Salesforce has released a comprehensive white paper that details emerging threats posed by Large Language Models (LLMs) and offers actionable strategies for organizations to fortify their defenses.
Why it’s important: The age of AI has ushered in a new wave of security concerns that not only threaten the potential exploitation of sensitive data, but also the overall integrity and trust of the technology. LLMs can be hacked, giving threat actors access to proprietary information, or manipulated to produce harmful content.
Go deeper: As businesses grapple with how to deploy generative AI, whose models often use pre-trained LLMs to create content from text prompts, they must use trust-based strategies to protect themselves. The Salesforce white paper outlines some of the most pressing emerging threats to LLMs and how organizations can protect themselves:
Salesforce perspective: “As generative AI and its many capabilities rapidly evolve, it’s crucial for organizations to stay ahead of potential security risks that the deployment of LLMs can bring to the forefront. With more than a decade of expertise in AI, and with trust as our number one value, Salesforce has both the expertise and commitment to provide our customers, partners, and the entire ecosystem with the tools and resources needed to navigate the changing landscape and mitigate risks.” – Sri Srinivasan, Senior Director, Information Security
With more than a decade of expertise in AI, and with trust as our number one value, Salesforce has both the expertise and commitment to provide our customers, partners, and the entire ecosystem with the tools and resources needed to navigate the changing landscape and mitigate risks.
– Sri Srinivasan, Senior Director, Information Security
Zoom out: The White House is also urging companies to ramp up safety efforts to prevent dangerous misuse of LLMs through the AI Executive Order and voluntary commitments for advancing safe and trustworthy AI.
Beyond is tapping Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and MuleSoft to drive actionable insights from its customer data
Midvale, UT, May 1, 2024 – Today, Beyond, Inc. (NYSE:BYON), owner of ecommerce brands Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock and Zulily, announced an expanded investment in Salesforce, the #1 AI CRM, to drive greater customer loyalty and deliver more personalized shopping experiences for their customers across all the company’s brands.
Beyond will now use Salesforce Data Cloud, powered by the Einstein 1 Platform, to unify customer data across both multiple brands and multiple enterprise data systems. This unified data will help Beyond better understand who their customers are, how they act, and how they engage across brands. Beyond will then take action on these insights using Salesforce Marketing Cloud to execute personalized journeys that increase customer loyalty and spend across brands.
“The Beyond management team made a commitment to vastly improve the way we ingest, process and utilize our valuable customer data,” said Marcus Lemonis, Executive Chairman of the Beyond, Inc. Board of Directors. “Growth in our company must be driven by a profitable mindset to invest in customers who show a propensity to buy and return. Our active customer file growth must be process- and profit-minded and these tools dramatically enhance that capability.”
“Our work with Salesforce signifies a new era for Beyond, with digital at the forefront of our growth initiatives,” said Carlisha Robinson, Chief Customer Officer, Beyond, Inc. “Through our expanded collaboration, we will harness the capabilities of the Einstein 1 Platform, including Data Cloud, to tap the power of AI and data to reach our customers in a more personalized way and drive loyalty providing the same unique and tailored experience shopping online as they get when they walk into a retail store.”
“Giving customers personalized experiences and choices that are meaningful and intentional is how businesses win in today’s customer-connected world,” said Ariel Kelman, Chief Marketing Officer, Salesforce. “Beyond is using Salesforce’s trusted AI, Data Cloud and integration technology to deliver the highly compelling personalized experiences that turn casual single brand customers into long term customers who regularly purchase across a wide range of Beyond brands. This will help Beyond drive revenue growth and enhance customer relationships in a whole new way.”
Data is at the heart of every successful customer strategy. Today, 60% of retailers say they’re not fully able to use data to make decisions. Unlocking, harmonizing, and operationalizing trapped data is critical to driving personalized experiences and getting the highest lift from consumers during peak shopping moments of the year.
Beyond is working with Salesforce and using Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud and MuleSoft to unlock real-time data across its modern and legacy systems and turn its reservoir of customer data into actionable insights. With a single, holistic view of their customers, Beyond will be able to make more informed decisions about new market opportunities and build tailored shopper experiences that adapt to real-time customer actions, including abandoned shopping carts or actions taken on a website or mobile app.
Salesforce, Data Cloud are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.
Beyond, Inc. (NYSE:BYON), based in Midvale, Utah, is an ecommerce expert with a singular focus: connecting consumers with products and services that unlock their homes’ potential. The Company owns Overstock, Bed Bath & Beyond, Baby & Beyond, Zulily, and other related brands and associated intellectual property. Its suite of online shopping brands features millions of products for various life stages that reach millions of customers each month.
Beyond, Bed Bath & Beyond, Welcome Rewards, Zulily, and Overstock are trademarks of Beyond, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks and trade names which may be referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including but not limited to statements regarding performance and customer experience. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on February 23, 2024, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC.
International Data Corporation (IDC) has ranked Salesforce as the #1 CRM provider in its 2024 Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker®. This is the 11th consecutive time Salesforce has earned the top spot.
Why it’s important: IDC is a premier global market intelligence firm widely cited as a top source for market data. Its Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker offers an “in-depth look into the competitive landscape and market dynamics shaping the current and future direction of the global software industry.”
Details: In 2023, Salesforce market share in CRM reached 21.7% and the company gained more revenue than any other CRM vendor, according to IDC.
Salesforce perspective: “Salesforce earning the #1 rank globally once again underscores our unwavering commitment to helping our customers connect with their customers in a whole new way. As we push the boundaries of what’s possible with CRM, AI, data, and trust on the Einstein 1 Platform, Salesforce is well positioned to lead the industry through this AI innovation cycle — delivering far greater productivity, stronger relationships with customers, and optimized daily workflows and processes for companies around the world.” — David Schmaier, President and Chief Product Officer, Salesforce
As we push the boundaries of what’s possible with CRM, AI, data, and trust on the Einstein 1 Platform, Salesforce is well positioned to lead the industry through this AI innovation cycle — delivering far greater productivity, stronger relationships with customers, and optimized daily workflows and processes for companies around the world.
David Schmaier, President and Chief Product Officer, Salesforce
Zoom out: Leading companies like IHG Hotels & Resorts are standardizing their CRM with Salesforce on the Einstein 1 Platform, which brings CRM, AI, data, and trust on a single, unified platform to drive customer loyalty, more tailored experiences, and greater efficiencies.
Source: IDC, Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker, April 2024. CRM market includes the following IDC-defined functional markets: Sales Force Productivity and Management, Marketing Campaign Management, Customer Service, Contact Center, Advertising, and Digital Commerce Applications.
Global semiconductor distributor and manufacturer Rochester Electronics is a longtime customer that uses multiple Salesforce solutions, including Slack and Sales Cloud. The company’s sales team recently started using Slack Sales Elevate, a sales workspace that centralizes Salesforce insights and automates opportunity tasks by natively integrating Sales Cloud with Slack, to work and sell more efficiently.
Why it matters: Previously, Rochester Electronics’ sales team was encumbered by administrative tasks, gaps in communication, and having to manually pull insights from Sales Cloud into other siloed tools. Sales reps needed a more efficient and streamlined way to collaborate on deals and act on opportunities, while their leaders needed better visibility into real-time deal movement so that they could help the team drive customer success.
The impact: With Sales Elevate, Rochester Electronics works collaboratively on deals, saves time, simplifies processes, and centralizes CRM insights right where they’re already working. It only takes the team a few seconds to update a metric from their personalized sales workspace in Slack and have that data automatically sync to Salesforce.
Customer perspective: “Slack Sales Elevate is a game changer for our business and our customers. Our team is now able to work more collaboratively on opportunities and projects, increasing the speed of response, while also allowing me and other leaders to communicate greater efficiency and effectiveness,” said Colin Strother, Executive Vice President, Rochester Electronics
Slack Sales Elevate is a game changer for our business and our customers.
Colin Strother, Executive Vice President, Rochester Electronics
Tableau Conference, referred to by data enthusiasts as the “Data Event of the Year,” celebrates the Tableau Community and empowers everyone to be a data expert
New extensibility and usability features, along with free local file sharing in Tableau Desktop Public, bring the power of analytics to even more people
Pulse and Einstein Copilot expand Tableau’s user base to more line-of-business workers with AI features, while IT teams gain support with new options for scale and growth
For years, Tableau has been known for its simple mission statement: “We Help People See and Understand Data.” At Tableau Conference 2024, the massively popular data and analytics event, Tableau is announcing improvements to its platform that will delight data analysts and expand its user base beyond data professionals, giving everyone across every organization the ability to grow and benefit from data-driven insights.
Today, only 30% of workers say they use data to make business decisions. To help every worker tap into data that helps their businesses grow, analytics must be more approachable and more automated, so workers can follow data-driven recommendations. Tableau sees AI as an opportunity to lower the barrier for entry: according to a 2024 report by Forrester Research, 59% of data and analytics decision makers whose organizations are using AI technologies report significant cost savings from using AI in operations, and 47% say they have AI-based data products that are generating revenue.
Tableau’s latest announcements include analytical enhancements that improve usability for data analysts, AI that unlocks data for more people, and scalability improvements that ease IT administration and governance tasks in a comprehensive update to the platform.
Tableau’s analyst fanbase flocks to the annual conference to hear about the latest innovations in the application that they love. Over a dozen new features will be showcased in “Devs on Stage,” where Tableau Developers demo new innovations in a live keynote presentation. The session features quality-of-life improvements highly requested by Tableau’s core group of analyst users. Highlights include:
Using these capabilities, an analyst or data curator can create a single underlying model that can source dozens or hundreds of data visualizations. For example, a manufacturing company could combine machine data from its assembly line, worker data on shifts and time off, and data about shipments to and from suppliers in a single model, and create dashboards and applications on topics ranging from IoT data, supplier management, worker productivity, and executive reporting all from one source with one set of underlying metrics.
As AI makes the experience of working with data more approachable, Tableau is seeing its impact expand from analysts to knowledge workers in lines of business. Tableau Pulse, launched in February, brings data to the masses with personalized, automated insights powered by AI. Today, Tableau is announcing new capabilities for Pulse and Einstein Copilot for Tableau, an AI assistant that allows novice analysts to explore and base more decisions on data.
Tableau can’t deploy new AI capabilities to every user without the support of IT administrators who govern the system. Tableau announced a scalability update to its Tableau Cloud platform with Hyperforce, Salesforce’s modern, trusted cloud infrastructure, that allows Tableau to develop faster and meet customer data residency requirements. In addition, Tableau has new licensing and support options with Tableau+, a new premium bundle, and Success Plans, an updated support model.
Tableau Conference is the data event of the year, and critically, a chance for us to say ‘thank you’ to our community who have been so supportive and made us successful as a business.
Ryan Aytay, CEO of Tableau
Any unreleased services or features referenced here are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.
Tableau app for Microsoft Teams will enable users to search, share, and interact with Tableau and Tableau Pulse insights from within Teams
Tableau integration with Microsoft Fabric OneLake will provide enhanced data exploration and discovery capabilities for customers
Tableau today announced an expansion to its partnership with Microsoft to deliver deeper, data-driven, and actionable insights by integrating Tableau with Microsoft Teams and enhancing connectivity with Microsoft Fabric. With this announcement, Tableau is delivering on its promise of an open architecture, interoperability, and continuing to prioritize customer success.
Tableau’s integration with Microsoft Teams will enable users to access Tableau’s AI-powered insights and collaborate on them without switching apps or context. The Microsoft Fabric integration will help Tableau users access and use data from OneLake to drive unified insights. These integrations save valuable time by keeping users in the flow of work and by enabling access to their data without duplicating or transferring it to other systems.
Why it matters: Microsoft is a trusted cloud and data services provider for many Tableau customers. As part of Tableau’s commitment to delivering analytics and AI solutions, these integrations will improve interoperability and enable mutual customers to derive greater value from their data and IT investments.
Many customers use Microsoft Teams with Tableau, sharing insights derived using Tableau’s leading analytics platform in their conversations and meetings. But today, this sharing doesn’t happen in real time; changes in the underlying data renders these insights outdated or inaccurate. If a user has a follow-up question, they need to leave the Teams app to perform a manual cut-paste for additional analysis, leading to lost productivity and potential data exposure risk. When Tableau and Tableau Pulse apps become available for Teams, these users will be able to provide a more trusted and secure way to share accurate insights with all of the appropriate individuals within the Teams environment. Microsoft products and services are also an important data source users of Tableau need to access to generate analyses and insights. Tableau already integrates with Microsoft services such as SQL Server, Azure Synapse, and Azure Cosmos DB. Adding access to the data in Microsoft Fabric further expands the set of data sources Tableau users can harness for their insights and analyses.
The benefits of data collaboration and AI-powered analysis will allow customers to work more efficiently, make informed decisions, and take advantage of the full potential of their data across platforms.
Benefits of the expanded partnership with Microsoft include:
By combining Tableau’s AI and analytics capabilities with Microsoft’s collaboration and analytics tools, organizations can unlock valuable insights and make data-driven decisions directly within their workflows.
Ryan Aytay, CEO & President, Tableau
The Salesforce perspective: “Tableau is such a widely-used and loved platform that we want to do everything we can to provide integrations to give our customers what they need to democratize data and unlock the power of data for all. With Tableau’s integrations with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Fabric, organizations will be able to seamlessly use their data while working together in real time. By combining Tableau’s AI and analytics capabilities with Microsoft’s collaboration and analytics tools, organizations can unlock valuable insights and make data-driven decisions directly within their workflows,” – Ryan Aytay, CEO & President, Tableau
More information:
Over half of the Gen Z respondents in a recent survey of 1,000 Americans said looking at their personal data, such as their financial and healthcare information, makes them anxious. In fact, Gen Z is 36% more likely than baby boomers to struggle with understanding their personal data. Despite feeling the most data angst, however, members of Gen Z are also the most willing to use AI to better understand their data to make more informed decisions that impact their well-being and financial outlook.
Why it matters: According to an EY study on Gen Z, this generation feels substantial anxiety and stress about financial stability, jobs, and other major life decisions. As the first digitally-native generation, Gen Z has grown up with an overwhelming amount of personal data to manage. The amount of data created, captured, and consumed worldwide is expected to grow more than 180 zettabytes by 2025 – equivalent to 6.8 billion years of continuous Netflix streaming. With the increasing complexity and volume of information, this survey reveals that younger generations are struggling to understand and act on data in their daily lives.
With trusted AI-powered insights, people can bridge the gap between data overload and data action.
Ryan Aytay, Tableau President & CEO
Salesforce perspective: “Cultivating a data-driven mindset among younger generations is so critical — and AI can provide incredible tools and insights to help navigate today’s overwhelming data landscape. With trusted AI-powered insights, people can bridge the gap between data overload and data action.” – Ryan Aytay, Tableau President & CEO
Methodology: Salesforce conducted a double-anonymous survey in partnership with YouGov from March 12-14, 2024. It included over 1,000 U.S. general population respondents. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all U.S. adults (aged 18+). The survey took place online.
Enterprise teams are 5x more likely to struggle with implementing new technology
A recent survey of 600 IT professionals reveals that small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are more confident about AI and its benefits than their enterprise counterparts. In fact, the vast majority (95%) of IT pros working in SMBs feel confident about using generative AI in their jobs, and see more opportunity for revenue growth from the technology.
Why it matters: The rise of new generative AI technology is democratizing innovation and allowing SMBs to compete on a more level playing field. By embracing AI, the research shows that SMBs are already gleaning deeper business insights, increasing revenue, and improving customer experiences.
The Salesforce research found:
Top 3 benefits of AI for SMBs:
Top 3 benefits of AI for enterprises:
SMB teams suddenly have more time for more strategic and high-value work like connecting with prospects and customers.
Kristopher Billmaier, GM of Starter Suite
Salesforce perspective: “AI is really leveling the playing field for SMBs. With generative AI taking on much of their repetitive and sometimes menial tasks across a fully connected suite of products, SMB teams suddenly have more time for more strategic and high-value work like connecting with prospects and customers. As a result, they can move as fast — or faster than — larger companies while dramatically improving customer experience.” – Kristopher Billmaier, GM of Starter Suite
Methodology: In partnership with Vanson Bourne, Salesforce conducted a double-anonymous survey of 600 IT professionals (200 IT leaders and 400 IT individual contributors) in Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The survey was fielded between December 2023 and January 2024.
Research shows 95% of SMB IT teams are confident in their AI skills
Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are known for being more agile than enterprises but often lack the resources to compete with their larger counterparts.
At least that’s how it used to be.
Today, sales teams from smaller companies like BACA Systems, Crexi, Ennube Solutions, and Beyond Better Foods are tapping the power of AI to automate time-consuming, manually-intensive administrative tasks. These non-selling activities account for 72% of a rep’s day and take them away from finding and closing deals.
In fact, a recent survey of 600 IT professionals revealed SMBs might even be ahead of their enterprise counterparts in implementing AI. The study showed 95% of SMB IT professionals feel confident in their generative AI skills, compared to 81% of enterprise IT professionals. At the same time, enterprise IT teams are 5x more likely than SMB IT teams to struggle with balancing speed, business value, and security when implementing new technologies, the report found.
“AI is really leveling the playing field for SMBs,” said Kristopher Billmaier, GM of Salesforce Starter Suite, which bundles marketing, sales, service, and commerce tools in a complete CRM built for SMBs. “With generative AI taking on much of their repetitive and sometimes menial tasks across a fully connected suite of products, SMB teams suddenly have more time for more strategic and high-value work like connecting with prospects and customers. As a result, they can move as fast — or faster than — larger companies while dramatically improving customer experience.”
The emergence of SMBs as leaders in AI implementation presents significant implications for the business landscape. Unlike larger enterprises, SMBs often face fewer bureaucratic hurdles. This agility means they’re often quicker to deploy innovative technologies like AI that enable them to address market changes and shifting customer demand faster than their bigger competitors.
Many small businesses, which make up 99.9% of all firms in the United States, are already experiencing or expect to experience deeper business insights, increased revenue, and improved customer experience from investments in AI technologies like the Einstein 1 Platform and Salesforce Data Cloud, according to Salesforce’s survey.
BACA Systems, which produces equipment for the global natural stone industry, is one of those. Since June 2023, it has doubled sales productivity using Einstein 1 Sales. BACA’s lean sales team is now punching above its weight with the help of these AI tools, which automatically generate summaries of sales opportunities, suggest the next best personalized interaction, and generate customized follow-up emails to leads.
“We’re not a large enterprise with unlimited resources,” said BACA Systems’ Enterprise Architect Andrew Russo. “We have a small team managing a lot of accounts, so our AI tools become force multipliers that allow our sales team to give our clients high-touch engagements without spending crazy amounts of time.”
For example, Russo said BACA’s sales team uses Einstein Activity Capture, an AI-enabled productivity tool, to surface insights from customer interactions like email and phone calls.
“It’s not feasible for our sales reps to read every single email, so summarizing those key highlights really helps to save our sales team time,” Russo said.
The sales team at Crexi, a real estate platform that’s adopted the Einstein 1 Platform, is also making serious strides in efficiency. By automating tasks with AI, reps are saving up to five hours a day, allowing them to focus 80% of their time on nurturing customer relationships, according to Lawson Dees, VP of operations for the company. This means that, instead of just focusing on those all-important deals right in front of them, they can spend more time building customer lifetime value (CLV).
AI also helps Crexi reps understand whom they should reach out to at any given time, their needs and pain points, and what products will make the most difference, Dees said. Ultimately, this makes reps more effective at their jobs and helps them deliver true, long-term value, he said.
“What AI can do is serve up the right person to call and tell me why this person should be at the top of my list,” Dees said. “The salesperson doesn’t have to dig for that information so they can feel confident about making those sales call faster.”
Ennube Solutions is a software consultancy headquartered in Berkeley, Calif. While it sells its services in the U.S, English has always been a second language for its sales team, which is based in Ecuador. In the past, that meant anyone corresponding with customers had to spend extra time crafting and proofreading email correspondence, which limited how many communications they could send and took them away from other vital work.
That changed, however, after Ennube adopted Einstein 1 Sales. Since making its move, the company can automatically generate personalized emails in English and at scale — made possible because Einstein 1 Sales is grounded in the company’s relevant customer data. Einstein 1 Sales also assists with finding leads that are highly likely to convert to sales based on Ennube’s ideal customer profile and past deals.
The sales team now sends 5,600% more prospect emails, sells 50% faster, and reps have more time in their day to spend on customer service and strategic planning, according to Ennube CEO Alex Garcia.
As a sales leader, I’m blown away by the productivity gains of pairing a human with the Einstein 1 Platform.
Alex Garcia, Ennube CEO
“Salesforce and Einstein empower our sales team to reach new heights faster by taking the guesswork out of sales messaging and building confidence in our approaches and rebuttals,” Garcia said. “As a sales leader, I’m blown away by the productivity gains of pairing a human with the Einstein 1 Platform.”
It’s not just SMB sales teams using AI. Beyond Better Foods, the fully remote healthy dessert company that operates brands including Enlightened Frozen Treats and Bada Bean Bada Boom Snacks, is using Slack AI to better coordinate planning and logistics across teams.
Before using Slack AI — a trusted and intuitive generative AI experience built into the Slack messaging app — essential business details like logistics and freight planning information would be stuck in disparate silos. Beyond Better Foods’ operations team ate up a significant amount of time scavenging for these mission-critical details, in addition to distracting their colleagues who would inevitably be pulled in to help in the hunt — a slow, cumbersome, and unscalable process. Now, its operations team members can quickly ask Slack AI for information like product locations and shipping times using plain language, saving them time without diverting workers’ focus.
“The enhanced search capabilities of Slack AI have been really helpful to fast-track answers, especially when it comes to logistics,” said Beyond Better Foods’ Vice President of Operations, Andy Kung. “When I need to get my CEO a fast answer at 2 p.m. on a Friday, I can use Slack AI’s search function. I’ve only been using Slack AI for about a month, but it’s already helped me quickly find answers countless times and is saving me at least 30 minutes a day.”
AI is reshaping the business landscape, and SMBs are seizing the opportunity. To get their business AI-ready, Salesforce’s Billmaier suggests that SMBs use Starter Suite or Pro Suite, which helps small businesses unlock their data across departments by combining marketing, sales, service, and commerce in one CRM suite. By uniting customer data and combining it with pre-built templates and ready-to-use tools, Salesforce helps businesses become more efficient now and prepare them for the future.
Looking ahead, Billmaier sees new AI capabilities like automated proposals, predictive sales modeling, and customer communications enabling SMBs to deliver more exceptional customer experiences, keep a close watch on operating expenses, drive sustainable growth, and compete in ways they’ve never imagined.
“The amazing thing about Salesforce is that customers never outgrow it. Customers can start with the Starter and Pro Suites, and as they naturally grow and their needs for more advanced functionality increase, they can seamlessly graduate to other solutions on the Einstein 1 Platform, which is likely to be at the center of it all,” Billmaier said.
This year, Salesforce celebrated its 25th anniversary — which also marks the 25th anniversary of the 1-1-1 philanthropic model.
This model — which has dedicated 1% of the company’s equity, 1% of its product, and 1% of employees’ time back to the community since our founding — has allowed our impact to grow alongside our business. Through our 1-1-1 model, we have given:
Our philanthropic giving has been dedicated to education since the beginning, and we’ve also expanded our focus in recent years to include climate justice.
Now, we’re entering into a new era of philanthropy as the rise of AI has profound implications for the workforce, our communities, and the planet. As we navigate this shift, we’re committed to ensuring no one is left behind and using our influence and resources to build a more equitable and sustainable world.
As we navigate this shift, we’re committed to ensuring no one is left behind and using our influence and resources to build a more equitable and sustainable world.
Our education philanthropy focuses on advancing equity in education and creating more career opportunities for underserved youth. As transformative technologies like generative AI transform classrooms and future jobs, our grants provide students with opportunities to access advanced courses, gain in-demand skills, and explore potential new careers.
In fiscal year 2024, we provided $36 million in education grants, supporting 46 organizations globally. These grants included funding to school districts and global education nonprofits to provide access to STEM courses and career-aligned learning experiences. We supported integrative secondary school approaches, alternative postsecondary experiences, and programs focused on networking and upskilling to create more equitable pathways into tech and green jobs.
In fiscal year 2024, we provided $36 million in education grants, supporting 46 organizations globally.
We also supported education organizations through our Catalyst Fund, which provides unrestricted capital to smaller and younger nonprofits. In total, our education giving in fiscal year 2024 will impact more than 100,000 educators and nearly 7 million students and young people.
Salesforce is bringing the full power of our business to accelerate climate action. Through our philanthropic investments, we aim to help disproportionately climate-impacted communities mitigate future climate impacts and adapt to current climate realities.
In fiscal year 2024, we provided $10 million in climate justice grants, supporting 18 organizations globally. These grants funded innovative, nature-based solutions, supported nonprofits advancing an equitable transition to a clean energy economy, and backed organizations accelerating the ecopreneur revolution. In total, our climate giving in fiscal year 2024 will conserve and restore more than 11,000 hectares of land. Our climate justice grantees expect our investments to catalyze more than $225 million in follow-on funding.
In fiscal year 2024, we provided $10 million in climate justice grants, supporting 18 organizations globally.
We also supported humanitarian nonprofits to help proactively jumpstart their relief efforts. To respond to the immediate impacts of climate change, Salesforce and its employees raised more than $2 million to support humanitarian nonprofits in the wake of climate-exacerbated disasters like the Turkey-Syria earthquakes and Maui wildfires.
In fiscal year 2024, we launched the Salesforce Accelerator – AI for Impact, a philanthropic initiative to help purpose-driven organizations gain equitable access to trusted generative AI technologies. This accelerator aims to close the AI access gap — inequality between those who have the resources, skills, and opportunity to benefit from AI and those who do not — by providing flexible funding, pro-bono expertise, and technology to purpose-driven organizations.
The first cohort of six nonprofits in the accelerator developed innovative AI solutions to improve equity in education and advance economic opportunity. The next cohort is working on solutions to use AI for climate action.
At Salesforce, we believe our impact goes further with collective action. We’re proud to be founding members of 1t.org, an ambitious initiative to protect and restore the world’s forests. In 2020, Salesforce made a substantial commitment toward that goal to fund the conservation, restoration, and growth of 100 million trees by 2030.
At Salesforce, we believe our impact goes further with collective action.
As part of our 1t.org commitment, Salesforce is supporting the Mangrove Breakthrough, a new initiative to secure the future of the world’s mangroves. In partnership with Plant-for-the-Planet, we invested in eight mangrove restoration and conservation projects, helping to fund the restoration and conservation of over 8 million trees in fiscal year 2024, bringing our total to 52 million trees.
Salesforce is also a founding member and champion of Pledge 1%, a global movement to ensure giving back is baked into the DNA of companies of all sizes. We’re proud to work with Pledge 1% to provide tools and resources to help other companies adopt our 1-1-1 model. Today, more than 18,000 companies in over 130 countries have joined the Pledge 1% movement.
Philanthropy at Salesforce is funded by a combination of corporate giving and donations from the Salesforce Foundation.
AI-Powered Transaction Dispute Management streamlines the entire dispute process to resolve customer inquiries and requests more efficiently
Einstein Copilot Banking Actions automates time-consuming tasks like capturing and summarizing customer details, updating customer information, and personalizing email communications
Customers such as PenFed Credit Union and BayPort Credit Union use Salesforce Financial Services Cloud to enhance customer interactions and improve employee productivity
Salesforce today launched new AI-powered capabilities, built on the Einstein 1 Platform, to help banks handle transaction disputes more quickly and efficiently.
The capabilities, which include Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions, combine transaction data from banking platforms with customer data from Salesforce to automate manual tasks, reduce errors, resolve issues, and improve customer communications, all from a single platform.
Why it matters: A surge in digital payments and online shopping has fueled a rise in customer chargebacks. Last year, Americans disputed $83 billion in charges, with the cost of handling disputes increasing by 16% compared to 2022 – and it continues to rise. Current approaches for managing disputes are complicated, resulting in frustrated customers and significant financial losses for businesses.
Innovation in action: These new AI-powered financial services capabilities will help resolve transaction disputes more efficiently and boost service agent productivity through:
High-quality AI requires high-quality data and insights: All of these new features are fueled by data from Data Cloud, allowing banks to unlock and unify large-scale transaction records from core financial platforms, data lakes, and custom systems to deliver more accurate responses. Additionally, the Vector Database in Salesforce helps ingest, manage, and store unstructured data – like policy documents, PDFs, and HTML documents — leading to more comprehensive generative AI outputs. Bank service agents will be able to access relevant transaction data in a centralized view, including the status of various customer disputes, to resolve them fast.
Salesforce perspective: “The current process for managing transaction disputes is complex and cumbersome, leading to decreased productivity for bank service agents. These new capabilities simplify and streamline the entire transaction dispute cycle, enabling banks to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive innovation across their business.” – Eran Agrios, SVP & GM for Financial Services
These new capabilities simplify and streamline the entire transaction dispute cycle, enabling banks to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive innovation across their business.
Eran Agrios, SVP & GM for Financial Services
Customer perspective:
Availability:
Pricing:
More Information:
Any unreleased services or features referenced here are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.
Goosehead Insurance, an independent personal lines insurance agency, is now using the Einstein 1 Platform to build deeper client relationships and improve productivity with trusted data and AI from Salesforce.
At-a-glance: Goosehead is focused on reducing barriers and unlocking their large datasets to adequately manage their growing business. The insurance company invested in the Einstein 1 Platform to unify Goosehead data from various systems and consolidate it together under one umbrella for use in a variety of applications. With Salesforce, Goosehead can service policyholders more efficiently and effectively with industry-leading innovations like its direct-to-consumer quoting platform, which gives customers quotes on new insurance policies in under two minutes.
The impact: By integrating Salesforce solutions, the company will empower agents to be more productive, delivering more timely, personalized experiences and better business outcomes. This is especially important during time-sensitive situations common to the property and casualty marketplace, for example, in the aftermath of a severe weather event or car accident. Goosehead’s new service capabilities include:
AI benefits on the horizon:
The Goosehead perspective: “At Goosehead Insurance, we lead with innovation and offer unparalleled customer experiences. Goosehead’s investment in the Einstein 1 Platform will further enhance the Aviator platform and help our agents provide even more comprehensive insurance solutions for deeper engagement with our clients and improved productivity.” – Brim Basom, Managing Director of Technology and Innovation, Goosehead Insurance
By harnessing the power of CRM, trusted data, and AI, agents gain a complete view of their accounts, enabling their policyholders to cultivate stronger, personalized relationships with customers.
Eran Agrios, SVP & GM, Financial Services, Salesforce
Salesforce perspective: “Our longstanding partnership with Goosehead Insurance demonstrates our joint commitment to fostering innovation in the insurance industry and empowering agents to work more efficiently. By harnessing the power of CRM, trusted data, and AI, agents gain a complete view of their accounts, enabling their policyholders to cultivate stronger, personalized relationships with customers.” – Eran Agrios, SVP & GM, Financial Services, Salesforce
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