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Second Wave of AI Agents

Second Wave of AI Agents

The “second wave” of AI agents refers to the evolution of AI beyond simple chatbots and into more sophisticated, autonomous systems that can plan, execute, and deliver results independently, often leveraging large language models (LLMs). These agents are characterized by their ability to interact with other applications, interpret the screen, fill out forms, and coordinate with other AI systems to achieve a desired outcome. They are also seen as a significant step beyond the first wave of AI, which primarily focused on predictive models and statistical learning.  Key Characteristics of the Second Wave of AI Agents: Examples and Applications: In 2023 Bill Gates prophesized AI Agents would be here in 5 years. His timing was off. But not his prediction. The Future of Computing: Your AI Agent, Your Digital Sidekick Imagine this: No more juggling apps. No more digging through menus. No more searching for a document or a spreadsheet. Just tell your device—in plain English—what you need, and it handles the rest. Whether it’s planning a tour, managing your schedule, or helping with work, your AI assistant will understand you personally, adapting to your life based on what you choose to share. This isn’t science fiction. Today, everyone online has access to an AI-powered personal assistant far more advanced than anything available in 2023. Meet the Agent: The Next Era of Computing This next-generation software—called an agent—responds to natural language and accomplishes tasks using deep knowledge of you and your needs. Bill Gates first wrote about agents in his 1995 book The Road Ahead, but only now, with recent AI breakthroughs, have they become truly possible. Agents won’t just change how we interact with technology. They’ll reshape the entire software industry, marking the biggest shift in computing since we moved from command lines to touchscreens. Consider Salesforce’s AgentForce. A platform driven by automated AI agents that can be trained to do virtually anything. Freeing staff up from mundane data entry and administrative work to really set them loose. Marketers can once again create content, but with the insights provided by AI. Sales teams can close deals, but with the lead rating details provided by AI. Developers can devote more time to writing code but letting AI do the repetitive pieces that take time away from awe inspiring development. Why This Changes Everything We’re on the brink of a revolution—one where technology doesn’t just respond to commands but anticipates your needs and acts on your behalf. The age of the AI agent is here, and it’s going to redefine how we live and work. By Tectonic’s Marketing Operations Manager, Shannan Hearne 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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time series artificial intelligence

Revolutionizing Time Series AI

Revolutionizing Time Series AI: Salesforce’s Synthetic Data Breakthrough for Foundation Models Revolutionizing Time Series AI. Time series analysis is hindered by critical challenges in data availability, quality, and diversity—key factors in building powerful foundation models. Real-world datasets often suffer from regulatory constraints, inherent biases, inconsistent quality, and a lack of paired textual annotations, making it difficult to develop robust Time Series Foundation Models (TSFMs) and Time Series Large Language Models (TSLLMs). These limitations stifle progress in forecasting, classification, anomaly detection, reasoning, and captioning, restricting AI’s full potential. To tackle these obstacles, Salesforce AI Research has pioneered an innovative approach: leveraging synthetic data to enhance TSFMs and TSLLMs. Their groundbreaking study, “Empowering Time Series Analysis with Synthetic Data,” introduces a strategic framework for using synthetic data to refine model training, evaluation, and fine-tuning—while mitigating biases, expanding dataset diversity, and enriching contextual understanding. This approach is particularly transformative in regulated sectors like healthcare and finance, where real-world data sharing is heavily restricted. The Science Behind Synthetic Data Generation Salesforce’s methodology employs advanced synthetic data generation techniques tailored to replicate real-world time series dynamics, including trends, seasonality, and noise patterns. Key innovations include: These methods enable controlled yet highly varied data generation, capturing a broad spectrum of time series behaviors essential for robust model training. Proven Benefits: How Synthetic Data Supercharges Model Performance Salesforce’s research reveals significant performance gains from synthetic data across multiple stages of AI development: ✅ Pretraining Boost – Models like ForecastPFN, Mamba4Cast, and TimesFM showed marked improvements when pretrained on synthetic data. ForecastPFN, for instance, excelled in zero-shot forecasting after full synthetic pretraining. ✅ Optimal Data Blending – Chronos found peak performance by mixing 10% synthetic data with real-world datasets, beyond which excessive synthetic data could reduce diversity and effectiveness. ✅ Enhanced Evaluation – Synthetic data allowed precise assessment of model capabilities, uncovering hidden biases and gaps. For example, Moment used synthetic sinusoidal waves to analyze embedding sensitivity and trend detection accuracy. Future Directions: Overcoming Limitations While synthetic data offers immense promise, Salesforce identifies key areas for improvement: 🔹 Systematic Integration – Developing structured frameworks to strategically fill gaps in real-world datasets.🔹 Beyond Statistical Methods – Exploring diffusion models and other generative AI techniques for richer, more realistic synthetic data.🔹 Fine-Tuning Potential – Leveraging synthetic data adaptively to address domain-specific weaknesses during fine-tuning. The Path Forward Salesforce AI Research demonstrates that synthetic data is a game-changer for time series analysis, enabling stronger generalization, reduced bias, and superior performance across AI tasks. While challenges like realism and alignment remain, the future is bright—advancements in generative AI, human-in-the-loop refinement, and systematic gap-filling will further propel the reliability and applicability of time series models. By embracing synthetic data, Salesforce is laying the foundation for the next generation of AI-driven time series innovation—ushering in a new era of accuracy, adaptability, and intelligence. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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AI Agents as Tools of Trust

5 Attributes of Agents

Salesforce predicts you will have deployed over 100 AI Agents by the end of the year. What are they? What do they do? Why do you need them? Let’s explore the 5 key attributes of AI Agents. What Is an AI Agent? An AI agent is an intelligent software system that uses artificial intelligence to autonomously pursue goals and complete tasks on behalf of users. Unlike traditional programs, AI agents exhibit reasoning, planning, memory, and decision-making abilities, allowing them to learn, adapt, and operate with minimal human intervention. These agents leverage generative AI and foundation models to process multimodal inputs—such as text, voice, video, and code—enabling them to:✔ Understand and analyze information✔ Make logical decisions✔ Learn from interactions✔ Collaborate with other agents✔ Automate complex workflows From customer service bots to autonomous research assistants, AI agents are transforming industries by handling tasks that once required human intelligence. Key Features of an AI Agent Modern AI agents go beyond simple automation—they possess advanced cognitive and interactive capabilities: Feature Description Reasoning Uses logic to analyze data, solve problems, and make decisions. Acting Executes tasks—whether digital (sending messages, updating databases) or physical (controlling robots). Observing Gathers real-time data via sensors, NLP, or computer vision to understand its environment. Planning Strategizes steps to achieve goals, anticipating obstacles and optimizing actions. Collaborating Works with humans or other AI agents to accomplish shared objectives. Self-Refining Continuously improves through machine learning and feedback. AI Agents vs. AI Assistants vs. Bots While all three automate tasks, they differ in autonomy, complexity, and learning ability: Aspect AI Agent AI Assistant Bot Purpose Autonomously performs complex tasks. Assists users with guided interactions. Follows pre-set rules for simple tasks. Autonomy High—makes independent decisions. Medium—requires user input. Low—limited to scripted responses. Learning Adapts and improves over time. May learn from interactions. Minimal or no learning. Interaction Proactive and goal-driven. Reactive (responds to user requests). Trigger-based (e.g., chatbots). Example: How Do AI Agents Work? AI agents operate through a structured framework: Types of AI Agents AI agents can be classified based on interaction style and collaboration level: 1. By Interaction 2. By Number of Agents Benefits of AI Agents ✅ 24/7 Automation – Handles repetitive tasks without fatigue.✅ Enhanced Decision-Making – Analyzes vast data for insights.✅ Scalability – Manages workflows across industries.✅ Continuous Learning – Improves performance over time. The Future of AI Agents As AI advances, agents will become more autonomous, intuitive, and integrated into daily workflows—from healthcare diagnostics to smart city management. Want to see AI agents in action? Explore 300+ real-world AI use cases from leading organizations. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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B2B Customer Service with Agentforce

Agents are the Future of Customer Engagement

Agentic Customer Engagement is Here There was a time when customer service meant going into a brick and mortar building and talking to a person face to face. It was time consuming and did not guarantee a solution. The mail order business brought on the need for the 800 number to contact a merchant. The dot com boom brought customer engagement opportunities directly to our homes. Ios and Android apps brought customer engagement to our fingertips. Yet we still were dependent upon the availability of humans or at least chatbots. Customer service often repressed customer engagement, not enhanced it. Agents, like Salesforce Agentforce, brought 24 7 customer engagement to us no matter where we are, when it is, or how complicated our issue is. And agents improved customer service! What’s next? Robots and drones who deliver our items and answer our questions? Who knows. AI bots are transforming client relationships and customer service. To achieve unparalleled efficiency, these intelligent systems plan and automate difficult activities, make deft decisions, and blend in seamlessly with current workflows. Yes, it’s widely believed that AI agents will play a crucial role in the future of customer engagement, offering personalized, efficient, and consistent experiences across various channels.  Here’s why AI agents are poised to be a key driver in customer engagement: AI agents are becoming smarter every day, using machine learning and natural language processing to predict customer needs, handle complex queries with empathy and offer real-time, personalized assistance. How AI Agents Are Redefining Customer Engagement Marketing is undergoing a seismic transformation. Tectonic shift, if you will. The past decade was dominated by complex tech stacks and data integration—now, AI is shifting the focus back to what truly matters: crafting impactful content and campaigns. Welcome to the era of agentic customer engagement and marketing. The Rise of Marketing Agents Unlike traditional customer service agents handling one-to-one interactions, marketing agents amplify human expertise to engage audiences at scale—whether targeting broad segments or hyper-personalized personas. They ensure consistent, high-quality messaging across every channel while automating the intricate backend work of delivering the right content to the right customer at the right time. This shift is powered by rapid AI advancements: How Agentic Engagement Amplifies Marketing Marketing agents don’t replace human creativity—they extend it. Once strategists set guidelines, approve messaging, and define brand voice, agents execute with precision across channels. At Typeface, for example, AI securely learns brand tones and styles to generate on-brand imagery, text, and videos—ensuring every asset aligns with the company’s identity. Key Capabilities of Marketing Agents The Human-Agent Partnership AI agents don’t replace marketers—they empower them. Humans bring creativity, emotional intelligence, and strategic decision-making; agents handle execution, data processing, and scalability. Marketers will evolve into “agent wranglers”, setting objectives, monitoring performance, and ensuring alignment with business goals. Meanwhile, agents will work in interconnected ecosystems—where a content agent’s blog post triggers a social agent’s promotion, while a performance agent optimizes distribution, and a brand agent tracks reception. Preparing for the Agent Era To stay ahead, businesses should:✅ Start small, think big – Pilot agents in low-risk areas before scaling.✅ Train teams – Ensure marketers understand agent management.✅ Build governance frameworks – Define oversight and intervention protocols.✅ Strengthen data infrastructure – Clean, structured data fuels agent effectiveness.✅ Maintain human oversight – Regularly audit agent outputs for quality and alignment. Work with a Salesforce partner like Tectonic to prepare for the Agent Era. The Future is Agentic The age of AI-driven marketing isn’t coming—it’s here. Companies that embrace agentic engagement will unlock unprecedented efficiency, personalization, and impact. The question isn’t if you’ll adopt AI agents—it’s how soon. Ready to accelerate your strategy? Discover how Agentforce (Salesforce’s agentic layer) can cut deployment time by 16x while boosting accuracy by 70%. The future of marketing isn’t just automated—it’s autonomous, adaptive, and agentic. Are you prepared? The Future of Customer Experience: AI-Driven Efficiency and Innovation Businesses have long understood the connection between operational efficiency and superior customer experience (CX). However, the rapid advancement of AI-powered technologies, including next-generation hardware and virtual agents, is transforming this connection into a measurable driver of value creation. Increasingly well-documented use cases for generative AI (GenAI) demonstrate that companies can simultaneously deliver a vastly superior customer experience at a significantly lower cost-to-serve, resulting in substantial financial gains. From Customer Journeys to Autonomous Customer Missions To achieve this ideal balance, companies are shifting from traditional customer journeys—where users actively manage their own experiences via apps—to a more comprehensive approach driven by trusted autonomous agents. These agents are designed to complete specific tasks with minimal human involvement, creating an entirely new paradigm for customer engagement. While early implementations may be rudimentary, the convergence of hardware and AI will lead to sophisticated, seamless experiences far beyond current capabilities. AI-Enabled Internal and External Transformation AI is already driving transformation both internally and externally. Internally, it streamlines processes, enhances employee experiences, and significantly boosts productivity. In customer service operations, for example, GenAI has driven productivity improvements of 15% to 30%, with some companies targeting up to 80% efficiency gains. Externally, AI is reshaping customer interactions, making them more personalized, efficient, and intuitive. Virtual co-pilots assist customers by answering inquiries, processing returns, and curating tailored offers—freeing human employees to focus on complex issues that require nuanced decision-making. Linking Operational Efficiency to Customer Experience Leading organizations are demonstrating how AI-driven efficiencies translate into enhanced CX. Despite these gains, companies must raise the bar even further to fully capitalize on AI’s potential. The convergence of next-generation hardware with AI-driven automation presents an unprecedented opportunity to redefine customer engagement. From App-Driven Experiences to Autonomous Agents At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff highlighted that service employees waste over 40% of their time on repetitive, low-value tasks. Similarly, customers face friction in making significant purchases or planning events. Google research indicates that travelers may engage in over 700 digital touchpoints when planning a trip—a fragmented and often frustrating experience. Imagine instead a network of proprietary and third-party agents seamlessly executing customer missions—such as purchasing a car or planning a vacation—without requiring constant user input. These AI agents

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ViUniT: A Breakthrough AI Framework for Reliable Visual Unit Testing in AI

ViUniT: A Breakthrough AI Framework for Reliable Visual Unit Testing in AI

Salesforce AI, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, has introduced ViUniT (Visual Unit Testing)—a pioneering AI framework designed to improve the reliability of visual programs by automatically generating unit tests. By leveraging large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models, ViUniT enhances the logical correctness of visual reasoning systems, ensuring AI models produce accurate and justifiable results. The Challenge: Ensuring Logical Soundness in Visual Programs Visual programming has gained prominence in AI, particularly in computer vision, object detection, image captioning, and visual question answering (VQA). These systems excel at modularizing complex reasoning tasks, but their correctness remains a critical challenge. Unlike traditional text-based programming, where syntax errors and logic flaws can be easily debugged, visual programs often produce seemingly correct answers for incorrect reasons, making them unreliable. Recent studies highlight this issue: To address these challenges, systematic testing and verification frameworks are essential to ensure visual programs function as intended. Introducing ViUniT: A New Approach to Visual Program Reliability ViUniT is designed to systematically evaluate visual programs by generating unit tests in the form of image-answer pairs. Unlike conventional unit testing, which is primarily used for text-based applications, ViUniT focuses on: How ViUniT Works Key Applications of ViUniT ViUniT introduces four major innovations to improve model reliability: Performance & Key Findings ViUniT was extensively tested on three benchmark datasets: GQA, SugarCREPE, and Winoground, demonstrating significant improvements in model accuracy and reliability. 🔹 ViUniT improved model accuracy by 11.4% on average across datasets.🔹 Reduced logically flawed programs by 40%, ensuring models reason correctly.🔹 Enabled open-source 7B models to outperform GPT-4o-mini by 7.7%.🔹 ViUniT-based re-prompting improved performance by 7.5 percentage points compared to error-based re-prompting.🔹 Reinforcement learning strategies within ViUniT outperformed correctness-based reward strategies by 1.3%.🔹 Successfully identified unreliable programs, enhancing answer refusal strategies and reducing false confidence. Conclusion: A New Standard for Visual AI Testing ViUniT marks a significant step forward in AI-driven unit testing for visual programs, ensuring that AI models not only provide correct answers but also follow logically sound reasoning. By integrating LLMs, diffusion models, and reinforcement learning, this framework enhances trust, accuracy, and reliability in visual AI systems. As AI continues to evolve, ViUniT sets a new standard for validating and refining visual reasoning models, paving the way for more dependable AI-driven applications. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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Rise of Agentic Commerce

Rise of Agentic Commerce

The Rise of Agentic Commerce: How AI Agents Are Reshaping Ecommerce As online retailers experiment with agentic AI to enhance ecommerce, shoppers are already engaging with AI-driven experiences through subscriptions. Meanwhile, businesses are deploying AI agents behind the scenes to streamline their digital storefronts. In 2025, ecommerce platforms aren’t just pitching AI-powered recommendation engines—they’re embracing full-fledged agentic AI solutions. These intelligent agents are changing the way both retailers and consumers interact with digital shopping environments. Tech Giants and Startups Lead the Charge Agentic AI is becoming a key component in the ecommerce tech stack, joining machine learning, AI-powered search, and generative AI. Major players like Google and Meta have already integrated these capabilities, while Amazon and OpenAI are leveraging subscription models to attract users. Startups, as well as integrations for platforms like Shopify and Adobe’s Magento, are also fueling this AI-driven shift. Salesforce made a significant push for agentic AI at its 2024 Dreamforce event, showcasing its Agentforce capabilities. Luxury retailer Saks was an early adopter, using Agentforce to enhance personalization. Just months later, OpenAI introduced its Operator agent, with eBay, Etsy, and Instacart among its first users. But what exactly is agentic commerce, and how does it reshape online shopping? What Is Agentic Commerce? Agentic commerce refers to the use of AI agents in ecommerce. These agents, built on large language models (LLMs), go beyond chatbot-style interactions. They make decisions and execute actions autonomously, transforming how both consumers and merchants engage with online retail. For shoppers, this means AI-powered assistance throughout the learning, discovery, and purchasing journey. For retailers, agentic AI helps automate backend operations, streamlining tasks that previously required manual intervention. Consumers have already embraced AI chatbots in shopping experiences. Salesforce reported that AI-driven interactions boosted retail revenue during the 2024 holiday season. Adobe Analytics echoed this trend in a March 2025 survey, revealing that AI-assisted shopping led to higher engagement. “Online shoppers are seeing the benefits of AI-powered chat interfaces, which reduce the time needed to receive personalized information,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. “In Adobe’s survey, 92% of shoppers who used AI said it enhanced their experience, and 87% were more likely to use AI for larger or complex purchases.” Retailers are taking note. A February 2025 survey by Digital Commerce 360 found that AI investment is a top priority, with only 11.11% of ecommerce businesses planning to forgo AI implementation this year. AI-Powered Agents in Action Tech companies are responding to this growing demand. Adobe recently introduced its Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator, designed to manage AI agents across Adobe’s ecosystem and third-party platforms. Adobe’s research underscores the increasing role of AI in shaping customer engagement strategies. “This shift is redefining how businesses approach customer interactions,” Pandya noted. “AI agents are taking on more complex tasks and delivering highly personalized recommendations.” Retailers are already putting agentic commerce to the test. OpenAI’s Operator agent, for example, can autonomously navigate a web browser—searching, typing, and clicking to complete purchases. Users can ask Operator to order groceries, select gifts, or book tickets, streamlining transactions through AI-driven automation. Currently, Operator is available only to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro subscribers at $200 per month. However, OpenAI plans to expand access as it refines the technology. “We have a lot of work ahead, but we’re eager to put these tools into people’s hands,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during an Operator demo. “More AI agents will be rolling out in the coming weeks and months.” The Subscription Model for AI-Powered Shopping Amazon is also bringing agentic AI to ecommerce with Alexa+. Priced at $19.99 per month—or free for Amazon Prime members—Alexa+ allows users to make purchases through Amazon.com, Whole Foods, Ticketmaster, and other retailers via voice commands. As these AI-powered tools gain traction, the pressure is on developers to deliver value that justifies their price tags. Whether through subscriptions or seamless integrations, the future of ecommerce is rapidly shifting toward intelligent, automated experiences. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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agetnforce for nonprofits

TDX Announcements for Agentforce

Salesforce Expands Agentforce AI, Strengthening Its Lead in Agentic AI Salesforce’s latest updates to its agentic AI platform, Agentforce, are set to elevate its position in the competitive AI market, potentially outpacing enterprise application rivals and hyperscalers like AWS, Google, IBM, ServiceNow, and Microsoft. The updates, introduced under Agentforce 2dx, enhance orchestration, development, testing, and deployment capabilities. According to Arnal Dayaratna, vice president of research at IDC, these advancements could propel Salesforce ahead of its competition in a manner similar to OpenAI’s early dominance in large language models (LLMs). Agentforce API Expands Platform Extensibility A key enhancement in Agentforce 2dx is the Agentforce API, designed to improve extensibility and facilitate the seamless integration of agentic AI technologies into digital solutions. “Without an API, all AI agentic capabilities remain locked into the Agentforce platform,” explained Jason Andersen, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “The API allows enterprises to build apps and agents with whatever they want.” Dion Hinchcliffe, CIO practice lead at The Futurum Group, sees this as a strategic move to drive adoption by removing usage constraints. While companies like Google and Microsoft have already introduced similar APIs, Salesforce differentiates itself by leveraging its deep CRM expertise, customer data, and business logic integration. “AI agents need contextual data to act effectively,” said Hinchcliffe. “While competitors will likely improve their integrations, Salesforce’s extensive background in business logic and automation will be difficult to match quickly.” Accelerating Enterprise Adoption with New Features Beyond the API, Agentforce 2dx includes enhancements like the Topic Center, MuleSoft integrations, Tableau Semantics, and Slack integrations, aimed at simplifying custom agent development, workflow integration, and deployment. Empowering Developers to Scale Agentic AI Salesforce is also focusing on developers with tools that provide greater control over agent creation, testing, and deployment. Key updates include: “Salesforce is encouraging hands-on experimentation, a strategy commonly used by cloud service providers,” said Cameron Marsh, senior analyst at Nucleus Research. Andersen sees this as a bold move in the SaaS market, positioning Salesforce as a direct competitor to Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, which also offer developer-centric AI tools. Additionally, Salesforce introduced Testing Center, a low-code tool for enterprises to test agents before deployment. Scaling AI Agent Deployments with Confidence Hyoun Park, chief analyst at Amalgam Insights, emphasized the importance of these tools for scaling AI deployments. “One of the biggest challenges in agentic AI is simulating and testing interactions at scale,” Park noted. “With these capabilities, companies no longer need to manually test or build custom tools to manage AI agents.” Proven Market Traction Salesforce reports it has secured 5,000 deals with Agentforce, with customers like The Adecco Group, Engine, OpenTable, Oregon Humane Society, Precina, and Vivint already seeing immediate value. With Agentforce 2dx, Salesforce is reinforcing its leadership in agentic AI, giving enterprises more control, scalability, and integration capabilities to drive innovation in AI-powered automation. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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AI Agents Are the Future of Enterprise

AI Agents Are the Future of Enterprise

AI Agents Are the Future of Enterprise—But They Need the Right Architecture AI agents are poised to revolutionize enterprise operations with autonomous problem-solving, adaptive workflows, and scalability. However, the biggest challenge isn’t improving models—it’s building the infrastructure to support them. Agents require seamless access to data, tools, and the ability to share insights across systems—with outputs usable by multiple services, including other agents. This isn’t just an AI challenge; it’s an infrastructure and data interoperability problem. Traditional approaches—like chaining commands—won’t cut it. Instead, enterprises need an event-driven architecture (EDA) powered by real-time data streams. As HubSpot CTO Dharmesh Shah put it, “Agents are the new apps.” To unlock their potential, businesses must invest in the right design patterns from the start. This insight explores why EDA is critical for scaling AI agents and integrating them into modern enterprise systems. The Evolution of AI: From Predictive Models to Autonomous Agents AI has progressed through three key waves, each overcoming—but also introducing—new limitations. 1. The First Wave: Predictive Models Early AI relied on traditional machine learning (ML) for narrow, domain-specific tasks. These models were rigid, requiring extensive retraining for new use cases. Limitations: 2. The Second Wave: Generative AI Generative AI, powered by large language models (LLMs), introduced general-purpose intelligence. Unlike predictive models, LLMs could handle diverse tasks—from text generation to code synthesis. Limitations: For example, asking an LLM to recommend an insurance policy based on a user’s health history fails—unless the model can dynamically retrieve personal data. 3. The Third Wave: Compound AI & Agentic Systems To overcome these gaps, Compound AI systems combine LLMs with: But even RAG has limits—it relies on fixed workflows, making it inflexible for dynamic tasks. Enter AI agents: autonomous systems that reason, plan, and adapt in real time. Why Agents Are the Next Frontier Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently noted that LLMs are hitting their limits, and the future lies in autonomous agents. Unlike static models, agents: Key Agent Design Patterns These patterns enable Agentic RAG, where retrieval isn’t fixed but adaptive—agents decide what data to fetch based on context. The Scaling Challenge: It’s an Infrastructure Problem Agents need real-time data access and seamless interoperability—but connecting them via APIs creates tight coupling, leading to: The Solution: Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) EDA decouples agents using asynchronous event streams (e.g., Kafka, Redpanda). Benefits:✅ Loose coupling – Agents communicate without direct dependencies.✅ Real-time reactivity – Instant responses to changing data.✅ Scalability – New agents join without redesigning the system.✅ Resilience – Failures don’t cascade. Example: An agent analyzing customer data publishes an event—other agents, CRMs, or analytics tools consume it without explicit coordination. Why EDA is the Future for AI Agents Just as microservices replaced monoliths, EDA will replace rigid AI pipelines. Early adopters (like Facebook with scalable infrastructure) outcompeted those that couldn’t scale (like Friendster). The same will happen with AI agents. Enterprises that embrace event-driven agents will: The Bottom Line AI agents are the next evolution of enterprise software—but without EDA, they’ll hit a wall. Companies that invest in event-driven infrastructure today will lead the next wave of AI innovation. The rest? They’ll struggle to keep up. Ready to future-proof your AI strategy? AI Agents Are the Future of Enterprise. The time to build for agents is now. Contact Tectonic today. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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AI Data Cloud and Integration

It is Time to Implement Data Cloud

With Salesforce Data Cloud you can: With incomplete data your 360-degree customer view is limited and often leads to multiple sales reps working on the same lead. Slow access to the right leads at the right time leads to missed opportunties and delayed closings. If your team cannot trust the data due to siloes and inaccuracies, they avoid using it. It is Time to Implement Data Cloud. Unified Connect and harmonize data from all your Salesforce applications and external data systems. Then activate your data with insights and automation across every customer touchpoint. Powerful With Data Cloud and Agentforce, you can create the most intelligent agents possible, giving them access to the exact data they need to deliver any employee or customer experience. Secure Securely connect your data to any large language model (LLM) without sacrificing data governance and security thanks to the Einstein 1 trust layer. Open Data Cloud is fully open and extensible – bring your own data lake or model to reduce complexity and leverage what’s already been built. Plus, share out to popular destinations like Snowflake, Google Ads, or Meta Ads. Salesforce Data Cloud is the only hyperscale data engine native to Salesforce. It is more than a CDP. It goes beyond a data lake. You can do more with Data Cloud. Your Agentforce journey begins with Data Cloud. Agents need the right data to work. With Data Cloud, you can create the most intelligent agents possible, giving them access to the exact data they need to deliver any employee or customer experience. Use any data in your organization with Agentforce in a safe and secure manner thanks to the Einstein 1 Trust Layer. Datablazers are Salesforce community members who are passionate about driving business growth with data and AI powered by Data Cloud. Sign up to join a growing group of members to learn, connect, and grow with Data Cloud. Join today. The path to AI success begins and ends with quality data. Business, IT, and analytics decision makers with high data maturity were 2x more likely than low-maturity leaders to have the quality data needed to use AI effectively, according to our State of Data and Analytics report. “What’s data maturity?” you might wonder. Hang tight, we’ll explain in chapter 1 of this guide. Data-leading companies also experience: Your data strategy isn’t just important, it’s critical in getting you to the head of the market with new AI technology by your side. That’s why this Salesforce guide is based on recent industry findings and provides best practices to help your company get the most from your data. Tectonic will be sharing a focus on the 360 degree customer view with Salesforce Data Cloud in our insights. Stay tuned. It is Time to Implement Data Cloud 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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Generative AI in Marketing

Generative AI in Marketing

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) continues to reshape industries, providing product managers (PMs) across domains with opportunities to embrace AI-focused innovation and enhance their technical expertise. Over the past few years, GenAI has gained immense popularity. AI-enabled products have proliferated across industries like a rapidly expanding field of dandelions, fueled by abundant venture capital investment. From a product management perspective, AI offers numerous ways to improve productivity and deepen strategic domain knowledge. However, the fundamentals of product management remain paramount. This discussion underscores why foundational PM practices continue to be indispensable, even in the evolving landscape of GenAI, and how these core skills can elevate PMs navigating this dynamic field. Why PM Fundamentals Matter, AI or Not Three core reasons highlight the enduring importance of PM fundamentals and actionable methods for excelling in the rapidly expanding GenAI space. 1. Product Development is Inherently Complex While novice PMs might assume product development is straightforward, the reality reveals a web of interconnected and dynamic elements. These may include team dependencies, sales and marketing coordination, internal tooling managed by global teams, data telemetry updates, and countless other tasks influencing outcomes. A skilled product manager identifies and orchestrates these moving pieces, ensuring product growth and delivery. This ability is often more impactful than deep technical AI expertise (though having both is advantageous). The complexity of modern product development is further amplified by the rapid pace of technological change. Incorporating AI tools such as GitHub Copilot can accelerate workflows but demands a strong product culture to ensure smooth integration. PMs must focus on fundamentals like understanding user needs, defining clear problems, and delivering value to avoid chasing fleeting AI trends instead of solving customer problems. While AI can automate certain tasks, it is limited by costs, specificity, and nuance. A PM with strong foundational knowledge can effectively manage these limitations and identify areas for automation or improvement, such as: 2. Interpersonal Skills Are Irreplaceable As AI product development grows more complex, interpersonal skills become increasingly critical. PMs work with diverse teams, including developers, designers, data scientists, marketing professionals, and executives. While AI can assist in specific tasks, strong human connections are essential for success. Key interpersonal abilities for PMs include: Stakeholder management remains a cornerstone of effective product management. PMs must build trust and tailor their communication to various audiences—a skill AI cannot replicate. 3. Understanding Vertical Use Cases is Essential Vertical use cases focus on niche, specific tasks within a broader context. In the GenAI ecosystem, this specificity is exemplified by AI agents designed for narrow applications. For instance, Microsoft Copilot includes a summarization agent that excels at analyzing Word documents. The vertical AI market has experienced explosive growth, valued at .1 billion in 2024 and projected to reach .1 billion by 2030. PMs are crucial in identifying and validating these vertical use cases. For example, the team at Planview developed the AI Assistant “Planview Copilot” by hypothesizing specific use cases and iteratively validating them through customer feedback and data analysis. This approach required continuous application of fundamental PM practices, including discovery, prioritization, and feedback internalization. PMs must be adept at discovering vertical use cases and crafting strategies to deliver meaningful solutions. Key steps include: Conclusion Foundational product management practices remain critical, even as AI transforms industries. These core skills ensure that PMs can navigate the challenges of GenAI, enabling organizations to accelerate customer value in work efficiency, time savings, and quality of life. By maintaining strong fundamentals, PMs can lead their teams to thrive in an AI-driven future. AI Agents on Madison Avenue: The New Frontier in Advertising AI agents, hailed as the next big advancement in artificial intelligence, are making their presence felt in the world of advertising. Startups like Adaly and Anthrologic are introducing personalized AI tools designed to boost productivity for advertisers, offering automation for tasks that are often time-consuming and tedious. Retail brands such as Anthropologie are already adopting this technology to streamline their operations. How AI Agents WorkIn simple terms, AI agents operate like advanced AI chatbots. They can handle tasks such as generating reports, optimizing media budgets, or analyzing data. According to Tyler Pietz, CEO and founder of Anthrologic, “They can basically do anything that a human can do on a computer.” Big players like Salesforce, Microsoft, Anthropic, Google, and Perplexity are also championing AI agents. Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, recently suggested that businesses will soon compete for the attention of AI agents rather than human customers. “Brands need to get comfortable doing this,” he remarked to The Economic Times. AI Agents Tailored for Advertisers Both Adaly and Anthrologic have developed AI software specifically trained for advertising tasks. Built on large language models like ChatGPT, these platforms respond to voice and text prompts. Advertisers can train these AI systems on internal data to automate tasks like identifying data discrepancies or analyzing economic impacts on regional ad budgets. Pietz noted that an AI agent can be set up in about a month and take on grunt work like scouring spreadsheets for specific figures. “Marketers still log into 15 different platforms daily,” said Kyle Csik, co-founder of Adaly. “When brands in-house talent, they often hire people to manage systems rather than think strategically. AI agents can take on repetitive tasks, leaving room for higher-level work.” Both Pietz and Csik bring agency experience to their ventures, having crossed paths at MediaMonks. Industry Response: Collaboration, Not Replacement The targets for these tools differ: Adaly focuses on independent agencies and brands, while Anthrologic is honing in on larger brands. Meanwhile, major holding companies like Omnicom and Dentsu are building their own AI agents. Omnicom, on the verge of merging with IPG, has developed internal AI solutions, while Dentsu has partnered with Microsoft to create tools like Dentsu DALL-E and Dentsu-GPT. Havas is also developing its own AI agent, according to Chief Activation Officer Mike Bregman. Bregman believes AI tools won’t immediately threaten agency jobs. “Agencies have a lot of specialization that machines can’t replace today,” he said. “They can streamline processes, but

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is it real or is it gen-r-x

Is it Real or is it Gen-r-X?

The Rise of AI-Generated Content: A Double-Edged Sword It began with a viral deepfake video of a celebrity singing an unexpected tune. Soon, political figures appeared to say things they never uttered. Before long, hyper-realistic AI-generated content flooded the internet, blurring the line between reality and fabrication. While AI-driven creativity unlocks endless possibilities, it also raises an urgent question: How can society discern truth in an era where anything can be convincingly fabricated? Enter SynthID, Google DeepMind’s pioneering solution designed to embed imperceptible watermarks into AI-generated images, offering a reliable method to verify authenticity. What Is SynthID, and Why Does It Matter? At its core, SynthID is an AI-powered watermarking tool that embeds and detects digital signatures in AI-generated images. Unlike traditional watermarks, which can be removed or altered, SynthID’s markers are nearly invisible to the human eye but detectable by specialized AI models. This innovation represents a significant step in combating AI-generated misinformation while preserving the integrity of creative AI applications. How SynthID Works SynthID’s technology operates in two critical phases: This method ensures that even if an image is slightly edited, resized, or filtered, the SynthID watermark remains intact—making it far more resilient than conventional watermarking techniques. SynthID for AI-Generated Text Large language models (LLMs) generate text one token at a time, where each token may represent a single character, word, or part of a phrase. The model predicts the next most likely token based on preceding words and probability scores assigned to potential options. For example, given the phrase “My favorite tropical fruits are __,” an LLM might predict tokens like “mango,” “lychee,” “papaya,” or “durian.” Each token receives a probability score. When multiple viable options exist, SynthID can adjust these probability scores—without compromising output quality—to embed a detectable signature. (Source: DeepMind) SynthID for AI-Generated Music SynthID converts an audio waveform—a one-dimensional representation of sound—into a spectrogram, a two-dimensional visualization of frequency changes over time. The digital watermark is embedded into this spectrogram before being converted back into an audio waveform. This process leverages audio properties to ensure the watermark remains inaudible to humans, preserving the listening experience. The watermark is robust against common modifications such as noise additions, MP3 compression, or tempo changes. SynthID can also scan audio tracks to detect watermarks at different points, helping determine if segments were generated by Lyria, Google’s advanced AI music model. (Source: DeepMind) The Urgent Need for Digital Watermarking in AI AI-generated content is already disrupting multiple industries: In this chaotic landscape, SynthID serves as a digital signature of truth, offering journalists, artists, regulators, and tech companies a crucial tool for transparency. Real-World Impact: How SynthID Is Being Used Today SynthID is already integrated into Google’s Imagen, a text-to-image AI model, and is being tested across industries: By embedding SynthID into digital content pipelines, these industries are fostering an ecosystem where AI-generated media is traceable, reducing misinformation risks. Challenges & Limitations: Is SynthID Foolproof? While groundbreaking, SynthID is not without challenges: Despite these limitations, SynthID lays the foundation for a future where AI-generated content can be reliably traced. The Future of AI Content Verification Google DeepMind’s SynthID is just the beginning. The battle against AI-generated misinformation may involve: As AI reshapes the digital world, tools like SynthID ensure innovation does not come at the cost of authenticity. The Thin Line Between Trust & Deception AI is a powerful tool, but without safeguards, it can become a weapon of misinformation. SynthID represents a bold step toward transparency, helping society navigate the blurred boundaries between real and artificial content. As the technology evolves, businesses, policymakers, and users must embrace solutions like SynthID to ensure AI enhances reality rather than distorting it. The next time an AI-generated image appears, one might ask: Is it real, or does it carry the invisible signature of SynthID? 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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Transforming Customer Service with Voice AI

Transforming Customer Service with Voice AI: Moving Beyond Outdated IVR Systems When customers need support, they still overwhelmingly turn to the phone — voice is used in 77% of all customer interactions. Despite the rise of digital channels, the simplicity and immediacy of speaking to a human remain unmatched, especially for complex or time-sensitive issues. Yet, for many businesses, phone support remains tied to outdated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, which often frustrate customers instead of resolving their issues. In fact, 68% of customers report dissatisfaction with traditional IVR systems, citing their inability to handle complex requests, rigid menu structures, and lack of personalization. The result? Customers frequently press “0” just to bypass the system and speak with a human agent — negating the very purpose of automation. But now, Voice AI is changing that dynamic. Unlike traditional IVRs, Voice AI leverages conversational intelligence to engage customers in natural, human-like dialogues. It understands context, processes complex requests, and delivers personalized solutions — all while learning and improving over time. The result is faster resolutions, higher customer satisfaction, and a dramatically reduced workload for human agents. Why Traditional IVR Systems Fall Short Despite their widespread use, IVR systems are riddled with limitations that negatively impact both customer experience and operational efficiency. 1. High Call Deflection Rates Traditional IVR systems often lead to high call deflection rates, where customers immediately press “0” to bypass the system and speak to a human. This happens because menu-based prompts rarely address complex queries, forcing customers through frustrating navigation loops. 2. Rigid Menu Structures IVRs operate through predefined, menu-driven interactions, limiting customers to a small set of options. This structure fails to accommodate complex, multi-faceted issues, resulting in customers being transferred between departments or disconnected mid-call. 3. Poor Integration with Business Systems Many IVRs lack seamless integration with CRM, billing, or order management systems, preventing agents from accessing real-time data. As a result, customers are often forced to repeat information or receive outdated or inaccurate responses. 4. Limited Problem-Solving Capabilities Traditional IVRs are only capable of handling simple, repetitive tasks — like checking an account balance or resetting a password. For complex issues that require critical thinking, IVRs fall short, ultimately requiring human intervention. 5. Lack of Personalization IVRs treat every customer interaction the same. Without access to customer history or context, the experience feels generic and impersonal, leaving customers dissatisfied. Voice AI: The New Standard for Customer Service Voice AI transforms phone-based support by enabling natural, human-like conversations. Built on large language models (LLMs) and conversational AI, Voice AI can listen, understand, and resolve customer requests — in real time — without requiring human assistance. Here’s how Voice AI elevates the customer experience: ✅ Conversational Interactions (Not Menu-Driven) Unlike IVRs, Voice AI agents engage in fluid, natural dialogues with customers. Instead of listening to long menu prompts, customers can simply state their problem in their own words, and the AI will interpret, process, and respond accordingly. For example, a customer might say:👉 “I need to change my shipping address.”The Voice AI will: No menus. No buttons. Just fast, human-like conversations. ✅ Real-Time Data Access Voice AI integrates seamlessly with CRM platforms, order management systems, and billing tools, allowing it to pull real-time customer information. This means: This significantly reduces resolution times and minimizes the need for human escalation. ✅ Smart Escalation for Complex Cases When Voice AI encounters an issue it cannot resolve, it automatically escalates the call to a live agent — with full context of the conversation. This eliminates the need for customers to repeat themselves and ensures a seamless handoff to human support. Additionally, Voice AI can analyze customer sentiment, detecting frustration or urgency. For example: ✅ Continuous Learning and Improvement Unlike IVRs, Voice AI gets smarter over time. Every interaction feeds the AI model, allowing it to improve response accuracy, anticipate common issues, and enhance the overall customer experience. This self-learning capability reduces the workload on human agents while continually improving resolution rates. Key Benefits of Voice AI in Customer Service 🚀 Faster Resolution Times By eliminating menu-based navigation and enabling natural conversations, Voice AI resolves common customer issues in minutes, not hours. 📉 Reduced Call Transfers Voice AI minimizes the need for customers to repeat themselves or get transferred between departments, significantly improving first-call resolution rates. 🎯 Personalized Customer Experiences With access to customer history and real-time data, Voice AI can offer tailored solutions — enhancing customer satisfaction and building long-term loyalty. 📊 Scalable, 24/7 Support Unlike human agents, Voice AI can handle hundreds of concurrent calls at any hour of the day, ensuring consistent, high-quality support without increasing operational costs. Real-World Use Cases of Voice AI 1. Customer Service Automation Forward-thinking companies are using Voice AI agents to handle routine tasks like: But beyond routine tasks, Voice AI excels at resolving complex issues, like: This dramatically reduces wait times and call volumes, while ensuring faster and more effective resolutions. 2. Sentiment Analysis & Real-Time Insights Voice AI can analyze the tone and sentiment of a caller’s voice to identify frustration, urgency, or dissatisfaction. In real-time, it can: 3. Multilingual Support Voice AI supports multiple languages, allowing businesses to scale their customer service globally. Whether the caller speaks English, Spanish, or French, Voice AI can understand, respond, and resolve issues without language barriers. The Future of Customer Service is Voice AI Customer expectations have shifted — they want fast, human-like support without long wait times or clunky IVR menus. Voice AI delivers exactly that. By replacing outdated IVR systems with intelligent, conversational Voice AI, businesses can: The future of customer service doesn’t lie in pressing buttons — it lies in natural, seamless conversations powered by AI. Companies that embrace Voice AI now will not only meet rising customer expectations but will also drive significant efficiency gains across their operations. ✅ Ready to transform your customer support with Voice AI?Learn how Voice AI can help you reduce call times, increase first-call resolutions, and improve customer satisfaction — all while reducing

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ai trust layer

Gen AI Trust Layers

Addressing the Generative AI Production Gap with Trust Layers Despite the growing excitement around generative AI, only a small percentage of projects have successfully moved into production. A key barrier is the persistent concern over large language models (LLMs) generating hallucinations—responses that are inconsistent or completely disconnected from reality. To address these issues, organizations are increasingly adopting AI trust layers to enhance reliability and mitigate risk. Understanding the Challenge Generative AI models, like LLMs, are powerful tools trained on vast amounts of unstructured data, enabling them to answer questions and complete tasks based on text, documents, recordings, images, and videos. This capability has revolutionized the creation of chatbots, co-pilots, and even semi-autonomous agents. However, these models are inherently non-deterministic, meaning they don’t always produce consistent outputs. This lack of predictability leads to the infamous phenomenon of hallucination—what the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) terms “confabulation.” While hallucination is a byproduct of how generative models function, its risks in mission-critical applications cannot be ignored. Implementing AI Trust Layers To address these challenges, organizations are turning to AI trust layers—frameworks designed to monitor and control generative AI behavior. These trust layers vary in implementation: Galileo: Building AI Trust from the Ground Up Galileo, founded in 2021 by Yash Sheth, Atindriyo Sanyal, and Vikram Chatterji, has emerged as a leader in developing AI trust solutions. Drawing on his decade of experience at Google building LLMs for speech recognition, Sheth recognized early on that non-deterministic AI systems needed robust trust frameworks to achieve widespread adoption in enterprise settings. The Need for Trust in Mission-Critical AI “Sheth explained: ‘Generative AI doesn’t give you the same answer every time. To mitigate risk in mission-critical tasks, you need a trust framework to ensure these models behave as expected in production.’ Enterprises, which prioritize privacy, security, and reputation, require this level of assurance before deploying LLMs at scale. Galileo’s Approach to Trust Layers Galileo’s AI trust layer is built on its proprietary foundation model, which evaluates the behavior of target LLMs. This approach is bolstered by metrics and real-time guardrails to block undesirable outcomes, such as hallucinations, data leaks, or harmful outputs. Key Products in Galileo’s Suite Sheth described the underlying technology: “Our evaluation foundation models are dependable, reliable, and scalable. They run continuously in production, ensuring bad outcomes are blocked in real time.” By combining these components, Galileo provides enterprises with a trust layer that gives them confidence in their generative AI applications, mirroring the reliability of traditional software systems. From Research to Real-World Impact Unlike vendors who quickly adapted traditional machine learning frameworks for generative AI, Galileo spent two years conducting research and developing its Generative AI Studio, launched in August 2023. This thorough approach has started to pay off: A Crucial Moment for AI Trust Layers As enterprises prepare to move generative AI experiments into production, trust layers are becoming essential. These frameworks address lingering concerns about the unpredictable nature of LLMs, allowing organizations to scale AI while minimizing risk. Sheth emphasized the stakes: “When mission-critical software starts becoming infused with AI, trust layers will define whether we progress or regress to the stone ages of software. That’s what’s holding back proof-of-concepts from reaching production.” With Galileo’s innovative approach, enterprises now have a path to unlock the full potential of generative AI—responsibly, securely, and at scale. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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Reward-Guided Speculative Decoding

Salesforce AI Research Unveils Reward-Guided Speculative Decoding (RSD): A Breakthrough in Large Language Model (LLM) Inference Efficiency Addressing the Computational Challenges of LLMs The rapid scaling of large language models (LLMs) has led to remarkable advancements in natural language understanding and reasoning. However, inference—the process of generating responses one token at a time—remains a major computational bottleneck. As LLMs grow in size and complexity, latency and energy consumption increase, posing challenges for real-world applications that demand cost efficiency, speed, and scalability. Traditional decoding methods, such as greedy and beam search, require repeated evaluations of large models, leading to significant computational overhead. Even parallel decoding techniques struggle to balance efficiency with output quality. These challenges have driven research into hybrid approaches that combine lightweight models with more powerful ones, optimizing speed without sacrificing performance. Introducing Reward-Guided Speculative Decoding (RSD) Salesforce AI Research introduces Reward-Guided Speculative Decoding (RSD), a novel framework designed to enhance LLM inference efficiency. RSD employs a dual-model strategy: Unlike traditional speculative decoding, which enforces strict token matching between draft and target models, RSD introduces a controlled bias that prioritizes high-reward outputs—tokens deemed more accurate or contextually relevant. This strategic bias significantly reduces unnecessary computations. RSD’s mathematically derived threshold mechanism dictates when the target model should intervene. By dynamically blending outputs from both models based on a reward function, RSD accelerates inference while maintaining or even enhancing response quality. This innovation addresses the inefficiencies inherent in sequential token generation for LLMs. Technical Insights and Benefits of RSD RSD integrates two models in a sequential, cooperative manner: This mechanism is guided by a binary step weighting function, ensuring that only high-quality tokens bypass the target model, significantly reducing computational demands. Key Benefits: The theoretical foundation of RSD, including the probabilistic mixture distribution and adaptive acceptance criteria, provides a robust framework for real-world deployment across diverse reasoning tasks. Empirical Results: Superior Performance Across Benchmarks Experiments on challenging datasets—such as GSM8K, MATH500, OlympiadBench, and GPQA—demonstrate RSD’s effectiveness. Notably, on the MATH500 benchmark, RSD achieved 88.0% accuracy using a 72B target model and a 7B PRM, outperforming the target model’s standalone accuracy of 85.6% while reducing FLOPs by nearly 4.4×. These results highlight RSD’s potential to surpass traditional methods, including speculative decoding (SD), beam search, and Best-of-N strategies, in both speed and accuracy. A Paradigm Shift in LLM Inference Reward-Guided Speculative Decoding (RSD) represents a significant advancement in LLM inference. By intelligently combining a draft model with a powerful target model and incorporating a reward-based acceptance criterion, RSD effectively mitigates computational costs without compromising quality. This biased acceleration approach strategically bypasses expensive computations for high-reward outputs, ensuring an efficient and scalable inference process. With empirical results showcasing up to 4.4× faster performance and superior accuracy, RSD sets a new benchmark for hybrid decoding frameworks, paving the way for broader adoption in real-time AI applications. 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 Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Salesforce Enhances Service Cloud with AI-Driven Intelligence Engine Data science and analytics are rapidly becoming standard features in enterprise applications, Read more

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