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Speed to Launch of Agentforce

Speed to Launch of Agentforce

Agentforce isn’t just another AI platform that requires months of customization. At most customers, they quickly saw its power, launching transformative generative AI experiences in just days—no AI engineers needed. For companies with larger admin teams, the benefits can be even greater. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce places a strong emphasis on data privacy, building on the trust that Salesforce is known for, making these virtual assistants invaluable. We began with employee-facing use cases, saving our team several hours per week. Now, with Agentforce, we’re seeing even more opportunities to drive efficiencies and better serve our customers. “We’re excited to leverage Agentforce to completely overhaul recruitment and enrollment at Unity Environmental University. Instead of traditional forms or chatbots, our students will soon engage with an autonomous recruitment agent directly on our website, offering personalized support throughout the college application process.”– Dr. Melik Khoury, President & CEO, Unity Environmental University “For first-generation college students, the 1:385 coach-to-student ratio makes personalized guidance challenging. By integrating Agentforce into our platform, we’re deploying cutting-edge solutions to better support students. These agents enable our coaches to focus on high-touch, personalized experiences while handling vital tasks like sharing deadlines and answering common questions—24/7.”– Siva Kumari, CEO, College Possible “Agentforce offers organizations a unique opportunity to move beyond incremental improvements and achieve exponential ROI. By automating customer interactions, improving outcomes, and reducing costs, it integrates data, flows, and user interfaces to mitigate risks and accelerate value creation. This agent-based platform approach allows businesses to harness AI’s full potential, revolutionizing customer engagement and paving the way for exponential growth.”– Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir “Autonomous agents powered by Salesforce’s Agentforce are revolutionizing customer experiences by providing fast, accurate, and personalized support around the clock. With advanced AI making decisions and taking actions autonomously, businesses can resolve customer issues more efficiently, fostering deeper interactions and enhancing satisfaction. This innovation enables companies to reallocate human resources to more complex tasks, boosting individual productivity and scaling business growth. Agentforce is setting new standards for seamless sales, service, marketing, and commerce interactions, reinforcing its leadership in customer experience.”– Michael Fauscette, CEO and Chief Analyst, Arion Research LLC “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay, Computer Science Pioneer Technology progresses in what biologists call punctuated equilibrium, with new capabilities slowly emerging from labs and tinkerers until a breakthrough shifts the axis of possibility. These pioneering feats create new paradigms, unleashing waves of innovation—much like the Apple Macintosh, the iPhone, and the Salesforce Platform, which revolutionized the enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) model and sparked an entire industry. The Age of Agentforce Begins At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce Futures reflected on the launch of Agentforce, inspired by visions like the Apple Knowledge Navigator. In 2023, we used this inspiration to craft our Salesforce 2030 film, which showcased the collaboration between humans and autonomous AI agents. Now, with Agentforce, we’re witnessing that vision come to life. Agentforce is a suite of customizable AI agents and tools built on the Salesforce Platform, offering an elegant solution to the complexity of AI deployment. It addresses the challenges of integrating data, models, infrastructure, and applications into a unified system. With powerful tools like Agent Builder and Model Builder, organizations can easily create, customize, and deploy AI agents. Salesforce’s Atlas Reasoning Engine empowers these agents to handle both routine and complex tasks autonomously. A New Era of AI Innovation At Dreamforce 2024, over 10,000 attendees raced to build their own agents using the “Agent Builder” experience, turning verbal instructions into fully functioning agents in under 15 minutes. This wasn’t just another chatbot—it’s a new breed of AI that could transform how businesses operate and deliver superior customer experiences. Companies like Saks, OpenTable, and Wiley have quickly embraced this technology. As Mick Costigan and David Berthy of Salesforce Futures explain, “When we see signals like this, it pushes us toward the future. Soon, we’ll see complex, multi-agent systems solving higher-order challenges, both in the enterprise and in consumer devices.” Shaping the Future Agentforce isn’t just a product—it’s a platform for experimentation. With hundreds of thousands of Salesforce customers soon gaining access, the full potential of these tools will unfold in ways we can’t yet imagine. As with every major technological shift, the real magic will lie in how people use it. Every interaction, every agent deployed, and every problem solved will shape the future in unexpected ways. Platform Evolution Adam Evans, Salesforce SVP of Product, notes that Agentforce builds on the company’s transformation over the past four years, following the pattern of Salesforce’s original disruption of enterprise software. Unlike traditional solutions, Agentforce eliminates the need for customers to build their own AI infrastructure, providing a ready-to-use solution. At the core of Agentforce is the Atlas Reasoning Engine, delivering results that are twice as relevant and 33% more accurate than competing solutions. This engine integrates Salesforce Data Cloud, Flow for automation, and the Einstein Trust Layer for governance. Early Customer Results Early Agentforce deployments highlight how organizations are using autonomous agents to enhance, rather than replace, human workers: George Pokorny, Senior VP of Global Customer Success at OpenTable, shared, “Just saving two minutes on a ten-minute call lets our service reps focus on strengthening customer relationships, thanks to seamless integration with Service Cloud, giving us a unified view of diner preferences and history.” 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 Omni-Channel

Salesforce Channels

Channels Email Messaging Voice Open CTI Social Media Chat Channel Tools Email Updates Messaging Enhancements Voice Improvements Social Media Chat Updates Other Channel Tools These updates enhance the messaging, email, voice, and chat experiences, streamlining agent workflows, improving customer interactions, and providing greater customization. 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 Agents and Digital Transformation

Inventing the Future of Agents

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay, Computer Science PioneerOr, to channel Buzz Lightyear: “To infinity and beyond.” Inventing the Future of Agents The history of computing has always advanced in fits and starts, a pattern biologists call punctuated equilibrium. Revolutionary technologies emerge slowly—nurtured in research labs, garages, and the minds of visionaries—until the moment comes when a breakthrough shifts the axis of possibility. From there, a new paradigm takes shape, unleashing waves of innovation. Think of the Apple Macintosh, the iPhone, and Salesforce’s own Platform, which pioneered enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) and sparked an entirely new industry. Each of these milestones reshaped the way we live and work, setting the stage for even greater advances to come. Alan Kay: A Visionary for Computing’s Future One such paradigm-shifter was Alan Kay. In 1971, while working at Xerox PARC, Kay was immersed in an era when computers were room-sized behemoths. At the time, only four of these machines were connected to the fledgling ARPAnet, a precursor to today’s internet. Kay, a skilled musician with a deep appreciation for human-centered design, brought an empathetic and humanistic approach to innovation. In 1972, he introduced the Dynabook—a radical vision for personal computing that was decades ahead of its time. The Dynabook concept featured a battery-powered laptop with a touchscreen, wireless access to global information, and an interface so simple even children could use it. Kay and his team at PARC went on to develop many of the foundational elements of modern personal computing: overlapping windows, graphical user interfaces, and object-oriented programming. Later, while at Apple, Kay helped shape the vision for the groundbreaking 1987 Apple Knowledge Navigator video, which anticipated today’s iPad and iPhone. Agents and Humans: Driving Success Together Fast-forward to today, and we are on the cusp of another technological leap forward: AI agents. Much like Kay’s vision of personal computing, the emergence of intelligent, autonomous agents signals a new chapter in how humans and technology work together. Agentforce: Bringing the Future to the Present This interplay between visionary ideas and emerging technologies was on full display with the launch of Agentforce at Dreamforce 2024. A year earlier, at Dreamforce 2023, Salesforce Futures debuted its Salesforce 2030 film, drawing inspiration from Apple’s Knowledge Navigator. The film offered a glimpse into a world where humans collaborate seamlessly with autonomous AI agents—an aspirational vision of business transformed. Since then, the imagination gap between fiction and reality has narrowed. Salesforce’s work in Agentforce and publications like Personal AI Agents and Agents at Work have explored how agents are already changing business as we know it. These tools are bringing science fiction to life, enabling businesses to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, creativity, and success. A New Paradigm in Progress Like the Macintosh, the iPhone, or the Salesforce Platform, the rise of AI agents represents another transformative moment in computing history. By combining vision with technological breakthroughs, we are witnessing the dawn of a new era—one where humans and AI agents work together to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Alan Kay’s timeless wisdom rings true: the future isn’t something we wait for—it’s something we invent. With Agentforce, that future is already here. Inventing the Future of Agents. Are you ready to start Inventing the Future of Agents? 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 Strategies to Improve a Nonprofit

Salesforce Strategies to Improve a Nonprofit

Transforming Nonprofit Operations with Salesforce: Lessons from a Real-Life Success Story Actionable insights for nonprofits to streamline operations and amplify impact-Salesforce Strategies to Improve a Nonprofit Running a nonprofit is challenging enough without the added frustration of disjointed systems. Many nonprofits grapple with scattered databases, isolated email tools, and incompatible fundraising platforms, resulting in inefficiencies and operational headaches. When systems operate in silos, teams waste time on manual data entry and backtracking, which hinders program delivery and donor engagement—putting the mission at risk. Enter Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, a transformative platform designed to centralize operations, improve donor communication, and provide actionable insights. With 93% of Salesforce users reporting positive ROI, the platform empowers nonprofits to focus on what matters most: driving impact. Salesforce can revolutionize nonprofit operations. Case Study: Supporting Families Through Salesforce Client: Children’s Organization for displaced children in Ukraine Mission: To help children separated from their families during the war in Ukraine by providing bilingual, family-narrated audiobooks and beautifully illustrated storybooks. Challenge:While Better Time Stories had a meaningful mission, their operational processes were a roadblock. Their delivery system struggled with: The Approach 1. Goals Set Results With these optimizations, Better Time Stories significantly improved delivery success: Continuous system support ensured seamless operations and enhanced the organization’s ability to meet its mission. Key Strategies for Nonprofits Using Salesforce 1. Automate Donation and Impact Tracking 2. Personalize Donor Journeys 3. Create Custom Workflows 4. Integrate Salesforce with Other Tools 5. Enable Advanced Reporting 6. Build Volunteer and Beneficiary Portals 7. Leverage AI for Strategic Decisions 8. Design Scalable Data Architecture 9. Conduct Regular Health Checks Conclusion Nonprofits need solutions that simplify operations and maximize impact. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud offers the tools to centralize processes, enhance donor engagement, and drive mission-critical outcomes. By following these strategies and working with an experienced implementation partner, your nonprofit can achieve operational excellence and focus on delivering meaningful results. Ready to transform your nonprofit operations with Salesforce? Let’s make it happen! 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 Energy Solution

AI Energy Solution

Could the AI Energy Solution Make AI Unstoppable? The Rise of Brain-Based AI In 2002, Jason Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Washington, experienced a life-altering transformation after a traumatic brain injury. Following a violent assault, Padgett began to perceive the world through intricate patterns of geometry and fractals, developing a profound, intuitive grasp of advanced mathematical concepts—despite no formal education in the subject. His extraordinary abilities, emerging from the brain’s adaptation to injury, revealed an essential truth: the human brain’s remarkable capacity for resilience and reorganization. This phenomenon underscores the brain’s reliance on inhibition, a critical mechanism that silences or separates neural processes to conserve energy, clarify signals, and enable complex cognition. Researcher Iain McGilchrist highlights that this ability to step back from immediate stimuli fosters reflection and thoughtful action. Yet this foundational trait—key to the brain’s efficiency and adaptability—is absent from today’s dominant AI models. Current AI systems, like Transformers powering tools such as ChatGPT, lack inhibition. These models rely on probabilistic predictions derived from massive datasets, resulting in inefficiencies and an inability to learn independently. However, the rise of brain-based AI seeks to emulate aspects of inhibition, creating systems that are not only more energy-efficient but also capable of learning from real-world, primary data without constant retraining. The AI Energy Problem Today’s AI landscape is dominated by Transformer models, known for their ability to process vast amounts of secondary data, such as scraped text, images, and videos. While these models have propelled significant advancements, their insatiable demand for computational power has exposed critical flaws. As energy costs rise and infrastructure investment balloons, the industry is beginning to reevaluate its reliance on Transformer models. This shift has sparked interest in brain-inspired AI, which promises sustainable solutions through decentralized, self-learning systems that mimic human cognitive efficiency. What Brain-Based AI Solves Brain-inspired models aim to address three fundamental challenges with current AI systems: The human brain’s ability to build cohesive perceptions from fragmented inputs—like stitching together a clear visual image from saccades and peripheral signals—serves as a blueprint for these models, demonstrating how advanced functionality can emerge from minimal energy expenditure. The Secret to Brain Efficiency: A Thousand Brains Jeff Hawkins, the creator of the Palm Pilot, has dedicated decades to understanding the brain’s neocortex and its potential for AI design. His Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence posits that the neocortex operates through a universal algorithm, with approximately 150,000 cortical columns functioning as independent processors. These columns identify patterns, sequences, and spatial representations, collaborating to form a cohesive perception of the world. Hawkins’ brain-inspired approach challenges traditional AI paradigms by emphasizing predictive coding and distributed processing, reducing energy demands while enabling real-time learning. Unlike Transformers, which centralize control, brain-based AI uses localized decision-making, creating a more scalable and adaptive system. Is AI in a Bubble? Despite immense investment in AI, the market’s focus remains heavily skewed toward infrastructure rather than applications. NVIDIA’s data centers alone generate 5 billion in annualized revenue, while major AI applications collectively bring in just billion. This imbalance has led to concerns about an AI bubble, reminiscent of the early 2000s dot-com and telecom busts, where overinvestment in infrastructure outpaced actual demand. The sustainability of current AI investments hinges on the viability of new models like brain-based AI. If these systems gain widespread adoption within the next decade, today’s energy-intensive Transformer models may become obsolete, signaling a profound market correction. Controlling Brain-Based AI: A Philosophical Divide The rise of brain-based AI introduces not only technical challenges but also philosophical ones. Scholars like Joscha Bach argue for a reductionist approach, constructing intelligence through mathematical models that approximate complex phenomena. Others advocate for holistic designs, warning that purely rational systems may lack the broader perspective needed to navigate ethical and unpredictable scenarios. This philosophical debate mirrors the physical divide in the human brain: one hemisphere excels in reductionist analysis, while the other integrates holistic perspectives. As AI systems grow increasingly complex, the philosophical framework guiding their development will profoundly shape their behavior—and their impact on society. The future of AI lies in balancing efficiency, adaptability, and ethical design. Whether brain-based models succeed in replacing Transformers will depend not only on their technical advantages but also on our ability to guide their evolution responsibly. As AI inches closer to mimicking human intelligence, the stakes have never been higher. 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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Rise of AI Sparks

Rise of AI Sparks

The rise of AI has sparked an intense wave of both concern and fascination, unlike most previous technological advancements. While earlier innovations generated excitement and skepticism, few have prompted such extreme predictions of either a utopian future or an impending catastrophe. AI has evoked a deep human response, with many feeling compelled to engage in discussions about its implications—perhaps more than with any other technology in history. This is partly due to AI’s unique potential and power, but also because it challenges some of our most fundamental assumptions about the world and our place within it. In this essay, I will explore the concept of “ontological shock,” which refers to the confusion and disorientation that arise when our basic understanding of reality is subverted. AI is a powerful source of ontological shock because it forces us to reconsider our long-held views of ourselves and the world, and adjust our worldview to accommodate this new reality. Understanding Ontological Shock Ontology refers to the fundamental ways we understand and categorize the world. For most of us, life unfolds in a reasonably predictable manner, providing what sociologist Anthony Giddens calls “ontological security”—a sense of continuity and order in our experiences. The sun rises, familiar faces greet us, and life follows expected patterns. However, certain events can profoundly disrupt this sense of security. National crises, such as the collapse of an empire, or severe mental illness, like psychosis, can upend our basic assumptions about the world. Psychiatrist John Mack used the term “ontological shock” to describe the impact on individuals who believe they have experienced alien abduction, as they grapple with a reality that challenges their understanding of existence. Similarly, the emergence of AI confronts us with a destabilizing challenge to our worldview. Much of the public conversation around AI seems focused on preserving our ontological security rather than engaging with the deeper implications AI presents. Ontological Assumptions Through Time Our assumptions about reality are often invisible, like glasses through which we see the world but rarely take off to examine. To understand how AI might challenge these assumptions, it helps to look at how past societies understood the world. For example, in hunter-gatherer cultures, animism was a dominant worldview, with intelligence and spirit seen as inherent in natural features like rivers, trees, and animals. Roman civilization, meanwhile, was characterized by a pantheon of gods that influenced every aspect of life, while medieval Christianity simplified this structure, placing God at the top of a rigid hierarchy with humans uniquely endowed with souls. In the modern era, however, the collective loss of religious faith has resulted in a sharp divide between humans and the rest of the natural world. For the last century and a half, this boundary—between humans as intelligent beings and everything else as “things”—has been under attack, most notably by Darwin’s theory of evolution. AI and the Collapse of Ontological Boundaries AI challenges the last standing distinction between humans and objects. If AI can think, then the barrier between humans and things collapses, shaking our understanding of what it means to be human. The result is widespread ontological shock, as many struggle to reconcile the implications of AI. The debate about AI often remains stuck in dualism, forcing us into two unsatisfying choices: either AI is “just a thing,” or it has achieved human-like intelligence and should be treated as one of us. A third, increasingly popular, idea is that AI might soon attain god-like superintelligence, sparking apocalyptic or utopian visions. A New Approach These options fail to capture the true complexity of the situation. To address AI more thoughtfully, we must move beyond rigid human-thing dualism and embrace the idea that AI may represent an entirely new category of being. AI might possess a form of intelligence and existence that doesn’t fit into our traditional understanding of human or machine, but instead calls for a broader conceptual framework. By rethinking our ontological assumptions and acknowledging that intelligence and being come in many forms, we can begin to understand AI on its own terms, rather than forcing it into outdated categories. This ontological openness will be key to navigating the profound shifts AI is bringing to our world. 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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How to Implement AI for Business Transformation

Trust Deepens as AI Revolutionizes Content Creation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the content creation industry, sparking conversations about trust, authenticity, and the future of human creativity. As developers increasingly adopt AI tools, their trust in these technologies grows. Over 75% of developers now express confidence in AI, a trend that highlights the far-reaching potential of these advancements across industries. A study shared by Parametric Architecture underscores the expanding reliance on AI, with sectors ranging from marketing to architecture integrating these tools for tasks like design and communication. Yet, the implications for trust and authenticity remain nuanced, as stakeholders grapple with ensuring AI-driven content meets ethical and quality standards. Major players like Microsoft are capitalizing on this AI surge, offering solutions that enhance business efficiency. From automating emails to managing records, Microsoft’s tools demonstrate how AI can bridge the gap between human interaction and machine-driven processes. These advancements also intensify competition with other industry leaders, including Salesforce, as businesses seek smarter ways to streamline operations. In marketing, AI’s influence is particularly transformative. As noted by Karla Jo Helms in MarketingProfs, platforms like Google are adapting to the proliferation of AI-generated content by implementing stricter guidelines to combat misinformation. With projections suggesting that 90% of online content could be AI-generated by 2026, marketers face the dual challenge of maintaining authenticity while leveraging automation. Trust remains central to these efforts. According to Helms, “82% of consumers say brands must advertise on safe, accurate, and trustworthy content.” To meet these expectations, marketers must prioritize quality and transparency, aligning with Google’s emphasis on value-driven content over mass-produced AI outputs. This focus on trustworthiness is critical to maintaining audience confidence in an increasingly automated landscape. Beyond marketing, AI is making waves in diverse fields. In agriculture, Southern land-grant scientists are leveraging AI for precision spraying and disease detection, helping farmers reduce costs while improving efficiency. These innovations highlight how AI can drive strategic advancements even in traditional sectors. Across industries, the interplay between AI adoption and ethical content creation poses critical questions. AI should serve as a collaborator, enhancing rather than replacing human creativity. Achieving this balance requires transparency about AI’s role, along with regulatory frameworks to ensure accountability and ethical use. As AI takes center stage in content creation, industries must address challenges around trust and authenticity. The focus must shift from merely implementing AI to integrating it responsibly, fostering user confidence while maintaining the integrity of human narratives. Looking ahead, the path to success lies in balancing automation’s efficiency with genuine storytelling. By emphasizing ethical practices, clear communication about AI’s contributions, and a commitment to quality, content creators can cultivate trust and establish themselves as dependable voices in an increasingly AI-driven world. 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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Rise of Agentforce

Rise of Agentforce

The Rise of Agentforce: How AI Agents Are Shaping the Future of Work Salesforce wrapped up its annual Dreamforce conference this September, leaving attendees with more than just memories of John Mulaney’s quips. As the swarms of Waymos ferried participants across a cleaner-than-usual San Francisco, it became clear that AI-powered agents—dubbed Agentforce—are poised to transform the workplace. These agents, controlled within Salesforce’s ecosystem, could significantly change how work is done and how customer experiences are delivered. Dreamforce has always been known for its bold predictions about the future, but this year’s vision of AI-based agents felt particularly compelling. These agents represent the next frontier in workplace automation, but as exciting as this future is, some important questions remain. Reality Check on the Agentforce Vision During his keynote, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff raised an interesting point: “Why would our agents be so low-hallucinogenic?” While the agents have access to vast amounts of data, workflows, and services, they currently function best within Salesforce’s own environment. Benioff even made the claim that Salesforce pioneered prompt engineering—a statement that, for some, might have evoked a scene from Austin Powers, with Dr. Evil humorously taking credit for inventing the question mark. But can Salesforce fully realize its vision for Agentforce? If they succeed, it could be transformative for how work gets done. However, as with many AI-driven innovations, the real question lies in interoperability. The Open vs. Closed Debate As powerful as Salesforce’s ecosystem is, not all business data and workflows live within it. If the future of work involves a network of AI agents working together, how far can a closed ecosystem like Salesforce’s really go? Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech giants also have their sights set on AI-driven agents, and the race is on to own this massive opportunity. As we’ve seen in previous waves of technology, this raises familiar debates about open versus closed systems. Without a standard for agents to work together across platforms, businesses could find themselves limited. Closed ecosystems may help solve some problems, but to unlock the full potential of AI agents, they must be able to operate seamlessly across different platforms and boundaries. Looking to the Open Web for Inspiration The solution may lie in the same principles that guide the open web. Just as mobile apps often require a web view to enable an array of outcomes, the same might be necessary in the multi-agent landscape. Tools like Slack’s Block Kit framework allow for simple agent interactions, but they aren’t enough for more complex use cases. Take Clockwise Prism, for example—a sophisticated scheduling agent designed to find meeting times when there’s no obvious availability. When integrated with other agents to secure that critical meeting, businesses will need a flexible interface to explore multiple scheduling options. A web view for agents could be the key. The Need for an Open Multi-Agent Standard Benioff repeatedly stressed that businesses don’t want “DIY agents.” Enterprises seek controlled, repeatable workflows that deliver consistent value—but they also don’t want to be siloed. This is why the future requires an open standard for agents to collaborate across ecosystems and platforms. Imagine initiating a set of work agents from within an Atlassian Jira ticket that’s connected to a Salesforce customer case—or vice versa. For agents to seamlessly interact regardless of the system they originate from, a standard is needed. This would allow businesses to deploy agents in a way that’s consistent, integrated, and scalable. User Experience and Human-in-the-Loop: Crucial Elements for AI Agents A significant insight from the integration of LangChain with Assistant-UI highlighted a crucial factor: user experience (UX). Whether it’s streaming, generative interfaces, or human-in-the-loop functionality, the UX of AI agents is critical. While agents need to respond quickly and efficiently, businesses must have the ability to involve humans in decision-making when necessary. This principle of human-in-the-loop is key to the agent’s scheduling process. While automation is the goal, involving the user at crucial points—such as confirming scheduling options—ensures that the agent remains reliable and adaptable. Any future standard must prioritize this capability, allowing for user involvement where necessary, while also enabling full automation when confidence levels are high. Generative or Native UI? The discussion about user interfaces for agents often leads to a debate between generative UI and native UI. The latter may be the better approach. A native UI, controlled by the responding service or agent, ensures the interface is tailored to the context and specifics of the agent’s task. Whether this UI is rendered using AI or not is an implementation detail that can vary depending on the service. What matters is that the UI feels native to the agent’s task, making the user experience seamless and intuitive. What’s Next? The Push for an Open Multi-Agent Future As we look ahead to the multi-agent future, the need for an open standard is more pressing than ever. At Clockwise, we’ve drafted something we’re calling the Open Multi-Agent Protocol (OMAP), which we hope will foster collaboration and innovation in this space. The future of work is rapidly approaching, where new roles—like Agent Orchestrators—will emerge, enabling people to leverage AI agents in unprecedented ways. While Salesforce’s vision for Agentforce is ambitious, the key to unlocking its full potential lies in creating a standard that allows agents to work together, across platforms, and beyond the boundaries of closed ecosystems. With the right approach, we can create a future where AI agents transform work in ways we’re only beginning to imagine. 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

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Python Alongside Salesforce

Python Losing the Crown

For years, Python has been synonymous with data science, thanks to its robust libraries like NumPy, Pandas, and scikit-learn. It’s long held the crown as the dominant programming language in the field. However, even the strongest kingdoms face threats. Python Losing the Crown. The whispers are growing louder: Is Python’s reign nearing its end? Before you fire up your Jupyter notebook to prove me wrong, let me clarify — Python is incredible and undeniably one of the greatest programming languages of all time. But no ruler is without flaws, and Python’s supremacy may not last forever. Here are five reasons why Python’s crown might be slipping. 1. Performance Bottlenecks: Python’s Achilles’ Heel Let’s address the obvious: Python is slow. Its interpreted nature makes it inherently less efficient than compiled languages like C++ or Java. Sure, libraries like NumPy and tools like Cython help mitigate these issues, but at its core, Python can’t match the raw speed of newer, more performance-oriented languages. Enter Julia and Rust, which are optimized for numerical computing and high-performance tasks. When working with massive, real-time datasets, Python’s performance bottlenecks become harder to ignore, prompting some developers to offload critical tasks to faster alternatives. 2. Python’s Memory Challenges Memory consumption is another area where Python struggles. Handling large datasets often pushes Python to its limits, especially in environments with constrained resources, such as edge computing or IoT. While tools like Dask can help manage memory more efficiently, these are often stopgap solutions rather than true fixes. Languages like Rust are gaining traction for their superior memory management, making them an attractive alternative for resource-limited scenarios. Picture running a Python-based machine learning model on a Raspberry Pi, only to have it crash due to memory overload. Frustrating, isn’t it? 3. The Rise of Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) Python’s versatility has been both its strength and its weakness. As industries mature, many are turning to domain-specific languages tailored to their specific needs: Python may be the “jack of all trades,” but as the saying goes, it risks being the “master of none” compared to these specialized tools. 4. Python’s Simplicity: A Double-Edged Sword Python’s beginner-friendly syntax is one of its greatest strengths, but it can also create complacency. Its ease of use often means developers don’t delve into the deeper mechanics of algorithms or computing. Meanwhile, languages like Julia, designed for scientific computing, offer intuitive structures for advanced modeling while encouraging developers to engage with complex mathematical concepts. Python’s simplicity is like riding a bike with training wheels: it works, but it may not push you to grow as a developer. 5. AI-Specific Frameworks Are Gaining Ground Python has been the go-to language for AI, powering frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Keras. But new challengers are emerging: As AI and machine learning evolve, these specialized frameworks could chip away at Python’s dominance. The Verdict: Python Losing the Crown? Python remains the Swiss Army knife of programming languages, especially in data science. However, its cracks are showing as new, specialized tools and faster languages emerge. The data science landscape is evolving, and Python must adapt or risk losing its crown. For now, Python is still king. But as history has shown, no throne is secure forever. The future belongs to those who innovate, and Python’s ability to evolve will determine whether it remains at the top. The throne of code is only as stable as the next breakthrough. 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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Fivetrans Hybrid Deployment

Fivetrans Hybrid Deployment

Fivetran’s Hybrid Deployment: A Breakthrough in Data Engineering In the data engineering world, balancing efficiency with security has long been a challenge. Fivetran aims to shift this dynamic with its Hybrid Deployment solution, designed to seamlessly move data across any environment while maintaining control and flexibility. Fivetrans Hybrid Deployment. The Hybrid Advantage: Flexibility Meets Control Fivetran’s Hybrid Deployment offers a new approach for enterprises, particularly those handling sensitive data or operating in regulated sectors. Often, these businesses struggle to adopt data-driven practices due to security concerns. Hybrid Deployment changes this by enabling the secure movement of data across cloud and on-premises environments, giving businesses full control over their data while maintaining the agility of the cloud. As George Fraser, Fivetran’s CEO, notes, “Businesses no longer have to choose between managed automation and data control. They can now securely move data from all their critical sources—like Salesforce, Workday, Oracle, SAP—into a data warehouse or data lake, while keeping that data under their own control.” How it Works: A Secure, Streamlined Approach Fivetran’s Hybrid Deployment relies on a lightweight local agent to move data securely within a customer’s environment, while the Fivetran platform handles the management and monitoring. This separation of control and data planes ensures that sensitive information stays within the customer’s secure perimeter. Vinay Kumar Katta, a managing delivery architect at Capgemini, highlights the flexibility this provides, enabling businesses to design pipelines without sacrificing security. Beyond Security: Additional Benefits Hybrid Deployment’s benefits go beyond just security. It also offers: Early adopters are already seeing its value. Troy Fokken, chief architect at phData, praises how it “streamlines data pipeline processes,” especially for customers in regulated industries. AI Agent Architectures: Defining the Future of Autonomous Systems In the rapidly evolving world of AI, a new framework is emerging—AI agents designed to act autonomously, adapt dynamically, and explore digital environments. These AI agents are built on core architectural principles, bringing the next generation of autonomy to AI-driven tasks. What Are AI Agents? AI agents are systems designed to autonomously or semi-autonomously perform tasks, leveraging tools to achieve objectives. For instance, these agents may use APIs, perform web searches, or interact with digital environments. At their core, AI agents use Large Language Models (LLMs) and Foundation Models (FMs) to break down complex tasks, similar to human reasoning. Large Action Models (LAMs) Just as LLMs transformed natural language processing, Large Action Models (LAMs) are revolutionizing how AI agents interact with environments. These models excel at function calling—turning natural language into structured, executable actions, enabling AI agents to perform real-world tasks like scheduling or triggering API calls. Salesforce AI Research, for instance, has open-sourced several LAMs designed to facilitate meaningful actions. LAMs bridge the gap between unstructured inputs and structured outputs, making AI agents more effective in complex environments. Model Orchestration and Small Language Models (SLMs) Model orchestration complements LAMs by utilizing smaller, specialized models (SLMs) for niche tasks. Instead of relying on resource-heavy models, AI agents can call upon these smaller models for specific functions—such as summarizing data or executing commands—creating a more efficient system. SLMs, combined with techniques like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), allow smaller models to perform comparably to their larger counterparts, enhancing their ability to handle knowledge-intensive tasks. Vision-Enabled Language Models for Digital Exploration AI agents are becoming even more capable with vision-enabled language models, allowing them to interact with digital environments. Projects like Apple’s Ferret-UI and WebVoyager exemplify this, where agents can navigate user interfaces, recognize elements via OCR, and explore websites autonomously. Function Calling: Structured, Actionable Outputs A fundamental shift is happening with function calling in AI agents, moving from unstructured text to structured, actionable outputs. This allows AI agents to interact with systems more efficiently, triggering specific actions like booking meetings or executing API calls. The Role of Tools and Human-in-the-Loop AI agents rely on tools—algorithms, scripts, or even humans-in-the-loop—to perform tasks and guide actions. This approach is particularly valuable in high-stakes industries like healthcare and finance, where precision is crucial. The Future of AI Agents With the advent of Large Action Models, model orchestration, and function calling, AI agents are becoming powerful problem solvers. These agents are evolving to explore, learn, and act within digital ecosystems, bringing us closer to a future where AI mimics human problem-solving processes. As AI agents become more sophisticated, they will redefine how we approach digital tasks and interactions. 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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Natural Language Processing Explained

Natural Language Processing Explained

What is Natural Language Processing (NLP)? Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables computers to interpret, analyze, and generate human language. By leveraging machine learning, computational linguistics, and deep learning, NLP helps machines understand written and spoken words, making communication between humans and computers more seamless. I apologize folks. I am feeling like the unicorn who missed the Ark. Tectonic has been providing you with tons of great material on artificial intelligence, but we left out a basic building block. Without further ado, Natural Language Processing Explained. Like a lot of components of AI, we often are using it without knowing we are using it. NLP is widely used in everyday applications such as: How Does NLP Work? Natural Language Processing combines several techniques, including computational linguistics, machine learning, and deep learning. It works by breaking down language into smaller components, analyzing these components, and then drawing conclusions based on patterns. If you have ever read a first grader’s reading primer it is the same thing. Learn a little three letter word. Recognize the meaning of the word. Understand it in the greater context of the sentence. Key NLP preprocessing steps include: Why Is NLP Important? NLP plays a vital role in automating and improving human-computer interactions by enabling systems to interpret, process, and respond to vast amounts of textual and spoken data. By automating tasks like sentiment analysis, content classification, and question answering, NLP boosts efficiency and accuracy across industries. For example: Key Use Cases of NLP in Business NLP Tasks NLP enables machines to handle various language tasks, including: Approaches to NLP Future of NLP NLP is becoming more integral in daily life as technology improves. From customer service chatbots to medical record summarization, NLP continues to evolve, but challenges remain, including improving coherence and reducing biases in machine-generated text. Essentially, NLP transforms the way machines and humans interact, making technology more intuitive and accessible across a range of industries. By Tectonic Solutions Architect – Shannan Hearne 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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A Company in Transition

A Company in Transition

OpenAI Restructures: Increased Flexibility, But Raises Concerns OpenAI’s decision to restructure into a for-profit entity offers more freedom for the company and its investors but raises questions about its commitment to ethical AI development. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, OpenAI transitioned to a hybrid model in 2019 with the creation of a for-profit subsidiary. Now, its restructuring, widely reported this week, signals a shift where the nonprofit arm will no longer influence the day-to-day operations of the for-profit side. CEO Sam Altman is set to receive equity in the newly restructured company, which will operate as a benefit corporation (B Corp), similar to competitors like Anthropic and Sama. A Company in Transition This move comes on the heels of a turbulent year. OpenAI’s board initially voted to remove Altman over concerns about transparency, but later rehired him after significant backlash and the resignation of several board members. The company has seen a number of high-profile departures since, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who left in May to start Safe Superintelligence (SSI), an AI safety-focused venture that recently secured $1 billion in funding. This week, CTO Mira Murati, along with key research leaders Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, also announced their departures. OpenAI’s restructuring also coincides with an anticipated multi-billion-dollar investment round involving major players such as Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, potentially pushing the company’s valuation to as high as $150 billion. Complex But Expected Move According to Michael Bennett, AI policy advisor at Northeastern University, the restructuring isn’t surprising given OpenAI’s rapid growth and increasingly complex structure. “Considering OpenAI’s valuation, it’s understandable that the company would simplify its governance to better align with investor priorities,” said Bennett. The transition to a benefit corporation signals a shift towards prioritizing shareholder interests, but it also raises concerns about whether OpenAI will maintain its ethical obligations. “By moving away from its nonprofit roots, OpenAI may scale back its commitment to ethical AI,” Bennett noted. Ethical and Safety Concerns OpenAI has faced scrutiny over its rapid deployment of generative AI models, including its release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Critics, including Elon Musk, have accused the company of failing to be transparent about the data and methods it uses to train its models. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, even filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract. Concerns persist that the restructuring could lead to less ethical oversight, particularly in preventing issues like biased outputs, hallucinations, and broader societal harm from AI. Despite the potential risks, Bennett acknowledged that the company would have greater operational freedom. “They will likely move faster and with greater focus on what benefits their shareholders,” he said. This could come at the expense of the ethical commitments OpenAI previously emphasized when it was a nonprofit. Governance and Regulation Some industry voices, however, argue that OpenAI’s structure shouldn’t dictate its commitment to ethical AI. Veera Siivonen, co-founder and chief commercial officer of AI governance vendor Saidot, emphasized the role of regulation in ensuring responsible AI development. “Major players like Anthropic, Cohere, and tech giants such as Google and Meta are all for-profit entities,” Siivonen said. “It’s unfair to expect OpenAI to operate under a nonprofit model when others in the industry aren’t bound by the same restrictions.” Siivonen also pointed to OpenAI’s participation in global AI governance initiatives. The company recently signed the European Union AI Pact, a voluntary agreement to adhere to the principles of the EU’s AI Act, signaling its commitment to safety and ethics. Challenges for Enterprises The restructuring raises potential concerns for enterprises relying on OpenAI’s technology, said Dion Hinchcliffe, an analyst with Futurum Group. OpenAI may be able to innovate faster under its new structure, but the reduced influence of nonprofit oversight could make some companies question the vendor’s long-term commitment to safety. Hinchcliffe noted that the departure of key staff could signal a shift away from prioritizing AI safety, potentially prompting enterprises to reconsider their trust in OpenAI. New Developments Amid Restructuring Despite the ongoing changes, OpenAI continues to roll out new technologies. The company recently introduced a new moderation model, “omni-moderation-latest,” built on GPT-4o. This model, available through the Moderation API, enables developers to flag harmful content in both text and image outputs. A Company in Transition As OpenAI navigates its restructuring, balancing rapid innovation with maintaining ethical standards will be crucial to sustaining enterprise trust and market leadership. 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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