97 billion in combined online sales. Salesforce’s Bold Predictions for Holiday 2024 Sales 1. Dominance of Chinese Shopping Applications Salesforce predicts that Chinese shopping apps will dominate the holiday season. According to their research, 63% of Western consumers plan to shop from Chinese apps such as Cider, Shein, Temu, TikTok, and Aliexpress. The primary driver for this trend is competitive pricing. Salesforce expects these apps to account for 21% of sales outside China during the holiday season. 2. Impact of Middle-Mile Shipping Costs Middle- and last-mile shipping costs are projected to increase by $197 billion in 2024, a 97% rise from the previous year. Factors contributing to this include rising crude oil prices and geopolitical tensions affecting global shipping routes. Despite these challenges, Salesforce advises retailers not to pass shipping costs onto consumers, as free delivery significantly influences online purchasing decisions. 3. AI Adoption in Gift Searches Salesforce reports that AI influenced 17% of online purchases during the 2023 holiday season, generating 9 million in sales. In 2024, more consumers are expected to use AI for gift discovery. With Google’s integration of generative AI into its search tools, retailers can shift from keyword searches to natural language prompts, potentially tripling conversion rates compared to non-engaged site traffic. Conclusion Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s array of features, including automation, personalization, analytics, and collaboration, empower B2B marketers to streamline their efforts and achieve superior results. By leveraging these capabilities, businesses can elevate their marketing initiatives and drive significant outcomes during the 2024 holiday season. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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AI and Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce’s latest “rolling thunder” of AI enhancements brings significant innovations to Consumer Goods Cloud, leveraging the power of the Einstein AI platform already integrated into Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. These enhancements are designed to optimize planning and execution for consumer goods companies. Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud is an industry-specific solution that helps consumer goods companies streamline their route-to-market processes. By unifying trade promotion management and retail execution capabilities on a single platform, it enables seamless collaboration between headquarters and field teams. Utilizing Salesforce’s core CRM functionality and the Einstein AI platform, Consumer Goods Cloud empowers companies with data-driven insights and intelligent automation to drive profitable growth. “Consumer goods companies are laser-focused on profitable growth. With the latest Salesforce innovations for Consumer Goods Cloud, they can unify consumer and customer data to plan promotions precisely, equip every field rep with tools to increase sales and reduce downtime, and integrate trusted AI into every service agent’s workflow to solve problems and upsell more frequently,” explained Rob Garf, VP and GM of Retail and Consumer Goods at Salesforce. “In short, every consumer goods company can now transform into an AI Enterprise.” What’s New in Consumer Goods Cloud The latest updates in Consumer Goods Cloud focus on integrating Salesforce’s Data Cloud with Einstein generative AI capabilities, enhancing three key areas: Data Cloud for Consumer Goods: Account managers can now unify account and industry data to build rich customer profiles, segment accounts to the individual store level, and design hyper-localized assortment and promotion plans. For instance, a soft drink distributor can identify which citrus-flavored sodas are most popular in specific Mexican convenience stores and optimize replenishment accordingly. Einstein Copilot Account Summarization: Within the service console, agents can access AI-generated account summaries, eliminating the need to switch between screens and knowledge articles. Summaries include last interactions, order history, satisfaction scores, and promotion details, enabling agents to resolve inquiries quickly and upsell intelligently. Consumer Goods Cloud Einstein 1 for Sales: This AI-powered enhancement package provides sales managers, field reps, merchandisers, and delivery drivers with productivity and revenue-boosting insights. Real-time notifications and recommendations on stock levels, replenishment, special handling needs, and payment collection keep field teams responsive and effective. The Salesforce Embedded AI Difference Salesforce’s strategy of embedding AI via a unified Einstein platform offers several advantages: Consistency: With Einstein already integrated into Sales and Service Clouds, Salesforce can efficiently extend proven AI tools to industry-specific use cases, benefiting users with familiar interfaces and interaction paradigms. Completeness: Embedding AI at the platform level allows Salesforce to enhance the entire workflow from planning to execution. Consumer goods companies can apply intelligent insights to both back-office processes like promotion management and field activities like stock checks and payment collection. Continuous Innovation: The Einstein platform enables rapid deployment of Salesforce’s latest generative AI advancements across all clouds, ensuring customers always have access to state-of-the-art capabilities. Mars Snacking, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, is already benefiting from Salesforce’s AI-powered industry cloud. “At Mars Snacking, we are on an ambitious journey to rewire and almost double the size of our business by 2030,” said Bartek Kononiuk, Global Head of Product – Trade Promotion Management. “Consumer Goods Cloud and Trade Promotion Management will enable us to improve our business processes, data availability, and user experience in critical growth-enabling areas.” AI Innovation Comes at a Cost As the consumer goods industry strives to meet rapidly evolving buyer expectations, Salesforce’s embedded AI solutions for Consumer Goods Cloud offer timely advantages. By democratizing access to generative AI and data management capabilities, Salesforce enables companies of all sizes to optimize decision-making, boost field productivity, and drive profitable growth. However, these advanced functionalities come with significant costs. Salesforce’s Einstein AI enhancements often have substantial per-user surcharges, sometimes exceeding $100 per month. For large deployments involving thousands of employees, these expenses can quickly escalate. Consumer goods companies must carefully evaluate the productivity and revenue gains against the added licensing costs. Additionally, while Salesforce is leading the way in enterprise generative AI, the technology is still maturing. Early adopters may encounter instances where the AI delivers suboptimal results. Salesforce’s Trust Layer aims to mitigate these risks, but companies should approach generative AI with a clear understanding of its current limitations. The ongoing enhancements in Salesforce’s Einstein portfolio present a promising yet costly opportunity for customers to evolve into full-fledged AI Enterprises. As the costs and benefits become clearer, consumer goods companies will need to strategically decide where and how aggressively to deploy these advanced capabilities. Those that find the right balance could gain a significant competitive edge in the rapidly changing digital landscape. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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