AI Agents - gettectonic.com - Page 7
Is Agentforce Different?
22Sep

Is Agentforce Different?

The Salesforce hype machine is in full swing, with product announcements like Chatter, Einstein GPT, and Data Cloud, all positioned as revolutionary tools that promise to transform how we work. Is Agentforce Different? However, it’s often difficult to separate fact from fiction in the world of Salesforce. The cloud giant thrives on staying ahead of technological advancements, which means reinventing itself every year with new releases and updates. You could even say three times per year with the major releases. Why Enterprises Need Multiple Salesforce Orgs Over the past decade, Salesforce product launches have been hit or miss—primarily miss. Offerings like IoT Cloud, Work.com, and NFT Cloud have faded into obscurity. This contrasts sharply with Salesforce’s earlier successes, such as Service Cloud, the AppExchange, Force.com, Salesforce Lightning, and Chatter, which defined its first decade in business. One notable exception is Data Cloud. This product has seen significant success and now serves as the cornerstone of Salesforce’s future AI and data strategy. With Salesforce’s growth slowing quarter over quarter, the company must find new avenues to generate substantial revenue. Artificial Intelligence seems to be their best shot at reclaiming a leadership position in the next technological wave. Is Agentforce Different? While Salesforce has been an AI leader for over a decade, the hype surrounding last year’s Dreamforce announcements didn’t deliver the growth the company was hoping for. The Einstein Copilot Studio—comprising Copilot, Prompt Builder, and Model Builder—hasn’t fully lived up to expectations. This can be attributed to a lack of AI readiness among enterprises, the relatively basic capabilities of large language models (LLMs), and the absence of fully developed use cases. In Salesforce’s keynote, it was revealed that over 82 billion flows are launched weekly, compared to just 122,000 prompts executed. While Flow has been around for years, this stat highlights that the use of AI-powered prompts is still far from mainstream—less than one prompt per Salesforce customer per week, on average. When ChatGPT launched at the end of 2022, many predicted the dawn of a new AI era, expecting a swift and dramatic transformation of the workplace. Two years later, it’s clear that AI’s impact has yet to fully materialize, especially when it comes to influencing global productivity and GDP. However, Salesforce’s latest release feels different. While AI Agents may seem new to many, this concept has been discussed in AI circles for decades. Marc Benioff’s recent statements during Dreamforce reflect a shift in strategy, including a direct critique of Microsoft’s Copilot product, signaling the intensifying AI competition. This year’s marketing strategy around Agentforce feels like it could be the transformative shift we’ve been waiting for. While tools like Salesforce Copilot will continue to evolve, agents capable of handling service cases, answering customer questions, and booking sales meetings instantly promise immediate ROI for organizations. Is the Future of Salesforce in the Hands of Agents? Despite the excitement, many questions remain. Are Salesforce customers ready for agents? Can organizations implement this technology effectively? Is Agentforce a real breakthrough or just another overhyped concept? Agentforce may not be vaporware. Reports suggest that its development was influenced by Salesforce’s acquisition of Airkit.AI, a platform that claims to resolve 90% of customer queries. Salesforce has even set up dedicated launchpads at Dreamforce to help customers start building their own agents. Yet concerns remain, especially regarding Salesforce’s complexity, technical debt, and platform sprawl. These issues, highlighted in this year’s Salesforce developer report, cannot be overlooked. Still, it’s hard to ignore Salesforce’s strategic genius. The platform has matured to the point where it offers nearly every functionality an organization could need, though at times the components feel a bit disconnected. For instance: Salesforce is even hinting at usage-based pricing, with a potential $2 charge per conversation—an innovation that could reshape their pricing model. Will Agents Be Salesforce’s Key to Future Growth? With so many unknowns, only time will tell if agents will be the breakthrough Salesforce needs to regain the momentum of its first two decades. Regardless, agents appear to be central to the future of AI. Leading organizations like Copado are also launching their own agents, signaling that this trend will define the next phase of AI innovation. In today’s macroeconomic environment, where companies are overstretched and workforce demands are high, AI’s ability to streamline operations and improve customer service has never been more critical. Whoever cracks customer service AI first could lead the charge in the inevitable AI spending boom. We’re all waiting to see if Salesforce has truly cracked the AI code. But one thing is certain: the race to dominate AI in customer service has begun. And Salsesforce may be at the forefront. 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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September 22, 2024in Agentforce Platform, Artificial Intelligence, Data, Enterprise, Google, Salesforce, Snowflake, Technology
Agentforce and Thinking AI
21Sep

Agentforce and Thinking AI

Agentforce is how humans with AI drive customer success together, equips organizations with autonomous agents that boost scale, efficiency, and satisfaction across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and more New Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine autonomously analyzes data, makes decisions, and completes tasks, providing reliable and accurate results With Agentforce, any organization can build, customize, and deploy their own agents quickly and easily, with low-code tools New Agentforce Partner Network allows customers to deploy pre-built agents and use agent actions from partners like Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Workday, and more Customers like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are turning to Agentforce because it is integrated with their apps, works across customer channels, augments their employees, and scales capacity for business needs SAN FRANCISCO — September 12, 2024 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today unveiled Agentforce, a groundbreaking suite of autonomous AI agents that augment employees and handle tasks in service, sales, marketing, and commerce, driving unprecedented efficiency and customer satisfaction. Agentforce enables companies to scale their workforces on demand with a few clicks. Agentforce’s limitless digital workforce of AI agents can analyze data, make decisions, and take action on tasks like answering customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns. With Agentforce, any organization can easily build, customize, and deploy their own agents for any use case across any industry. The future of AI is agents, and it’s here. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” MARC BENIOFF, CHAIR, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SALESFORCE “Agentforce represents the Third Wave of AI—advancing beyond copilots to a new era of highly accurate, low-hallucination intelligent agents that actively drive customer success. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce is a revolutionary and trusted solution that seamlessly integrates AI across every workflow, embedding itself deeply into the heart of the customer journey. This means anticipating needs, strengthening relationships, driving growth, and taking proactive action at every touchpoint,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. With advanced security features, compliance with industry standards, and unmatched flexibility. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” In contrast to now-outdated copilots and chatbots that rely on human requests and struggle with complex or multi-step tasks, Agentforce offers a new level of sophistication by operating autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans for any task, and executing these plans without requiring human intervention. Like a self-driving car, Agentforce uses real-time data to adapt to changing conditions and operates independently within an organizations’ customized guardrails, ensuring every customer interaction is informed, relevant, and valuable. And when desired, Agentforce seamlessly hands off to human employees with a summary of the interaction, an overview of the customer’s details, and recommendations for what to do next. Industry leaders like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are already experiencing the transformative power of Agentforce. For example, Agentforce is helping organizations like Wiley provide customers with dynamic, conversational self-service. Agentforce is configured to answer questions using Wiley’s knowledge base already built into Salesforce so it can automatically resolve account access. It also triages registration and payment issues, directing customers to the appropriate resources. With Agentforce handling routine inquiries, Wiley has seen an over 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming their old chatbot and giving their human agents more time to focus on complex cases. Why it Matters An estimated 41% of employee time is spent on repetitive, low-impact work, and 65% of desk workers believe generative AI will allow them to be more strategic, according to the Salesforce Trends in AI Report. Every company has more jobs to be done than the resources available to do them. As a result, many jobs go unaddressed or uncompleted. Agentforce provides relief to overstretched teams with its ability to scale capacity on demand so humans can focus on higher-touch, higher-value, and more strategic outcomes. The future of work is a hybrid workforce composed of humans with agents, enabling companies to compete in an ever-changing world. Supporting Customer Quotes “Piloting Agentforce has made a noticeable difference during one of our busiest periods — back-to-school season. It’s been exciting to go live with our first agent thanks to the no-code builder, and we’ve seen a more than 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming our old bot. Agentforce helps to manage routine responsibilities and free up our service teams for more complex cases.” – Kevin Quigley, Senior Manager, Continuous Improvement, Wiley “Every interaction that restaurants and diners have with our support team must be accurate, fast, and reflective of the hospitality that restaurants show their guests. Agentforce has incredible potential to help us deliver that high touch attentiveness and support while significantly freeing up our team to address more complex needs.” – George Pokorny, SVP Customer Success, OpenTable “As we advance our personalization strategy, we believe Agentforce and its AI-powered capabilities have the potential to make a real impact on our approach to customer engagement, raising the bar in luxury retail. Agentforce will improve our effectiveness across customer touchpoints, empowering our employees and augmenting their ability to deliver the elevated and more individualized shopping experiences for which Saks is known.” – Mike Hite, Chief Technology Officer, Saks Global 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

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September 21, 2024in Data, Enterprise, Generative AI, Google, Salesforce, Technology
Large Action Models and AI Agents
21Sep

Large Action Models and AI Agents

The introduction of LAMs marks a significant advancement in AI, focusing on actionable intelligence. By enabling robust, dynamic interactions through function calling and structured output generation, LAMs are set to redefine the capabilities of AI agents across industries.

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September 21, 2024in Data
Thoughts on Workday With Illuminate
20Sep

Thoughts on Workday With Illuminate

Workday Expands AI Across HR and Finance Platforms with ‘Illuminate’ Workday is significantly enhancing its AI capabilities within its HR and finance platforms through a new set of updates called Illuminate. These updates aim to improve automation and increase productivity by embedding AI more broadly across various HR processes. From routine tasks like content generation to complex problem-solving, Workday’s AI now identifies inefficiencies in HR workflows and offers recommendations for improvement. Thoughts on Workday With Illuminate follow. A key feature of Illuminate is a series of AI agents designed to assist in areas such as succession planning. These agents can suggest internal candidates that HR teams might overlook, helping organizations identify potential leaders within their workforce. During a press briefing ahead of the Workday Rising conference, TechTarget asked if the AI agent used in succession planning could fully capture the intricacies of the employee experience and assess leadership potential. David Somers, Chief Product Officer at Workday, acknowledged the sensitivity of succession planning but emphasized that AI is used to augment—not replace—human decision-making. The agents provide recommendations, while the final hiring decisions still involve talent acquisition professionals and interview panels. Workday’s updates include tools for a wide range of tasks, from content summarization to more advanced capabilities such as detecting bottlenecks in onboarding processes and suggesting optimizations. “These AI agents will streamline common business workflows, boosting productivity and freeing up users to focus on strategic, meaningful work,” Somers explained. While AI has long been part of Workday’s offerings, generative AI is now driving rapid transformation in HR practices. Workday’s Illuminate platform combines data with contextual insights, offering features like compensation data tailored to a company’s specific information. Users can access these AI capabilities through Workday Assistant, a generative AI chatbot that integrates with Microsoft Teams and Slack. This tool will be generally available early next year, making it easier for teams to interact with Workday’s AI-powered systems. HR industry expert Josh Bersin sees Workday’s Illuminate as part of a broader trend of AI agents in the HR space, similar to SAP’s Joule. He believes Workday’s new AI agents will be a major focus for the company, though building out all the necessary Workday transactions into these tools will take time. Bersin does not foresee trust issues among Workday users regarding Illuminate, noting that the platform isn’t open to non-Workday data, which limits concerns around data security. Bersin’s own AI assistant, Galileo, is also expected to integrate with Workday’s platform in the future, further enhancing its capabilities. rativAccording to recent Gartner surveys from March and June, the majority of HR leaders are adopting AI in their organizations. Only 15% of respondents indicated they had no plans to incorporate generative AI into their HR processes, signaling widespread acceptance of AI tools like those Workday is rolling out with Illuminate. 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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September 20, 2024in AI Tools, Data, Generative AI
Salesforce AI Agents and New Data Cloud Features
19Sep

Salesforce AI Agents and New Data Cloud Features

Salesforce has announced several major updates to its Data Cloud at the annual Dreamforce conference, aimed at enhancing data analysis and boosting the capabilities of its new AI agents, Agentforce. These updates include support for unstructured data in audio and video formats, 50 new data connectors, and a low-latency pipeline to ensure faster AI responses. Salesforce describes Data Cloud as a customer data platform designed to unify data from various sources, providing actionable insights for sales, service, and marketing teams. The latest features will further improve this functionality, according to Rahul Auradkar, Salesforce’s General Manager of Unified Data Services and Einstein. Key Updates 1. Unstructured Data Support: Audio and Video Formats Salesforce has introduced the ability to process unstructured audio and video data. This allows enterprises to analyze information from sources like customer calls, training sessions, product demos, and webinars. The unstructured data can enrich customer profiles, provide deeper insights into behavior, and enhance the performance of AI agents within Agentforce by improving response accuracy. IDC’s Hayley Sutherland highlighted that vectorization of this content enables retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), enhancing the use of large language models (LLMs) to generate more effective and context-aware responses. 2. 50 New Data Connectors Salesforce has expanded its connector library with 50 new options, raising the total to 200. This helps businesses integrate diverse data sources, facilitating improved personalization and decision-making. These connectors are also critical for feeding data to AI agents, enabling them to generate more accurate insights. 3. Sub-second Data Layer for Real-time Responses A new sub-second data layer has been rolled out, allowing enterprises to ingest, unify, analyze, and act on data in real time. This layer powers Einstein Personalization, enabling instant AI-driven recommendations and analytics. It’s especially important for the low-latency needs of Agentforce’s autonomous AI agents, ensuring faster, more accurate customer interactions. 4. Governance and Security Enhancements Salesforce has introduced AI tagging and classification features for unstructured data, automating labeling and organization to ensure secure access. Policy-based governance will offer granular control over data access based on tags, metadata, and user attributes. Additionally, customer-managed encryption keys ensure data security, while the newly available private connect feature allows secure data sharing between Data Cloud and public cloud environments. 5. Data Cloud One and Hybrid Search Data Cloud One, a new feature, will allow enterprises to connect multiple Salesforce accounts across different departments or regions into a single instance, simplifying data management. The hybrid search feature, which combines vector and keyword search, is designed to improve the speed and accuracy of finding industry-specific information. Other updates include Tableau Semantics, which helps organize data based on its meaning, and a new data community platform to foster collaboration among data professionals. These updates reflect Salesforce’s commitment to enhancing data-driven decision-making and delivering powerful AI capabilities for enterprises. 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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September 19, 2024in Data, Enterprise
Salesforce and OpenAI Advances in AI
19Sep

Salesforce and OpenAI Advances in AI

With investor enthusiasm for AI beginning to fade, Salesforce is shifting focus to its next AI wave, “Agentforce,” which will be showcased at the Dreamforce customer conference. This announcement comes at a time when Salesforce stock has underperformed, with revenue growth slowing and expectations building that AI-related revenue may not materialize until 2025. Salesforce and OpenAI Advances in AI. The Agentforce platform will be featured at Dreamforce, running from Sept. 17 to Sept. 19, and aims to automate routine business tasks while offering real-time insights and guidance. CEO Marc Benioff noted in a Sept. 12 briefing that Agentforce represents the third wave of AI, moving beyond conversational chatbots to more autonomous agents. Early adopters of the platform include Walt Disney, Kaiser Permanente, Fossil, Wiley, and OpenTable. Meanwhile, Salesforce faces stiff competition. Microsoft is hosting its own AI event, Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2, which focuses on business productivity features powered by generative AI. Like Salesforce, Microsoft’s AI tools have yet to demonstrate significant revenue impact, as customers are still testing the technologies. Salesforce is pushing Agentforce as an evolution of its previous Einstein copilot, which integrates conversational AI within its apps. Agentforce aims to take this further by reducing human oversight and improving efficiency in sales, marketing, and customer service roles. The product is scheduled for an October rollout, with a pricing model based on usage—potentially $2 per interaction for complex queries. Analysts have mixed opinions on Agentforce’s potential. Truist Securities sees the AI platform driving future subscription growth, while Barclays believes it could gain more traction than previous AI tools due to its fully autonomous nature. However, others, like Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., remain cautious, noting concerns about Salesforce’s slowing revenue growth in a challenging macroeconomic environment. Salesforce Agentforce PlatformIn its second-quarter earnings call, Salesforce shared promising results from an Agentforce trial, where the platform resolved 90% of patient inquiries for a large healthcare customer. Analysts like Morgan Stanley’s Keith Weiss see Agentforce as a key differentiator for Salesforce, enabling customers to leverage AI at scale with reduced complexity and cost. Despite this optimism, Salesforce still faces challenges. Competitors such as Meta’s AI Studio and ServiceNow are also advancing AI agent technologies. ServiceNow, for instance, emphasizes the need for strict human oversight of AI actions, a sentiment echoed by Salesforce’s chief ethical and humane use officer, Paula Goldman. As the tech industry races to enhance AI autonomy, concerns about the technology’s limitations—such as bias, hallucinations, and decision-making risks—remain central. Experts warn that while AI agents hold great potential, they must be carefully regulated to prevent unintended consequences. 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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September 19, 2024in Agentforce Platform, Generative AI
Salesforce Free AI Training
19Sep

Salesforce Free AI Training

Salesforce Expands Access to Free AI Training to Address Global Skills Gap SAN FRANCISCO — September 18, 2024 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the #1 AI-powered CRM, has announced a significant expansion of its AI skilling initiatives. Starting today, Salesforce will offer its premium AI courses and certifications free of charge to anyone via its online learning platform, Trailhead, through the end of 2025. This initiative aims to help bridge the growing AI skills gap by providing accessible education for individuals across industries. To further support these efforts, Salesforce will open new physical training spaces at its San Francisco headquarters, including a pop-up AI Center offering in-person community courses and a dedicated AI skilling floor for employees. This investment, valued at over $50 million, is designed to empower the workforce with essential AI skills as the demand for AI talent surges globally. Research from Slack highlights a growing urgency among executives to integrate AI into business operations, with interest increasing sevenfold in the last six months. However, more than two-thirds of workers have yet to engage with AI tools, and only 15% feel they possess the necessary training to use them effectively. “The advent of AI and agents represents the biggest technological shift of our generation and will radically change how people work,” said Brian Millham, President and Chief Operating Officer at Salesforce. “We need to ensure everyone has the skills to succeed in this new AI-driven world.” Expanding AI Training Opportunities Salesforce has already helped thousands of professionals acquire technical skills through premium, instructor-led training and certifications. With these new offerings, the company aims to reach an additional 100,000 learners, empowering every Trailblazer to become an “Agentblazer” in this evolving AI landscape. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars in AI education for yourself or your workforce. Salesforce has it at your fingertips for free. Trailhead now offers a wide range of AI-specific courses, covering topics like AI fundamentals, ethical AI use, and prompt engineering. Since June 2023, learners have earned over 2.6 million AI and data badges, helping unlock critical skills for the future of work. Creating Spaces for Hands-on AI Learning In addition to expanding its online offerings, Salesforce is building AI training spaces around the globe. After launching its first AI Center in London, the company will open a pop-up AI Center at its San Francisco headquarters in 2025, with plans for additional locations in Chicago, Tokyo, and Sydney. These centers will host in-person Trailhead courses and bring together experts, partners, and customers to advance AI innovation. Introducing Agentforce — A Groundbreaking AI Suite As part of its ongoing AI revolution, Salesforce is also upskilling its 72,000-strong workforce through quarterly AI learning days and immersive experiences at the newly created AI Knowledge Center in San Francisco. The centerpiece of this initiative is Agentforce, an innovative suite of AI agents designed to enhance productivity in service, sales, marketing, and commerce. By automating repetitive tasks, these agents allow employees to focus on higher-value work. Since the launch of Slack AI in February, Salesforce employees have saved nearly 3 million work hours through AI-driven tools that summarize information, find answers, and generate new ideas. Nearly 40% of the AI and data badges earned on Trailhead belong to Salesforce employees, demonstrating the company’s commitment to internal skilling and innovation. “AI will transform the workforce, creating new roles and opportunities. It’s our responsibility as employers to provide training that prepares workers for the future,” said Nathalie Scardino, President and Chief People Officer at Salesforce. “Grounded in our values, we’re leveraging Salesforce’s full power to help everyone succeed in this AI-driven era.” Related Resources For more information about Salesforce, visit www.salesforce.com or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE. About SalesforceSalesforce is the world’s leading AI-powered CRM, helping organizations of all sizes reimagine their business for the AI age. Powered by its trusted platform, Agentforce, Salesforce brings humans and AI agents together to drive customer success through data-driven insights and actions. Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices globally, and trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “CRM.” 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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September 19, 2024in AI Tools, Data
Pay Per Chat
18Sep

Pay Per Chat

Salesforce is launching its AI-powered Agentforce platform across its key clouds, including Sales, Service, Marketing, and Commerce. However, a significant question remains: Will enterprises be willing to pay $2 per conversation for Agentforce, especially without volume discounts? The introduction of Agentforce wasn’t unexpected, as CEO Marc Benioff has been discussing autonomous AI agents since the company’s second-quarter earnings call. Leading up to Dreamforce, Salesforce has consistently emphasized agentic AI, with Benioff previously hinting at the $2 per conversation pricing model. Agentforce is part of Salesforce’s ongoing effort to move beyond generative AI copilots to fully autonomous digital agents that can perform tasks independently. Much of this technology stems from Salesforce’s acquisition of Airkit.ai last year. Additionally, the company’s acquisition of Own highlights a strategic, smaller-scale approach to mergers and acquisitions. The core of Salesforce’s AI vision is a blend of human expertise and AI agents. While humans focus on relationship-building, industry knowledge, and goal-setting, AI agents will handle tasks like answering questions, scheduling meetings, and gathering information. Key features of Agentforce include: Pay Per Chat? Salesforce is unifying its clouds under a single platform, with Data Cloud as the common thread connecting Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Tableau. According to Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller, the real story is the infrastructure behind the agents, which will drive innovation in the future of work by enhancing developer velocity and productivity. At Dreamforce, Salesforce also unveiled Einstein Sales Agents, including a Sales Development Representative (SDR) agent and a Sales Coach, designed to improve sales performance. Salesforce highlighted that agents, unlike traditional bots, are dynamic, outcome-driven, and capable of adapting to various situations. Beyond sales, the Agentforce lineup includes: Agentforce is poised to serve as the connective tissue, unifying Salesforce’s various clouds and driving value with ongoing innovations in Data Cloud and AI. 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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September 18, 2024in Agentforce Platform, Generative AI, Mulesoft
Salesforce and IBM Partnership
17Sep

Salesforce and IBM Partnership

Salesforce and IBM are advancing their longstanding partnership by focusing on transforming sales and service processes with AI, particularly for organizations in regulated industries that seek to leverage enterprise data for automation. The collaboration aims to deliver pre-built AI agents and tools that integrate seamlessly within customers’ IT environments, enabling them to use their proprietary data while maintaining full control over their systems. By merging Salesforce’s Agentforce, a suite of autonomous agents, with IBM’s watsonx capabilities, the partnership will empower businesses to utilize AI agents within their daily applications. IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate will enhance Agentforce with autonomous agents that improve productivity, security, and regulatory compliance. Additionally, IBM customers will have the ability to interact with these agents via Slack, facilitating dynamic conversational experiences. Planned integrations between Salesforce Data Cloud and IBM Data Gate for watsonx will enable access to business data from IBM Z mainframes and Db2 databases, supporting AI workflows across the Agentforce platform. This integration will enhance data analysis and fuel AI-driven processes. Customers will also benefit from a broader range of AI model and deployment options through integration with IBM watsonx.ai. This will include access to IBM’s Granite foundation models, designed for enterprise applications. Enhancing Business Automation with Tailored Autonomous Agents Through the Agentforce Partner Network, businesses can develop and customize AI agents to interact with various enterprise tools and platforms. These agents are designed to perform multi-step tasks, make decisions based on triggers or interactions, and seek user approval for actions beyond their scope. They will help automate routine tasks, increase efficiency, streamline operations, and enhance customer service. IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate will integrate with Salesforce Agentforce to develop new pre-built agents for specific business challenges. These agents will leverage data and AI from both Salesforce and IBM to address various needs: Expanding Data Integration for AI Salesforce and IBM are also advancing data integration strategies through the Zero Copy integration between Salesforce Data Cloud and watsonx.data. This allows data to remain in place while being utilized for AI use cases, without duplication. Joint customers, particularly in financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and telecommunications, will leverage this integration to access and use mainframe datasets from IBM Z and Db2 databases on Salesforce’s platform. IBM will be the first Zero Copy partner to facilitate data flow between IBM Z and Salesforce Cloud, offering secure access to critical enterprise data and enhancing AI agent functionality. With IBM Z handling over 70% of global transaction value, this partnership ensures high standards of security, privacy, and compliance. Improving Efficiency with Slack and IBM watsonx Orchestrate IBM customers will now engage with watsonx Orchestrate agents directly within Slack, supporting AI app experiences with a new interface. This integration allows for seamless interaction with AI agents, automating tasks and enhancing collaboration across systems without leaving Slack. Expanding AI Model and Deployment Options with watsonx.ai A new integration with watsonx.ai will enable customers to deploy customized large language models (LLMs) within Salesforce Model Builder. This includes access to a range of third-party models and IBM’s Granite foundation models, which offer transparency and compliance with regulatory requirements. IBM Granite models are expected to be available within the Salesforce ecosystem by October. Partnering with IBM Consulting for Tailored AI Solutions IBM Consulting will leverage its expertise in Salesforce and AI to help joint customers accelerate the implementation of Agentforce. Through IBM Consulting Advantage, the AI-powered delivery platform, businesses will receive support in selecting, customizing, deploying, and scaling AI agents to meet specific industry needs. Customer Perspective Tectonic is transforming its service stations into preferred journey stops with the help of Salesforce and IBM. The collaboration offers unprecedented flexibility in AI utilization, enabling Tectonic to deliver hyper-personalized services through Agentforce and IBM’s watsonx AI, enhancing customer engagement and 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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September 17, 2024in Agentforce Platform, Data, Enterprise, Salesforce, Salesforce Data Cloud
Copado Unveils AI Agents
17Sep

Copado Unveils AI Agents

Copado Unveils AI Agents to Automate Key DevOps Tasks for Salesforce Applications Copado has introduced a suite of generative AI agents designed to automate common tasks that DevOps teams frequently encounter when building and deploying applications on Salesforce’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. This announcement comes ahead of the Dreamforce 2024 conference hosted by Salesforce. These AI agents are the result of over a decade of data collection by Copado, according to David Brooks, Copado’s vice president of products. The initial AI agents will focus on code generation and test automation, with future agents tackling user story creation, deployment scripts, and application environment optimization. Unlike AI co-pilot tools that assist with code generation, Copado’s agents will fully automate tasks, Brooks explained. DevOps teams will be able to orchestrate these AI agents to streamline workflows, making best DevOps practices more accessible to a wider range of development teams. As AI continues to reshape DevOps, more tasks will be automated using agentic AI. This approach involves creating AI agents trained on a specific, narrow dataset, ensuring higher accuracy compared to general-purpose large language models (LLMs) that pull data from across the web. While it’s unclear how quickly agentic AI will transform DevOps, Brooks noted that in the future, teams will consist of both human engineers and AI agents assigned to specific tasks. DevOps engineers will still be essential for overseeing the accuracy of these tasks, but many of the repetitive tasks that often lead to burnout will be automated. As the burden of routine work decreases, organizations can expect the pace of code writing and application deployment to significantly accelerate. This could lead to a shift in how DevOps teams approach application backlogs, enabling the deployment of more applications that might have previously been sidelined due to resource constraints. In the interim, Brooks advises DevOps teams to begin identifying which routine tasks can be assigned to AI agents. Doing so will free up human engineers to manage workflows at a scale that was once unimaginable, positioning teams to thrive in the AI-driven future of DevOps. 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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September 17, 2024in Generative AI
Salesforce Advanced AI Models
14Sep

Salesforce Advanced AI Models

Salesforce has introduced two advanced AI models—xGen-Sales and xLAM—designed to enhance its Agentforce platform, which seamlessly integrates human agents with autonomous AI for greater business efficiency. xGen-Sales, a proprietary AI model, is tailored for sales tasks such as generating customer insights, summarizing calls, and managing pipelines. By automating routine sales activities, it enables sales teams to focus on strategic priorities. This model enhances Agentforce’s capacity to autonomously handle customer interactions, nurture leads, and support sales teams with increased speed and precision. The xLAM (Large Action Model) family introduces AI models designed to perform complex tasks and trigger actions within business systems. Unlike traditional Large Language Models (LLMs), which focus on content generation, xLAM models excel in function-calling, enabling AI agents to autonomously execute tasks like initiating workflows or processing data without human input. These models vary in size and capability, from smaller, on-device versions to large-scale models suitable for industrial applications. Salesforce AI Research developed the xLAM models using APIGen, a proprietary data-generation pipeline that significantly improves model performance. Early xLAM models have already outperformed other large models in key benchmarks. For example, the xLAM-8x22B model ranked first in function-calling tasks on the Berkeley Leaderboards, surpassing even larger models like GPT-4. These AI innovations are designed to help businesses scale AI-driven workflows efficiently. Organizations adopting these models can automate complex tasks, improve sales operations, and optimize resource allocation. The non-commercial xLAM models are available for community review on Hugging Face, while proprietary versions will power Agentforce. xGen-Sales has completed its pilot phase and will soon be available for general use. 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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September 14, 2024in Agentforce Platform
New Slack Innovations
13Sep

New Slack Innovations

Salesforce Unveils Innovative Slack Updates Ahead of its Dreamforce conference in San Francisco later this week, Salesforce has introduced several groundbreaking updates to Slack, designed to consolidate company knowledge, data, agents, apps, and automation into a unified, agent-powered work operating system. New Slack Innovations. The latest enhancements to Slack include: Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack, commented on the updates: “Slack’s agent-powered work operating system is transforming productivity by seamlessly integrating purpose-built AI, customer data, and automation into the everyday workflow. This innovation isn’t just about improving how work gets done—it’s about unlocking new levels of productivity to drive business success across every team and department. In a complex work environment, true productivity demands a future-ready work operating system, and Slack is leading the way.” For more information on these updates and how they can benefit your organization, stay tuned for further details from Dreamforce. 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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September 13, 2024in Data
Agentforce to the Team
12Sep

Agentforce to the Team

Salesforce has introduced the Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine, a platform designed to perform tasks autonomously with minimal human intervention. Agentforce to the Team changes everything about AI. Businesses can feed the engine data, assign tasks, and step away, as the system is capable of completing work independently. This launch closely follows OpenAI’s recent advancements in artificial intelligence, highlighting the ongoing collaboration between Salesforce and Sam Altman’s firm. Agentforce to the Team-makes me hear “Honey, I’m home”, coming from the front door. The Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine is designed to analyze data, make decisions, and execute tasks with high reliability and accuracy, echoing the features of OpenAI’s latest AI model. Salesforce positions this as part of the “Third Wave of AI,” where intelligent agents go beyond assisting humans to actively driving business outcomes without frequent oversight. According to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, these agents are deeply integrated into customer workflows, anticipating needs and improving growth by taking proactive action at every touchpoint. Benioff emphasized the revolutionary nature of Agentforce, which he claims will surpass existing AI platforms by offering highly accurate, low-hallucination results. It integrates seamlessly across Salesforce’s ecosystem, benefiting users from industries such as financial services, healthcare, and government. Early adopters, such as Wiley, report a 40% increase in case resolution, with Agentforce handling routine customer service tasks more efficiently than previous chatbots. Disney also saw improved results, noting that Atlas delivered twice the accuracy of other AI tools they had benchmarked. However, the autonomous nature of these agents raises concerns about job displacement, particularly for workers involved in repetitive, low-impact tasks. While Salesforce advocates for reskilling workers to transition into higher-value roles, many organizations struggle to effectively implement such initiatives. The time required to upskill workers may not align with the rapid adoption of AI technologies like Agentforce. Agentforce aims to address common enterprise challenges by offering out-of-the-box solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service roles. The low-code platform allows businesses to customize their AI agents without extensive technical expertise, ensuring that they can scale capacity and improve efficiency. Salesforce plans to showcase Agentforce at its upcoming Dreamforce conference, aiming to onboard 1,000 customers to the platform. The launch signifies Salesforce’s strategic push to dominate the enterprise AI landscape, leveraging its vast data and platform to deliver more value to its customers. Despite its potential, Agentforce introduces new risks, especially in areas like data privacy and ethical AI deployment. Salesforce emphasizes its commitment to addressing these issues by incorporating ethical guardrails, such as toxicity filters. Industry analysts remain cautiously optimistic, noting that while the technology holds promise, the real test will come as more organizations adopt it and integrate it into their workflows. In summary, Salesforce’s Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine represents a significant leap in enterprise AI, moving beyond basic AI copilots to fully autonomous agents. While it offers substantial benefits in productivity and efficiency, its impact on the workforce and the challenges of widespread AI adoption will require ongoing attention. By Tectonic’s Shannan Hearne, Solutions Architect 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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September 12, 2024in Salesforce
Oracle Fusion Cloud
11Sep

Oracle Fusion Cloud

Oracle has unveiled over 50 role-based AI agents in the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite as of Wednesday. This suite offers a range of applications designed to help enterprises manage various functions. The newly introduced AI agents aim to assist employees and managers by automating business processes. According to Oracle executives at the CloudWorld 2024 conference in Las Vegas, these agents are tailored to improve efficiency across different functions. In Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management, the AI agents support shift scheduling, assist with hiring, manage requests to fill or create new positions, and help employees understand their benefits. In Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain, Manufacturing AI Agents provide contextual insights and recommendations for handling order requests and suggest maintenance and repair actions for various assets. The AI agents within Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience assist with planning and research tasks, automate contract workflow and approval processes, and facilitate communication with sales representatives. Oracle has yet to announce the release date for these AI agents. The Next Stage of GenAIThe introduction of AI agents represents an evolution of generative AI, moving beyond chatbots to technology that performs tasks autonomously. “These AI agents are engineered to automate routine tasks and offer personalized insights and recommendations,” noted Sid Nag, Gartner Research analyst. This development underscores a shift in the generative AI market from ideation to practical implementation. “These are very pragmatic and practical ideas,” said Mark Beccue, an analyst at TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group. “It’s a use case we’ve been anticipating, where AI helps complete tasks effectively.” Oracle’s AI Agents for its Fusion Cloud Applications Suite align with the vision for enterprise software vendors, Beccue added. ServiceNow AI AgentsOracle is not alone in embedding AI agents into business applications. On September 10, ServiceNow announced plans to integrate agentic workflows into its platform. The initial AI Agent applications from ServiceNow will focus on Customer Service Management and IT Service Management. These agents are designed to identify and resolve issues independently while still being overseen by human operators. ServiceNow’s AI Agents are expected to launch in November 2024 as part of a limited release. The company also introduced the Now Assist Skill Kit, enabling enterprises to develop custom generative AI skills tailored to specific business needs. Single Task vs. Multitask AgentsA key consideration with AI agents is whether they can handle single tasks or multitask across multiple applications. Mark Beccue suggests that the ability to perform tasks across various applications could lead to a new user interface where AI agents manage tasks seamlessly across different systems. “It’s a vision for the future of AI agents,” Beccue remarked. It remains to be seen how these AI agents will address industry-specific regulations and compliance requirements, particularly in highly regulated sectors such as finance. Additional AI FeaturesOracle has also introduced new AI capabilities in other applications. Oracle Cloud ERP now includes predictive cash forecasting, narrative reporting, and automated transaction records within Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability. In Oracle Cloud CX, new features include assisted authoring to help sales teams engage buyers with AI-generated content and advanced AI capabilities in Oracle CX Unity for detecting signals based on role, title, and topic engagement. 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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September 11, 2024in Generative AI
Salesforce and Tenyx
10Sep

Salesforce and Tenyx

Salesforce has announced its acquisition of AI voice agent firm Tenyx, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter. While the financial terms have not been disclosed, Tenyx’s co-founders, CEO Itamar Arel and CTO Adam Earle, along with their team, will join Salesforce as part of the acquisition. This move comes after Salesforce, under pressure from activist investors, previously shifted away from acquisitions and increased its share buybacks following the dissolution of its mergers and acquisitions committee. However, the company is now pursuing strategic acquisitions to boost revenue growth. Conversational AI forthe Enterprise Tenyx Voice is an Interactive Virtual Agent (IVA) built from the ground up leveraging today’s modern AI stack. Built by a team with a proven track record in voice AI, and leveraging a unique core AI and voice platform, Tenyx promises to redefine customer interactions for the enterprise. Tenyx Voice is an Interactive Virtual Agent (IVA) built from the ground up leveraging today’s modern AI stack. Built by a team with a proven track record in voice AI, and leveraging a unique core AI and voice platform, Tenyx promises to redefine customer interactions for the enterprise. Industries and Use Cases If 2023 was the year of large language models (LLMs), 2024 is shaping up to be the year of voice agents. When ChatGPT made waves globally, startups, tech firms, and entrepreneurs rushed to discover business use cases for the new technology. The ideal applications targeted tasks that are costly, time-consuming, and hard to scale. Voice agents and automated customer service systems quickly emerged as one of the most promising solutions. However, many companies deploying these systems aren’t fully considering their impact on customers. That’s why Tenyx is launching its inaugural Voice AI Consumer Report. We surveyed hundreds of Americans across different age groups, races, geographies, and genders to better understand their preferences and experiences with AI-powered voice agents. Here are the key findings: What this means: Frustrating Calls Hurt Your Brand Imagine calling customer service for a quick solution, only to be met by an automated voice agent that can’t understand your request or handle complex issues. It’s a common and frustrating experience. Our data shows that nearly 7 in 10 people express frustration or annoyance with today’s automated voice agents—sentiments that can severely damage customer loyalty and business outcomes. “Our report highlights a major disconnect between consumer expectations and the performance of current automated voice agents,” says Itamar Arel, CEO of Tenyx. “While these systems promise efficiency and cost savings, they often fall short when it comes to addressing consumers’ nuanced needs.” Incomplete AI Systems Drive Customer Churn Subpar AI systems are driving customers away. Two-thirds of respondents said they wouldn’t return to a company after a negative experience with its AI voice agent. In fact, 67% still prefer interacting with human agents over automated ones. Why? Current AI voice agents struggle with complex issues and fail to provide the empathy and problem-solving skills that human agents, or more advanced AI systems, offer. Selective Deployment and Industry-Specific Agents Matter Our data shows that consumers are more accepting of voice agents in certain industries than others. Sectors like healthcare, restaurants, and telecoms saw the highest satisfaction with AI voice agents, while airlines, banking, and hotels ranked the lowest. This highlights the importance of selective deployment and tailoring voice agents for specific industries to better meet customer needs. Looking Ahead: The Promise of Perfect Automation Despite the skepticism, there’s hope. Two-thirds of respondents indicated they’d embrace automated voice agents if these systems could match the performance of human agents. This is exactly what we’re working on at Tenyx—building scalable, reliable AI agents that serve businesses and customers globally. “As leaders in voice AI technology, Tenyx is dedicated to closing the gap between consumer expectations and technological capabilities,” Arel says. “Our mission is to equip businesses with AI solutions that not only streamline operations but also boost customer satisfaction.” 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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September 10, 2024in Salesforce

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