Einstein Copilot – A Valued Team Member

What Can Salesforce Einstein Copilot AI Really Do? Einstein Copilot – A Valued Team Member

To find out, let’s virtually attend a live demo of the service March 2024. The short answer to the question is “whatever your business needs,” but with a common caveat in AI demos: beware of hallucinations.

Keeping Data Safe
Let’s rewind a bit. Back in September, Salesforce unveiled Einstein Copilot at Dreamforce, emphasizing customer data safety as a key selling point. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated, “Your data isn’t our product.” Then, in February, the product entered public beta. Salesforce re-emphasized that the Einstein Trust Layer, designed to protect customer data, was a critical reason why customers could trust the responses and actions of Salesforce Einstein Copilot.

At the demo safety was again a primary focus. Salesforce Product Management leads Gary Brandeleer and Jaswinder Rattanpal highlighted that Einstein is designed to differentiate between sensitive and non-sensitive data and to verify if the end-user has appropriate access rights for their query. These measures prevent leaks of confidential information and also minimize the impact of any potential “hallucinations” by compartmentalizing data.

Rattanpal offered a word of caution: “While we have these amazing tools, be careful because we are not at a stage when they can be 100% trusted. Always have a human in the loop, especially when dealing with information that may become public.”

Maximizing Efficiency
Salesforce’s emphasis on data safety is wise, and its more than 150,000 customers worldwide will appreciate it. However, the real appeal of Einstein Copilot lies in the efficiency it offers. This efficiency stems from two key principles that drive Salesforce’s approach to AI.

The first principle is that AI copilots fundamentally change how humans interact with software. Instead of navigating through clicks and menus, users can ask questions and receive answers directly, making software interaction more conversational. This shift can potentially transform software development and reduce the time required to complete tasks, particularly in sales, marketing, and customer service.

Users can access Einstein across Salesforce’s interface. One click launches the assistant, which can execute tasks while the user attends to other duties. This reduces the time spent sifting through information to find answers. During the demo, Rattanpal showcased how Einstein could summarize an account’s financial history and populate different fields with data from a single prompt.

Customization and Availability
The second principle is the mix of customization and availability. Salesforce aims to allow users to deploy Einstein Copilot across any desired modules and to customize these deployments to suit each customer’s specific needs.

Recognizing that its vast customer base has diverse requirements, Salesforce makes Einstein flexible yet grounded in a safety-first approach. Admins can customize Einstein using Copilot Builder, Prompt Builder, and Model Builder, each offering different levels of customization. Standard actions, like “write an email,” require minimal development, while custom actions typically involve more intricate setups.

More Than a Copilot: A Coworker
These capabilities often make Einstein feel more like a valued team member than a mere copilot. During the demo, Brandeleer showed how Einstein could determine whether a sales opportunity was worth pursuing—a subjective query that Einstein backed with a dozen data-driven reasons. This level of analysis, which would take a human hours or days to compile, underscores Einstein’s potential to exceed human efficiency and objectivity.

When an AI can provide better answers to subjective questions than a human, it transcends being a simple tool. If it can effectively manage hallucinations, the question becomes: what can’t Einstein do?

Salesforce Einstein Copilot stands out not only for its robust data safety measures but also for the significant efficiency and customization it offers. With its advanced capabilities, Einstein has the potential to revolutionize how businesses handle routine and complex tasks, making it an invaluable asset for any organization.