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Salesforce and the AI Revolution

Salesforce and the AI Revolution

In the early 2000s, Salesforce made waves in the tech world with its bold “No Software” marketing campaign, symbolized by the iconic image of the word “software” crossed out in a red circle. While it was a bit misleading—Salesforce still delivered software, just in the cloud—the campaign invited people to rethink software delivery. This marked the dawn of the cloud era, and businesses were ready for a change. Then, enter Salesforce and the AI Revolution. Today, we’re witnessing a similar shift with AI. The word “SaaS” is the latest to be crossed out in red, as AI-native applications, where AI is the core rather than an add-on, promise to disrupt service delivery at an unprecedented speed—far faster than cloud displaced on-premise software. Even Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), a leader in identifying emerging AI trends, admits to being caught off guard by the rapid rise of AI. In its State of the Cloud 2024 report, which aptly declares “The Legacy Cloud is dead—long live AI Cloud!”, BVP highlights how even the most optimistic predictions couldn’t fully capture the pace and scale of AI’s impact. The AI Revolution: Opportunities and Disruption The AI market is evolving at breakneck speed, and entrepreneurs are scrambling to stake their claim in this quickly shifting landscape. In the early cloud era, companies like Box, Docusign, HubSpot, and Shopify found success by targeting specific business use cases with subscription-based, cloud-powered solutions. Similarly, today’s AI opportunity lies in industries where manual, repetitive tasks are still prevalent. Major AI players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral are investing billions in building large-scale language models (LLMs), but there’s a gap in the market for entrepreneurs to focus on verticals where human labor is still largely manual—such as legal, accounting, and outsourcing services. Traditionally, investors have shied away from these industries due to their reliance on manual labor, high costs, and low profit margins. But AI changes the game. Tasks once done manually can now be automated, transforming labor-intensive processes into scalable, high-margin operations. Services businesses that were once unattractive to investors will now attract attention as AI boosts profitability and efficiency. The Shift to AI-Native Applications The impact of AI-native applications will go beyond improving revenue models; they will fundamentally change how we interact with software. In the current SaaS model, users spend hours in applications, manually entering data and querying systems for answers. In contrast, AI-native B2B applications will solve problems end-to-end without requiring human input for every step. Software will work for users in the background, allowing them to focus on building relationships and making strategic decisions. However, humans won’t be removed from the equation. AI trained on real human intelligence in specific verticals will perform better than purely machine-based intelligence. The combination of human expertise and AI-native applications will drive significant, tangible business results. Avoid the “X of AI” Hype With excitement around AI reaching fever pitch, many startups are branding themselves as the “X of AI”—for instance, the “Salesforce of AI.” These claims are often surface-level, wrapping an AI solution around an existing LLM without delivering true innovation. To identify genuine AI-native solutions, look for these key characteristics: Spotting the Next AI Success Stories The AI space is noisy and crowded, and as more AI-native startups emerge, it will become even harder to separate the winners from the hype. The true innovators will be those who bring untapped data into the digital fold and streamline workflows that have historically been manual. To succeed, founders need deep knowledge of their vertical and a clear understanding of how to implement AI for real-world results. Above all, they must have the vision and drive to realize the full potential of AI-native applications, transforming industries and redefining service delivery. 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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Financial Services Cloud and Core

Financial Services Cloud and Core

Remember When Salesforce First Launched Financial Services Cloud in 2016? The managed package introduced a standardized data model that transformed how banks, credit unions, and implementation partners utilized Salesforce. It was a game-changer! But Salesforce hasn’t stopped innovating. Since 2019, they’ve been enhancing the core platform to meet demands for greater performance and flexibility. Now, in 2024, Salesforce has rolled out its biggest core release yet: Financial Account Management Standard Objects. This strategic update could redefine how financial data is managed within Financial Services Cloud (FSC). Understanding these updates is essential for all FSC users. The introduction of standard objects signals a major shift in the platform. Staying informed ensures that your institution remains innovative and fully leverages Financial Services Cloud. Let’s explore what’s changing and why it matters. 1. A New Era for Financial Accounts Say goodbye to limitations and hello to flexibility! The core platform introduces a modern way to manage financial accounts: The elimination of financial account triggers is a huge win for performance. Salesforce’s new data model is designed to handle real-time integrations, which can be a game-changer for many institutions. But real-time integration isn’t necessary for everyone. Depending on your organization’s needs, you might find that a combination of batch integration, on-demand integration, and data visualization works best. If you’re dealing with slow nightly batch data loads due to financial account triggers, exploring the new standard objects could be the solution to your performance woes. 2. Core Offers Benefits for Everyone 3. The FSC Managed Package is Still Supported Salesforce has reassured customers that the FSC Managed Package will continue to be supported. However, with Core advancements, Salesforce is re-evaluating its long-term strategy to provide more streamlined and scalable solutions. While migration to Core isn’t mandatory, Salesforce’s ongoing focus on this new architecture suggests that aligning with the core platform may offer increasing benefits over time. To stay ahead of the curve and access the latest features, it’s wise to explore the potential advantages of migration. Tectonic can help assess your current environment, weigh the benefits of moving to Core, and develop a strategy that aligns with your business goals. 4. Exciting Core Enhancements Core introduces powerful new features that simplify financial data management, such as: 5. The Future Is Core, and You Need the Right Partner to Chart Your Course Salesforce’s shift toward Core highlights the platform’s future direction. While the managed package remains relevant for now, Core offers a more modern, flexible solution for managing financial data. To make the most of these changes and ensure a smooth transition, partnering with an experienced team like Tectonic is crucial. Transitioning to Core requires careful planning. Here’s a roadmap to guide you: Ready to Explore the Power of Core? Contact Tectonic today to learn how we can help guide your transition to Core and capture the full potential of these new features to drive your business forward. 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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Exploring Emerging LLM

Exploring Emerging LLM

Exploring Emerging LLM Agent Types and Architectures The Evolution Beyond ReAct AgentsThe shortcomings of first-generation ReAct agents have paved the way for a new era of LLM agents, bringing innovative architectures and possibilities. In 2024, agents have taken center stage in the AI landscape. Companies globally are developing chatbot agents, tools like MultiOn are bridging agents to external websites, and frameworks like LangGraph and LlamaIndex Workflows are helping developers build more structured, capable agents. However, despite their rising popularity within the AI community, agents are yet to see widespread adoption among consumers or enterprises. This leaves businesses wondering: How do we navigate these emerging frameworks and architectures? Which tools should we leverage for our next application? Having recently developed a sophisticated agent as a product copilot, we share key insights to guide you through the evolving agent ecosystem. What Are LLM-Based Agents? At their core, LLM-based agents are software systems designed to execute complex tasks by chaining together multiple processing steps, including LLM calls. These agents: The Rise and Fall of ReAct Agents ReAct (reason, act) agents marked the first wave of LLM-powered tools. Promising broad functionality through abstraction, they fell short due to their limited utility and overgeneralized design. These challenges spurred the emergence of second-generation agents, emphasizing structure and specificity. The Second Generation: Structured, Scalable Agents Modern agents are defined by smaller solution spaces, offering narrower but more reliable capabilities. Instead of open-ended design, these agents map out defined paths for actions, improving precision and performance. Key characteristics of second-gen agents include: Common Agent Architectures Agent Development Frameworks Several frameworks are now available to simplify and streamline agent development: While frameworks can impose best practices and tooling, they may introduce limitations for highly complex applications. Many developers still prefer code-driven solutions for greater control. Should You Build an Agent? Before investing in agent development, consider these criteria: If you answered “yes,” an agent may be a suitable choice. Challenges and Solutions in Agent Development Common Issues: Strategies to Address Challenges: Conclusion The generative AI landscape is brimming with new frameworks and fervent innovation. Before diving into development, evaluate your application needs and consider whether agent frameworks align with your objectives. By thoughtfully assessing the tools and architectures available, you can create agents that deliver measurable value while avoiding unnecessary complexity. 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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Choose Salesforce for SMS

Choose Salesforce for SMS

Why Integrating SMS with Salesforce Transforms Business Communication Effective communication is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment. A company’s success often hinges on its ability to interact seamlessly with customers—whether through personalized service, timely updates, or the latest product offerings. Choose Salesforce for SMS. Today’s customers demand a seamless, omnichannel experience that goes beyond traditional communication methods like flyers and emails. They expect real-time, two-way interactions, which is where Salesforce SMS apps come into play. These apps, which integrate smoothly with existing CRM systems, are transforming how businesses engage with their customers. 5 Reasons to Integrate SMS with Salesforce Integrating SMS with Salesforce offers numerous benefits, primarily enhancing customer-facing efficiency and effectiveness. Here are five key advantages: SMS for Salesforce enables businesses to provide immediate customer support. For instance, logistics companies can use SMS to notify customers about delivery statuses or appointment updates in real time. SMS boasts an impressive open rate—over 95% within the first three minutes—making it a highly effective medium for increasing marketing engagement compared to email. You can even couple Salesforce SMS with tools like geofencing to send notifications via SMS when they are in the store. Integrating SMS with Salesforce allows for streamlined automation of processes such as order updates and appointment reminders. This reduces the need for manual intervention, boosts productivity, and frees up resources for more strategic tasks. Automated texts can be scheduled based on customer behavior or sales stages, optimizing workflows and enhancing efficiency. With a response rate of approximately 45%, SMS is highly effective for engaging customers. It facilitates prompt replies due to its immediate nature. Sales and marketing teams can leverage SMS for direct interactions, while retailers can use it to distribute discount codes and drive quick responses. Additionally, SMS is ideal for important notifications, enhancing customer service. By integrating SMS with Salesforce, businesses can tailor their messages to address specific customer needs and preferences. This personalization fosters stronger customer relationships and improves conversion rates. For example, a travel agency can send personalized vacation recommendations, while financial advisors can provide client-specific updates and advice. Salesforce’s integration with SMS allows for robust tracking and analysis of customer interactions and campaign effectiveness. Marketing teams can refine their strategies by reviewing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates from SMS campaigns. Additionally, customer support teams can evaluate response times and resolution rates to improve service efficiency. How to Implement SMS in Salesforce To send and receive texts via Salesforce, you have several options: Salesforce offers two primary SMS solutions: Mobile Studio and Digital Engagement. For more tailored functionality, you can use Salesforce API or another API provider to develop a custom texting solution. While this offers greater flexibility and avoids extra costs, it involves significant development time and expense. Opting for a Salesforce-native SMS app from the Salesforce AppExchange can be advantageous. These apps, designed specifically for SMS within Salesforce, often offer: These native apps also come with dedicated customer support, making them a cost-effective and efficient choice. Best Practices for SMS Communication While SMS boasts high engagement rates, it’s essential to follow best practices to maintain a positive customer experience: Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA by securing clear consent from customers before sending SMS. Automate re-opt-in processes to maintain compliance. Send messages during the recipient’s regular business hours to avoid disturbing them at inconvenient times. Stay in touch with your audience regularly but avoid overwhelming them with excessive messages. Provide valuable content to keep engagement high. Use the same number for messaging to help customers recognize your communications and build trust. Respond promptly and courteously to customer replies. Provide clear, detailed responses to inquiries. Acknowledge and reward outstanding customer actions with thoughtful messages or gestures, such as donations to their favorite charities. Even a thank you for your purchase message can contain a surprise such as a coupon or a notification that a free gift is included with their order. Use SMS to highlight important announcements, events, or opportunities, tapping into the fear of missing out to drive engagement. SMS is the perfect omnichannel tool to incorporate into all your Salesforce journeys. Balance promotional content with conversational engagement to avoid appearing pushy and to keep the communication enjoyable for customers. People are much happier to get news they can use rather than advertisements. Encourage further engagement by including clear, actionable steps in your SMS messages, such as signing up for a free trial or using a discount code. A call to action must be designed with smaller screen views in mind. Include an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe from future messages to comply with legal requirements and respect customer preferences. By integrating SMS with Salesforce and adhering to these best practices, businesses can enhance their communication strategies, foster better customer relationships, and drive greater engagement. 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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Introducing Marketing Cloud Advanced

Introducing Marketing Cloud Advanced

Salesforce has unveiled a series of innovations in its Marketing Cloud, (Introducing Marketing Cloud Advanced) designed to empower businesses with AI-driven tools and enhanced data capabilities to elevate customer engagement. These new features aim to deepen customer relationships, improve team productivity, and boost operational efficiency. Introducing Marketing Cloud Advanced One of the standout innovations is Marketing Cloud Advanced, an upcoming edition that integrates advanced automation and AI. This edition is designed to connect marketing journeys with sales, service, and commerce workflows, offering a more personalized experience across multiple customer touchpoints. Additionally, the introduction of Agentforce for Marketing will bring generative and predictive AI into the marketing realm, helping marketers create comprehensive, end-to-end campaign experiences. Steve Hammond, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Marketing Cloud at Salesforce, commented: “Today’s most successful marketers engage customers on their terms and act as value multipliers across the entire customer experience—whether helping sales or service have more personalized conversations or re-engaging inactive customers. Built on Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud is the only solution that unifies data across every department and moment in the customer lifecycle, powered by Agentforce Agents and automation, driving growth, loyalty, and optimizing ROI.” Agentforce for Marketing introduces several capabilities that streamline marketing processes. Marketers can now plan, launch, and optimize campaigns with ease. Agentforce allows marketers to set campaign goals and brand guidelines, after which the AI generates campaign briefs, identifies target audience segments, and drafts initial emails and landing pages. The system continuously monitors performance and provides data-driven optimization suggestions based on key performance indicators (KPIs). A key addition is Einstein Marketing Intelligence (EMI), which helps marketers manage and optimize cross-channel campaign performance. EMI automates the process of data preparation, enrichment, harmonization, and visualization, enabling marketers to measure campaign effectiveness and make informed decisions to improve return on investment. Furthermore, Salesforce introduced Einstein Personalization, an AI-powered decision engine that delivers tailored customer experiences. This tool allows sales, service, and commerce teams to engage customers in real time based on live interactions and data. Using Flow’s A/B split testing feature, marketers can select dynamic email content for different audience segments and track performance to adjust strategies effectively. Sarah Lukins, General Manager of Digital at Fisher & Paykel Appliances, praised the new functionality: “Salesforce enables us to seamlessly access all of our marketing, commerce, service, sales, and external data in one place and leverage AI for more targeted audience engagement. We can now deliver more relevant and consistent personalized experiences across email, ads, web, social, and service engagements.” The Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition will roll out to customers in North America, Europe, and Latin America, while Agentforce Personalization is expected to become generally available by next summer. Additional releases include expanded Einstein multi-language support and unified SMS conversation capabilities. These innovations are part of Salesforce’s ongoing efforts to equip marketers with unified and actionable data, enhancing the performance of marketing teams and fostering deeper integration across organizations. Through AI and automation, Salesforce is helping businesses deliver more personalized, connected, and seamless customer experiences. 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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Agentforce - AI's New Role in Sales and Service

Agentforce – AI’s New Role in Sales and Service

From Science Fiction to Reality: AI’s Game-Changing Role in Service and Sales AI for service and sales has reached a critical tipping point, driving rapid innovation. At Dreamforce in San Francisco, hosted by Salesforce we explored how Salesforce clients are leveraging CRM, Data Cloud, and AI to extract real business value from their Salesforce investments. In previous years, AI features branded under “Einstein” had been met with skepticism. These features, such as lead scoring, next-best-action suggestions for service agents, and cross-sell/upsell recommendations, often required substantial quality data in the CRM and knowledge base to be effective. However, customer data was frequently unreliable, with duplicate records and missing information, and the Salesforce knowledge base was underused. Building self-service capabilities with chatbots was also challenging, requiring accurate predictions of customer queries and well-structured decision trees. This year’s Dreamforce revealed a transformative shift. The advancements in AI, especially for customer service and sales, have become exceptionally powerful. Companies now need to take notice of Salesforce’s capabilities, which have expanded significantly. Agentforce – AI’s New Role in Sales and Service Some standout Salesforce features include: At Dreamforce, we participated in a workshop where they built an AI agent capable of responding to customer cases using product sheets and company knowledge within 90 minutes. This experience demonstrated how accessible AI solutions have become, no longer requiring developers or LLM experts to set up. The key challenge lies in mapping external data sources to a unified data model in Data Cloud, but once achieved, the potential for customer service and sales is immense. How AI and Data Integrate to Transform Service and Sales Businesses can harness the following integrated components to build a comprehensive solution: Real-World Success and AI Implementation OpenTable shared a successful example of building an AI agent for its app in just two months, using a small team of four. This was a marked improvement from the company’s previous chatbot projects, highlighting the efficiency of the latest AI tools. Most CEOs of large enterprises are exploring AI strategies, whether by developing their own LLMs or using pre-existing models. However, many of these efforts are siloed, and engineering costs are high, leading to clunky transitions between AI and human agents. Tectonic is well-positioned to help our clients quickly deploy AI-powered solutions that integrate seamlessly with their existing CRM and ERP systems. By leveraging AI agents to streamline customer interactions, enhance sales opportunities, and provide smooth handoffs to human agents, businesses can significantly improve customer experiences and drive growth. Tectonic is ready to help businesses achieve similar success with AI-driven innovation. 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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Dreamforce 24 Insights

Dreamforce 24 Insights

Three Key Insights You Might Have Missed from Dreamforce ’24 In today’s digital-driven world, interconnected systems are commonplace and essential, making platform integration and unified operations critical. As AI becomes more central, technologies like Salesforce Agentforce AI are drawing increased attention. At Dreamforce ’24, automation and AI were the event’s stars, particularly Salesforce’s plans for Agentforce AI. Dreamforce 24 Insights. Here are three key insights from Dreamforce ’24 that you might have missed: 1. Salesforce’s Automation Plans Could Reshape Its Future Salesforce has a solid reputation for business automation, but now, with agentic systems entering the picture, the company is looking at a transformative opportunity. John Furrier of theCUBE noted during Dreamforce, “Salesforce is positioned to use generative AI to simplify complexity and reduce the steps required to get things done.” As Salesforce integrates generative AI, the emphasis on securing and utilizing data becomes paramount. Christophe Bertrand of theCUBE pointed out that many organizations are not fully utilizing their data. The introduction of Agentforce AI, which aims to leverage this untapped potential, could bring automation to new heights and fundamentally transform how businesses operate. 2. Salesforce Agentforce AI Aims to Integrate Seamlessly Into Business Workflows A major focus of Dreamforce was Salesforce’s new AI offering—Agentforce. According to Muralidhar Krishnaprasad, Salesforce’s CTO, this represents the next stage of AI for the company. While earlier efforts focused on predictive AI (Einstein) and generative AI copilots, Agentforce moves toward more autonomous AI agents. “Our platform will be one of the most comprehensive for agent development,” Krishnaprasad explained. He highlighted that Agentforce will allow businesses to deploy AI agents across various functions—advertising, sales, service, and analytics—creating a seamless AI-driven ecosystem within the Salesforce platform. David Schmaier, president and CPO of Salesforce, added that Agentforce will transform customer interactions by integrating AI agents with Salesforce Data Cloud to deliver more personalized and efficient experiences. 3. Strategic Partnerships Are Streamlining Business and Enhancing Customer Solutions At Dreamforce, partnerships played a key role in Salesforce’s strategy for the future. A collaboration between Salesforce and AWS is streamlining procurement for joint customers through AWS Marketplace. This partnership allows companies to optimize their spend management and simplify the purchasing process for Salesforce products. IBM is also leveraging Agentforce to drive new outcomes through watsonx Orchestrate, as Nick Otto, IBM’s head of global strategic partnerships, explained. Automation and orchestration have been focal points for both IBM and Salesforce. Another partnership with Canva showcased AI-driven data autofill capabilities that integrate with Salesforce CRM. This allows sales teams to create personalized presentations at scale, automating workflows and increasing efficiency, as noted by Canva’s Chief Customer Officer, Rob Giglio. These insights from Dreamforce ’24 highlight the growing importance of AI, automation, and strategic partnerships in shaping the future of business operations with Salesforce at the forefront. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Agentforce and Thinking AI

Agentforce and Thinking AI

Agentforce is how humans with AI drive customer success together, equips organizations with autonomous agents that boost scale, efficiency, and satisfaction across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and more New Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine autonomously analyzes data, makes decisions, and completes tasks, providing reliable and accurate results With Agentforce, any organization can build, customize, and deploy their own agents quickly and easily, with low-code tools New Agentforce Partner Network allows customers to deploy pre-built agents and use agent actions from partners like Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Workday, and more Customers like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are turning to Agentforce because it is integrated with their apps, works across customer channels, augments their employees, and scales capacity for business needs SAN FRANCISCO — September 12, 2024 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today unveiled Agentforce, a groundbreaking suite of autonomous AI agents that augment employees and handle tasks in service, sales, marketing, and commerce, driving unprecedented efficiency and customer satisfaction. Agentforce enables companies to scale their workforces on demand with a few clicks. Agentforce’s limitless digital workforce of AI agents can analyze data, make decisions, and take action on tasks like answering customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns. With Agentforce, any organization can easily build, customize, and deploy their own agents for any use case across any industry. The future of AI is agents, and it’s here. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” MARC BENIOFF, CHAIR, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SALESFORCE “Agentforce represents the Third Wave of AI—advancing beyond copilots to a new era of highly accurate, low-hallucination intelligent agents that actively drive customer success. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce is a revolutionary and trusted solution that seamlessly integrates AI across every workflow, embedding itself deeply into the heart of the customer journey. This means anticipating needs, strengthening relationships, driving growth, and taking proactive action at every touchpoint,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. With advanced security features, compliance with industry standards, and unmatched flexibility. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” In contrast to now-outdated copilots and chatbots that rely on human requests and struggle with complex or multi-step tasks, Agentforce offers a new level of sophistication by operating autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans for any task, and executing these plans without requiring human intervention. Like a self-driving car, Agentforce uses real-time data to adapt to changing conditions and operates independently within an organizations’ customized guardrails, ensuring every customer interaction is informed, relevant, and valuable. And when desired, Agentforce seamlessly hands off to human employees with a summary of the interaction, an overview of the customer’s details, and recommendations for what to do next. Industry leaders like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are already experiencing the transformative power of Agentforce. For example, Agentforce is helping organizations like Wiley provide customers with dynamic, conversational self-service. Agentforce is configured to answer questions using Wiley’s knowledge base already built into Salesforce so it can automatically resolve account access. It also triages registration and payment issues, directing customers to the appropriate resources. With Agentforce handling routine inquiries, Wiley has seen an over 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming their old chatbot and giving their human agents more time to focus on complex cases. Why it Matters An estimated 41% of employee time is spent on repetitive, low-impact work, and 65% of desk workers believe generative AI will allow them to be more strategic, according to the Salesforce Trends in AI Report. Every company has more jobs to be done than the resources available to do them. As a result, many jobs go unaddressed or uncompleted. Agentforce provides relief to overstretched teams with its ability to scale capacity on demand so humans can focus on higher-touch, higher-value, and more strategic outcomes. The future of work is a hybrid workforce composed of humans with agents, enabling companies to compete in an ever-changing world. Supporting Customer Quotes “Piloting Agentforce has made a noticeable difference during one of our busiest periods — back-to-school season. It’s been exciting to go live with our first agent thanks to the no-code builder, and we’ve seen a more than 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming our old bot. Agentforce helps to manage routine responsibilities and free up our service teams for more complex cases.” – Kevin Quigley, Senior Manager, Continuous Improvement, Wiley “Every interaction that restaurants and diners have with our support team must be accurate, fast, and reflective of the hospitality that restaurants show their guests. Agentforce has incredible potential to help us deliver that high touch attentiveness and support while significantly freeing up our team to address more complex needs.” – George Pokorny, SVP Customer Success, OpenTable “As we advance our personalization strategy, we believe Agentforce and its AI-powered capabilities have the potential to make a real impact on our approach to customer engagement, raising the bar in luxury retail. Agentforce will improve our effectiveness across customer touchpoints, empowering our employees and augmenting their ability to deliver the elevated and more individualized shopping experiences for which Saks is known.” – Mike Hite, Chief Technology Officer, Saks Global Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced

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Large Action Models and AI Agents

Large Action Models and AI Agents

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

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Salesforce Underwriting Solutions

Salesforce Underwriting Solutions

Merchant Cash Advance Solutions: Enhancing Underwriting with Salesforce In today’s fast-paced financial services industry, efficient and effective underwriting is more crucial than ever. Merchant cash advances (MCAs) have emerged as a popular alternative funding option for businesses that might not qualify for traditional loans. This insight explores how integrating Salesforce with MCA software can streamline underwriting, strengthen lender-borrower relationships, and boost overall operational efficiency. Understanding Merchant Cash Advances Merchant cash advances offer businesses upfront capital in exchange for a portion of future sales. Unlike traditional loans, MCAs are often easier to secure and come with flexible repayment options tied to daily credit card receipts. However, the unique structure of MCAs brings challenges to underwriting, due to the diversity in business models and cash flow patterns. The Role of Underwriting in MCA Underwriting is a vital step in the lending process, assessing the risk associated with providing funds to a borrower. For MCAs, underwriting involves evaluating a business’s revenue streams, creditworthiness, and overall financial health. Traditional underwriting methods can be cumbersome and slow, often causing delays in funding. Challenges in Traditional Underwriting Methods The Power of Salesforce in Streamlining Underwriting Salesforce offers powerful solutions that integrate seamlessly with MCA software, effectively addressing these challenges: Benefits of Integrating MCA Software with Salesforce Key Features to Look for in MCA Software Integrated with Salesforce When choosing an MCA solution integrated with Salesforce, consider features such as: Conclusion Integrating merchant cash advance solutions with Salesforce offers a transformative approach to streamlining underwriting processes in this niche financing sector. By automating workflows, centralizing data management, enhancing communication channels, and improving overall efficiency—all while ensuring compliance—lenders can gain a competitive edge and deliver exceptional service to their clients. If you are searching for a Merchant Cash Advance, Underwriting, or financial services solution 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 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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Collaborative Business Intelligence

Collaborative Business Intelligence

Collaborative Business Intelligence: Connecting Data and Teams In today’s data-driven world, the ability to interact with business intelligence (BI) tools is essential for making informed decisions. Collaborative business intelligence (BI), also known as social BI, allows users to engage with their organization’s data and communicate with data experts through the same platforms where they already collaborate. While self-service BI empowers users to generate insights, understanding the data’s context is critical to avoid misunderstandings that can derail decision-making. Collaborative BI integrates BI tools with collaboration platforms to bridge the gap between data analysis and communication, reducing the risks of misinterpretation. Traditional Business Intelligence Traditional BI involves the use of technology to analyze data and present insights clearly. Before BI platforms became widespread, data scientists and statisticians handled data analysis, making it challenging for non-technical professionals to digest the insights. BI evolved to automate visualizations, such as charts and dashboards, making data more accessible to business users. Previously, BI reports were typically available only to high-level executives. However, modern self-service BI tools democratize access, enabling more users—regardless of technical expertise—to create reports and visualize data, fostering better decision-making across the organization. The Emergence of Collaborative BI Collaborative BI is a growing trend, combining BI applications with collaboration tools. This approach allows users to work together synchronously or asynchronously within a shared platform, making it easier to discuss data reports in real time or leave comments for others to review. Whether it’s through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or social media apps, users can receive and discuss BI insights within their usual communication channels. This seamless integration of BI and collaboration tools offers a competitive edge, simplifying the process of sharing knowledge and clarifying data without switching between applications. Key Benefits of Collaborative Business Intelligence Leading Collaborative BI Platforms Here’s a look at some of the top collaborative BI platforms driving innovation in the market: Conclusion Collaborative BI empowers organizations by improving decision-making, democratizing data access, optimizing data quality, and ensuring data security. By integrating BI tools with collaboration platforms, businesses can streamline their operations, foster a culture of data-driven decision-making, and enhance overall efficiency. Choosing the right platform is key to maximizing the benefits of collaborative BI. 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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Chatbot-less AI-ifying

Chatbot-less AI-ifying

AI-ify Your Product Without Adding a Chatbot: Inspiration from Top AI Use Cases Artificial intelligence doesn’t always need to look like a chatbot. Some of the most innovative implementations of AI have created intuitive user experiences (UX) without relying on traditional conversational interfaces. Here are seven standout patterns from leading companies and startups that demonstrate how AI can elevate your product in ways that feel natural and empowering for users. These are just a preview of the 24 trending AI-UX patterns featured in the “Trending AI-UX Patterns” ebook by AIverse—perfect for borrowing (or expensing to your company). Pattern 1: Linear Back-and-Forth (Classic Chat) While chat interfaces revolutionized access to AI, this pattern is just the beginning. Think of ChatGPT—its conversational simplicity opened the door to powerful LLMs for non-tech audiences. But beyond basic chat, consider integrating generative UI commands or API-based functionality into your product to transform linear data access into something seamless and engaging. Pattern 2: Non-Linear Conversations Inspired by Subform, this pattern mirrors how humans think—connecting ideas in a web, not a straight line. Non-linear exploration allows users to navigate through information like dots on a map, offering a flexible, intuitive flow. For example, imagine an AI that surfaces related ideas or actions based on user input—ideal for creative tools or brainstorming apps. Pattern 3: Context Bundling Why stop at simple text input when you can bundle context visually? Figma’s dual-tone matrix simplifies tone adjustments for text by letting users drag across a 2D grid. It eliminates the need for complex prompts while maintaining control over customization. Think of ways to integrate pre-bundled prompts directly into your UI to create an intuitive, visually driven experience. Pattern 4: Living Documents Tools like Elicit bring AI into familiar interfaces like spreadsheets by enhancing workflows without disrupting them. Elicit’s bulk data extraction uses subtle animations and transparency—highlighting “low confidence” answers for clarity. This hybrid approach integrates AI in a way that feels natural and predictable, making it a great choice for data-heavy tools or reporting systems. Pattern 5: Work With Me One of the most human-centered AI patterns comes from Granola, which uses meeting summaries based on your rough notes. Instead of overwhelming users with full transcriptions, it creates concise, actionable insights, perfectly blending human oversight with AI-powered efficiency. This pattern exemplifies the “human-in-the-loop” trend, ensuring collaboration between the user and AI. Pattern 6: Highlight and Curate Take inspiration from Lex’s “@lex” comment feature, which allows users to highlight and comment directly in the flow of their work—no app switching or disruption required. By building on familiar text-interaction patterns, this approach integrates AI subtly, offering suggestions or enhancements without breaking the user’s autonomy. Pattern 7: Invisible AI (Agentive UX) AI can work quietly in the background until needed, as demonstrated by Ford’s lane assist. This feature seamlessly takes control during critical moments (e.g., steering) and hands it back to the user effortlessly. Visual, auditory, and haptic feedback make the transition intuitive and reassuring. This “agentive” pattern is perfect for products where AI acts as a silent partner, ready to assist only when necessary. Tectonic Conclusions These patterns prove that AI can elevate your product without resorting to a chatbot. Whether through non-linear exploration, visual bundling, or seamless agentive experiences, the key is to integrate AI in a way that feels intuitive, empowering, and aligned with user needs. 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 and IBM Partnership

Salesforce and IBM Partnership

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

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