6 in 10 IT Workers Report Shortage of AI Skills in the Public Sector
A media feeding frenzy over the exploding scale and increasing costs of artificial intelligence (AI) has created a divide between the reality of the technology and its perception among decision makers, explained Silvio Savarese, Chief Scientist of Salesforce AI Research in a recent interview.
Whether these concerns come from worries about the bottom line, the impact of AI on the environment, or even basic questions of fairness and access, Savarese believes that changing these misconceptions requires an understanding of when scale is necessary to deliver high-quality AI outputs — and when it isn’t.
In the interview, Savarese also shared why the environmental and financial price tag of AI doesn’t have to be as head-spinning as the headlines might suggest, and how understanding the different scales and performance of AI models can help any business responsibly harness this transformative technology to boost productivity, build deeper relationships with customers, and enhance daily workflows and processes.
Rather than asking if the scale of today’s LLMs is necessary, let’s ask what it’s necessary for.
The scale and size of an AI deployment isn’t inherently advantageous. Rather, when implementing AI, there’s a range of possibilities and trade-offs that should be explored. Remember, the ChatGPTs of the world are designed to do more or less everything, and that makes them very different from most enterprise applications. They can help with homework, suggest holiday recipes, and even reimagine La bohème’s libretto as Socratic dialogues. It’s a great party trick — albeit an expensive one. Training Open AI’s ChatGPT 4 cost more than $100 million. But that isn’t what enterprises are using AI for.
The scale and size of an AI deployment isn’t inherently advantageous. Rather, when implementing AI, there’s a range of possibilities and trade-offs that should be explored.”
Silvio Savarese, Chief Scientist of Salesforce AI Research
There’s also the environmental impact of these large LLMs. The hypothetical long-term benefits of AI in combating climate change in areas such as monitoring emissions and optimizing the transportation of goods are significant, with the potential to reduce global emissions 5 to 10% by 2030. However, the utilization of LLMs, while groundbreaking in their capabilities, requires enormous computing resources, exacerbating pressing concerns such as the release of greenhouse gasses, the depletion of water resources, and the extraction of raw materials along the supply chain. Given the urgency of the climate crisis and the imperative to combat planet-warming emissions, it’s paramount that the development and implementation of AI technologies doesn’t surpass the capacity of our planet’s resources.
In contrast to LLMs like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, an AI model like our own CodeGen 2.5, has a limited set of tasks — helping developers write, understand, and debug code faster. Despite its deliberately small scale, its performance is on a par with models literally twice its size, boasting remarkable efficiency without compromising on utility. So even as it helps developers work faster, it also reduces costs, latency, and, crucially, environmental impact compared to larger-scale LLMs.
Businesses should not be asking whether they need scale, but how they want to apply that scale. Depending on the task, the answer may vary wildly — and bigger is most certainly not always better.
Believe it or not, even this isn’t a clear-cut answer. Large models do generally outperform their smaller counterparts when it comes to flexibility. But therein lies the nuance that is so often left out of conversations around LLMs: as tasks become more narrow, more well-defined, and more unique to a specific organization or domain — exactly what enterprise AI is all about — it’s possible to do more with less.
In other words, most models aren’t meant to be everything to everyone, which frees up enterprises to focus on their needs while saving huge amounts of resources in the process.
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Not all the time, no. But under the right circumstances, small models really can offer the best of all worlds: reduced cost, lower environmental impact, and improved performance. Small models are often neck-and-neck with large ones when it comes to tasks like knowledge retrieval, technical support, and answering customer questions.
Small models are often neck-and-neck with large ones when it comes to tasks like knowledge retrieval, technical support, and answering customer questions.”
Silvio Savarese, Chief Scientist of Salesforce AI Research
In fact, with the right strategy, they can even perform better. This includes models from the open-source world, including Salesforce’s own XGen 7B. Our model is specifically trained on a sequence of data with suitable length, helping it with tasks like the summarization of large volumes of text and even writing code — and it consistently exceeds the performance of larger models by leveraging better grounding strategies and better embeddings. Additional small-scale models from our AI research org are planned to be released soon and will be powering generative AI capabilities for critical customer use cases.
Scaling down models isn’t just about saving money. It’s one of the best ways to ensure AI outputs are reliable. Large models are exciting, but they often don’t provide much information about the data they use. This leaves companies with no choice but to monitor deployments closely to catch harmful or inaccurate outputs. Needless to say, this falls far short of the standard most businesses expect from their technology.
Scaling down models isn’t just about saving money. It’s one of the best ways to ensure AI outputs are reliable.”
Silvio Savarese, Chief Scientist of Salesforce AI Research
Instead, consider a simple, intuitive fact: smaller models are trained on smaller data sets, which are inherently easier to document and understand — an increasingly important trust and transparency measure as the role of LLMs grows to include mission-critical applications that don’t just require reliability, but accountability as well.
Additional steps for verifying that generative AI produces trusted results are of course, critical: the Einstein Trust Layer is Salesforce’s guaranteed accountability model assisting businesses in efficiently managing data privacy, security, and transparency. The Einstein Trust Layer serves as a secure middleman for user interactions with LLMs. Its functions include obscuring personally identifiable information (PII), monitoring output for harmful content, guaranteeing data privacy, prohibiting the storage or use of user data for future training, and unifying discrepancies among various model providers.
There are, of course, times when increasing scale is simply unavoidable, and the power of small models doesn’t negate the potential of bigger ones. But again, let’s ask the right questions: rather than simply asking whether we need scale, let’s ask what you need it for. The answer will inform your strategy from the very first steps, because there are, ultimately, two very different ways to scale: increasing the parameter count of a single model, or orchestration — the connection of multiple models into a single, larger deployment, analogous to multiple human workers coming together as a team.
Orchestration has the potential to offer the power of scale while still keeping its pitfalls in check. After all, even small models can do amazing things when combined with one another, especially when each is geared toward a specific strength that the others might lack: one model to focus on information retrieval, one to focus on user interactions, another to focus on the generation of content and reports, and so on. In fact, smaller models are arguably a more natural choice in such cases, as their specialized focus makes their role in the larger whole easier to define and validate.
In other words, small models can be combined to solve ever-bigger problems, all while retaining the virtues of their small size — each can still be cleanly trained, tuned, and understood with an ease large models can’t touch. And it’s yet another example of why a simple parameter count can often be misleading.
LLMs are a hugely complex topic, and there’s room for any number of voices in the conversation. But we’re overdue for a more balanced, strategic perspective on the question of how much we need to get what we want: how much time, how much compute, and, ultimately, how much cost. The answer isn’t anywhere near as simple as the impression one might get from the headlines, and I believe amazing things can be done on just about any budget. It’s just a matter of knowing what’s possible.
Today, Salesforce announced it has named Jason Yau as SVP and Architect, within the Office of the CEO. In his new role, Jason will partner deeply with Salesforce’s customers on their digital transformations and drive innovation in the Salesforce roadmap to further accelerate its position as the #1 AI CRM.
Jason is a seasoned, three-time CTO who has a proven track record leading successful B2C and commerce transformations. Most recently, he was the Global Enterprise CTO at Shopify and prior to that, he was CTO at Dollar Shave Club and SPARC Group (parent company of retail brands Eddie Bauer, Nautica, and Reebok among others).
At Salesforce, Jason will work with Fortune 500 customers spanning multiple industries. He’ll leverage the full breadth of the Salesforce Platform—as well as Data Cloud and Einstein 1 — to help customers with their large scale digital transformations.
Jason is a one-of-a-kind consumer visionary with an exceptional track record of technical innovation.
Kendall Collins, Chief Business Officer and Chief of Staff to the CEO
“Jason is a one-of-a-kind consumer visionary with an exceptional track record of technical innovation. By combining his unique skillset and perspective with the breadth of the Salesforce Platform, he will be able to help global brands transform their customer experiences with AI across Commerce, Marketing, Sales and Service,” said Kendall Collins, Chief Business Officer and Chief of Staff to the CEO. “Salesforce has an incredible opportunity ahead with AI and data, and I’m thrilled to partner with Jason to help drive this next phase of our growth.”
With its values driven culture, deep customer relationships and transformative Einstein 1 and Data Cloud technology, no company is better positioned to lead the AI and data revolution than Salesforce.
Jason Yau, SVP and Architect, Office of the CEO
“It’s a pivotal time for enterprise technology—every brand is looking to harness the power of AI and data at scale,” said Jason Yau, SVP and Architect, Office of the CEO. “With its values driven culture, deep customer relationships and transformative Einstein 1 and Data Cloud technology, no company is better positioned to lead the AI and data revolution than Salesforce. By joining Salesforce, I’ll be able to drive a much broader, deeper, and global impact for brands and I can’t wait to get started.”
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is working with Salesforce to deploy innovative technology systems that support internal collaboration, drive efficiencies in service delivery across various business divisions, and provide real-time visibility into different projects.
The impact: Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of public transit use in the United States, and MassDOT provides safe and reliable transportation for this volume of ridership with a strong focus on customer service. This starts with having scalable and future-proof technologies accessible to employees and constituents.
Go deeper: MassDOT has a number of divisions with different priorities, processes, and systems. The team needed to shift their focus away from legacy systems and migrate their business applications onto low-code/no-code configurable platforms. MassDOT launched a FedRAMP-authorized application development platform on Salesforce to optimize processes agency-wide and personalize the customer service experience across each of its business divisions, including the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV), Aeronautics, Planning and Enterprise Services, and Highway.
MassDOT perspective: “We’ve been using Salesforce’s government solutions to drive our own productivity. Salesforce’s built-in compliance lets us innovate quickly in a safe and secure environment so we can deliver highly-personalized services to the millions of constituents we serve.” – Anu Goutham, Deputy CIO of Information Technology
We’ve been using Salesforce’s government solutions to drive our own productivity. Salesforce’s built-in compliance lets us innovate quickly in a safe and secure environment so we can deliver highly-personalized services to the millions of constituents we serve.
Anu Goutham, Deputy CIO of Information Technology
Salesforce Perspective: “Modernization and innovation are top-of-mind for the public sector, and MassDOT was in need of consolidated, real-time systems that help create better collaboration across business divisions. By implementing these solutions, Salesforce will continue to help MassDOT drive greater efficiency and transparency for its employees and constituents.” – Nasi Jazayeri, EVP & GM, Public Sector
Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series to spotlight our Equality Groups and how they serve Salesforce’s global employees. Check out additional interviews with the leaders of Salesforce Women’s Network, BOLDforce, and Faithforce.
To celebrate Earth Month, we spoke with Lindsey Peterson, Global President of Earthforce, Salesforce’s Equality Group dedicated to promoting and celebrating environmental responsibility. Here, Peterson shares why Earthforce’s 14,000 global members believe in being better people for the planet — and creating a better planet for all people.
I started at Salesforce in 2019 as a Recruiting Coordinator, and have since moved through different roles within our Employee Success organization. Most recently, I took on a role on the newly formed Talent Growth and Development team as a Talent Strategy and Design Manager. In this role, I get to work specifically on executive talent management and succession planning.
Earthforce was one of the reasons I joined Salesforce. I was transitioning out of higher education and wanted to find a company that was constantly innovating. Friends who worked at Salesforce told me about the company’s Equality Groups and commitment to giving back, which was something I was passionate about.
Earthforce was one of the reasons I joined Salesforce.
Lindsey Peterson, Global President of Earthforce, Salesforce’s Equality Group
Naturally, when I joined Salesforce, I got involved in Earthforce right away. I started by co-leading the Earthforce hub in Sydney, and I approached the global leadership team about additional ways to get more involved. There was an open role for the Global Growth Chair position within Earthforce, and after a year and a half, I stepped into the Global President’s role, where I’ve been for the last three years.
Our vision is to create a better planet for all people by being multipliers for sustainable and equitable change. Earthforce is an educational space where we have conversations to learn more about climate action, sustainability, waste management, and how to drive impact.
We’re also focused on creating opportunities for volunteerism, specifically around restoration projects that will have lasting results on the community and planet. For example, we’ve organized litter pickups, dune restoration projects, tree planting, and generative bush care in places like Sydney. During my time as Global President, we’ve achieved more than 280,000 employee volunteer hours in our communities around the world.
One example is our partnership with the Real Estate and Workplace Services (REWS) team to help influence waste management in our buildings. We’ve partnered with REWS to understand our leasing structures and where waste goes in our buildings, influence more sustainable practices, and educate employees on how to manage their waste effectively.
For example, the blackwater system in Salesforce Tower in San Francisco is a first-of-its-kind green technology that recycles the building’s wastewater, saving an estimated 30,000 gallons of water per work day. And Salesforce Tower Sydney, where I’m based, is also one of the most sustainable office buildings in Sydney.
To kick off Earth Month, we hosted an educational session on the environmental impact of AI and Salesforce’s sustainable approach to AI. Throughout the month, we’ll activate our global members through opportunities to give back to our communities. We’re organizing tree-planting efforts in major cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and New York. Globally, employees can volunteer to map the Amazon Rainforest. Through this effort, volunteers will incorporate Indigenous and local community knowledge around settlements, water sources, and sacred sites into a comprehensive map of the Amazon, providing more holistic information to conservation and restoration teams on the ground.
Global Earthforce President Lindsey Peterson attends Salesforce’s annual Global Equality Leadership Summit (GELS) and participates in a monthly Earthforce volunteer event with Defy Design, an innovator in the waste and plastic space.
Like all Equality Groups, we want to use employee voices to create positive change. We need to take climate action now, and it can be challenging to know where to start to feel you are making a true impact.
We surveyed our members and one of their top asks was for climate education. At the end of the month, we’re launching a sustainability storytellers program, which will empower our members to be able to talk about Salesforce’s sustainability journey, Net Zero Cloud, emissions reductions, and more. We want to educate people on this landscape so they can bring their knowledge and passion to their day job.
Everyone is a multiplier for change, and when we come together, we can amplify the impact of our actions. This means not only adopting sustainable practices individually, but also advocating for systemic changes, influencing policy, and mobilizing others to take action. While small-scale initiatives are important, it will take large, global policy shifts — beyond the scope of what individuals can do in our everyday lives — to make lasting change.
While small-scale initiatives are important, it will take large, global policy shifts — beyond the scope of what individuals can do in our everyday lives — to make lasting change.
Lindsey Peterson, Global President of Earthforce, Salesforce’s Equality Group
I love challenging our members to elevate their understanding of what sustainability means and helping them uncover the many ways to drive climate action. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to bring my passion for people and the planet to work every day.
In a recent Salesforce survey, a striking 60% of public sector IT professionals identified a shortage of artificial intelligence (AI) skills as their top challenge to implementing AI.
Why it matters: AI could save hundreds of millions of government staff hours and billions of dollars annually, according to Deloitte. The benefits of AI are only possible if the public sector workforce has the skills to harness the technology. Government agencies are already being directed to implement guidelines and build teams to support the use of AI. This includes expanding and upskilling their AI talent and designating a new Chief AI Officer, which every federal agency was recently ordered to hire.
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Salesforce perspective: “Training and skills development are critical first steps for the public sector to leverage the benefits of AI. By investing in new skills like prompt development, public sector leaders can empower their workforce to use AI to increase productivity, build deeper relationships with constituents, and improve the quality of public services.” – Casey Coleman, SVP, Global Government Solutions
By investing in new skills like prompt development, public sector leaders can empower their workforce to use AI to increase productivity, build deeper relationships with constituents, and improve the quality of public services.
Casey Coleman, SVP, Global Government Solutions
IT professionals in the public sector are about a third more likely to say there’s an AI skills gap in their organization, compared to the industry* average.
By bridging the AI skills gap, organizations can create new efficiencies in the public sector. Salesforce’s survey shows that the public sector’s main goal with AI is to automate routine tasks.
*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. Respondents work across industries, including technology, financial services, media and entertainment, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, the public sector, and more. The survey was fielded in December 2023 and January 2024.
New Caseworker Narrative Generation helps government employees work cases faster by automating manual tasks with AI
Salesforce now offers several FedRAMP-compliant features for products like Field Service, Privacy Center, Security Center, and GovSlack
Salesforce today announced Public Sector Einstein 1 for Service, including CRM, trusted AI, and data capabilities to help government employees automate administrative tasks and provide faster service to constituents. Built on the Einstein 1 platform, public sector organizations can now quickly and easily generate case reports, capture real-time call transcriptions, and document and format case interactions, all in a single offering.
Why it matters: BCG estimates that generative AI could unlock a $1.75 trillion productivity opportunity annually across many functions and levels of government. However, 62% of IT decision makers across industries, including those in the public sector, feel their organization’s data systems are not ready to leverage AI.
Innovation in action: Public Sector Einstein 1 for Service offers government contact center agents and case managers trusted conversational and generative AI, enabling them to be more productive and efficient. Features include:
High-quality AI requires high-quality data and insights: Public Sector Einstein 1 for Service also includes Data Cloud, which connects and harmonizes data and uses it to power government agency applications.
What’s new in compliance: Salesforce also now offers several Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) compliant tools to help government agencies drive efficiency and productivity while meeting regulatory requirements. These tools include:
With Public Sector Einstein 1 for Service, organizations can implement trusted AI to become more efficient, better manage and harmonize their data, and give employees the tools they need to better serve their constituents, all while driving their mission forward.
Nasi Jazayeri, EVP & GM, Public Sector
Salesforce perspective: “Public sector organizations want to simplify their technology stack, better engage with constituents, and reduce employees’ administrative burdens while improving employee productivity. With Public Sector Einstein 1 for Service, organizations can implement trusted AI to become more efficient, better manage and harmonize their data, and give employees the tools they need to better serve their constituents, all while driving their mission forward.” – Nasi Jazayeri, EVP & GM, Public Sector
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.
Salesforce today released new bug bounty learning content on Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform. This content provides the resources for any company to build their own bug bounty program as the cyber security landscape rapidly evolves.
Why it matters: Bug bounty programs, which provide financial rewards to ethical hackers who discover software vulnerabilities, are an effective way for companies to gain insights into bad actors and stay ahead of evolving AI-powered security threats.
Go deeper: The bug bounty series on Trailhead breaks down the process for developing programs into bite-sized learning, including:
The bigger picture: From the volume of identified potential vulnerabilities to the firsthand intel on how hackers are using AI, bug bounty programs offer substantial ROI for organizations. Salesforce’s program, for example, has awarded over $18.9 million in bug bounties since 2015 to its ethical hackers, who have reported nearly 30,600 potential vulnerabilities.
Salesforce perspective: “As a trusted advisor to our customers, we share security tools and information they need to be successful. By providing the resources they need to establish their own bug bounty program and engage with ethical hackers, we are empowering companies to increase customer trust in the age of AI,” said Brad Arkin, Chief Trust Officer.
By providing the resources they need to establish their own bug bounty program and engage with ethical hackers, we are empowering companies to increase customer trust in the age of AI.
Brad Arkin, Chief Trust Officer, salesforce
The Trailblazer perspective: “As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve rapidly, Trailhead has been an incredible resource to continually learn new skills. Having a playbook to seamlessly set up a bug bounty program will unlock new capabilities and reshape how BACA Systems thinks about strengthening security practices,” said Andrew Russo, Salesforce Architect, BACA Systems.
Salesforce today announced AI-powered enhancements to its MuleSoft automation, integration, and API management solutions that help business users and developers improve productivity, simplify workflows, and accelerate time to value.
MuleSoft’s Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) helps teams quickly extract and organize data from diverse document formats including PDFs and images. Unlike other automation solutions, MuleSoft’s IDP is natively integrated into Salesforce Flow, which provides customers with an end-to-end automation experience. Additionally, to speed up project delivery, MuleSoft has embedded Einstein, Salesforce’s predictive and generative AI assistant, in its pro-code and low-code tools. This empowers users to build integrations and automations using natural language prompts directly in IDP, Flow Builder, and Anypoint Code Builder.
Why it matters: Most IT teams are overloaded with project requests. Last year alone, these teams saw requests rise by an estimated 39% — making it difficult for developers to keep up with the pace of business-critical work. Fortunately, generative AI makes it possible to automate many processes, which is a key reason why 86% of IT leaders believe the technology will soon play a prominent role in their organizations.
What’s new in automation:
What’s new in MuleSoft integration and API management:
Salesforce perspective: “Developers are on the frontlines of implementing AI. But to unlock this exciting technology’s full power at scale, organizations need to activate their business users to participate in this implementation. With Einstein powering MuleSoft automation and integration products, every team across an organization can use AI to build and drive seamless customer experiences.” – Vijay Pandiarajan, VP, Product Management
But to unlock this exciting technology’s full power at scale, organizations need to activate their business users to participate in this implementation.
Vijay Pandiarajan, VP, Product Management
Customer perspective: “We have fewer resources and increasing customer demands, so we must find ways to improve our processes and increase productivity wherever we can. AI with integration and automation can help us do this. It’s table stakes now. MuleSoft and Einstein can help us make the most of our data securely to generate relevant outcomes, and overall allow us to innovate faster.” – James Grover, VP – Director of Software Engineering and System Development, at BankUnited
Availability:
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.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt from Salesforce Futures Magazine explores the diverse applications of personal AI agents. It also reveals why digital companions aren’t just technological marvels helping with basic tasks — they are becoming essential tools in addressing some of humanity’s most pressing challenges.
The transformative promise of personal AI agents — artificial intelligence systems designed to assist people with everyday tasks like scheduling a doctor’s appointment, writing an email, or recommending a book — lies in their ability to compensate for human limitations. Anyone who’s struggled to finish one task during a busy day, let alone juggle many of them, can understand why this would be useful.
Imagine an army of infinitely patient interns who stand ready to work on your behalf. These interns can either collaborate alongside you in the flow of work, or they can labor independently, periodically checking in to ensure they’re on the right track. The more they work with you, the smarter they get, learning how you work and think across modes and contexts. Think about a world where all of us have the kind of expert staff currently enjoyed by CEOs: gifted helpers who learn our preferences, understand our goals, engineer outcomes, and specialize in doing all of the things we don’t want to do.
Tech blogger and consultant Venkatesh Rao encourages us to think about machine intelligence as fundamentally different from human intelligence, particularly when it comes to “attention.” Our personal agents will have endless patience for tedious, detailed tasks (think taxes, paperwork, applications, and more) that sap our attention and, occasionally, our desire to endure the human condition. Agents have the potential to remove this burden.
Greater contextual intelligence and more persistent memory suggest agents will provide personalization that’s far greater than what we see today. Itai Asseo and Phil Mui, who work on AI research and development for Salesforce, encourage us to think about personalization in three categories: “know me,” “inform me,” and “empower me.”
Einstein Copilot can answer questions, summarize content, create new content, interpret complex conversations, and dynamically automate tasks on behalf of a user, all from a single, consistent user experience embedded directly within Salesforce’s #1 AI CRM applications.
In the “know me” category, agents keep your goals in mind, analyze your performance, and adjust to your unique style. Because every interaction with personal AI will be remembered — or stored as a state — and factored into future use cases, a flywheel effect takes hold: the more you use your agent, the better it gets at anticipating your needs in an intuitive way.
In the “inform me” category, we consider the possibility that agents could use their contextual intelligence to help guide and prioritize our attention and separate signals from noise. This has clear applications in the personal productivity space, but the implications on the consumer side are no less significant. Imagine an agent who helps you switch on “Zen Mode” and other filters so you can better tune your environment, and even remove things from your plate by acting on your behalf.
Finally, the “empower me” function, which speaks to personal AI’s ability to serve as a coach/mentor, or even a manager.
If personal AI can deliver such control, it will forever change the relationship between customers and companies by raising the bar for direct relational engagement.
Recent demos by startups Humane and Rabbit have started to tangibly articulate what agent-based offerings might look like.
Common early use cases include ordering food, finding gifts for loved ones, planning trips and events, and scheduling appointments. What these demos hint at is a more fluid and flexible collaboration between humans and machines, especially when it comes to attention. Both offerings promise less tapping and scrolling and more focus.
Both products also rely on conversational interfaces to do this, but we think voice will be only one of the ways people interact with their agents. Many proto-agents feature travel in their demos, but solving a multi-part travel puzzle that includes schedules, price comparisons, and airline and hotel preferences using only voice commands is less than ideal. Liz Trudeau of Salesforce Design encourages us to think about a more practical alternative. “Think about a collaborative interaction, a flexible interface that adapts to the task at hand and the job the user is trying to accomplish,” she said.
Think about a collaborative interaction, a flexible interface that adapts to the task at hand and the job the user is trying to accomplish.
Liz Trudeau, Salesforce Design
We like this concept, “UI on the fly,” because it emphasizes a truly responsive interface that adjusts accordingly as needs change. You can get a glimpse of what this multi-modal future might feel like in the much-discussed Google Gemini demo depicting the planning of a birthday party.
In aggregate, these developments point to futures where tools are easier to use and it’s easier than ever to get things done.
In 2014, when Amazon launched its original Echo, the device was little more than a bluetooth speaker. Adding the Alexa assistant promised to turn the Echo into something else entirely: a conversational smart home hub, particularly as the Alexa Voice Service SDK toolset expanded the library of skills available to consumers. Alas, most Echos are still used mainly as speakers and the skills revolution has not happened. Nevertheless, the concept of a core agent and a library of additional skills offers a preview of what we might see in an agentive world, hopefully with results far more impressive than Alexa 1.0.
The ability to train agents on data sets (including proprietary ones) means people can far more easily create useful personal AI tools for others based on specialized knowledge. This, in turn, empowers people to build more agents. Already, we can see Open AI allowing users to rapidly build their own GPTs, enhanced with advanced skills based on additional “instructions, extra knowledge, and any combination of skills.”
These advancements suggest a forthcoming Cambrian explosion of agent skills and capabilities, personalized for an infinite variety of tasks. We know this would transform how companies interact with customers. What we don’t know is which sectors will be transformed first.
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A key element of Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovations is that early disruption will come from offerings that target the unmet needs of customers at the bottom of the market, hitherto uneconomical to serve. Often, these offerings appear inadequate to the mainstream of the already served, but they can grow and improve from tiny seeds. Looking at the emerging agent landscape, we can see an example of this dynamic in the wave of AI companions, such as those provided by Replika, character.ai, and Baidu’s Wantalk.
These companions, chatbots, and avatars serve the needs of the lonely, the elderly, and those who cannot afford costly therapy. While companions can generate an “ick factor” response among mainstream audiences, observers such as Andreesen Horowitz have identified how the “companion stack” may hold clues as to the future directions of the larger agent space.
For example, we may see agents that super-empower individuals, catalyzing a new wave of entrepreneurship in developing countries by serving needs that could never have been met before, and thereby generating a similar impact to that of mobile phones a generation ago.
The evolution of agents will be determined by consumer preferences and progress against technical challenges, but market dynamics and the way businesses and consumers balance trade-offs will play an equal role. In other sections of Futures, the new magazine from Salesforce Futures, we look at how agents work, whether or not agents represent a viable new business category, and some possible and plausible AI futures and their implications.
For a deeper dive into the world of personal AI, check out the magazine here.
Einstein Copilot for Tableau accelerates users with self-service analytics, streamlines analyst workflows, and unlocks strategic data insights for users within the entire organization
Today, Salesforce announced the beta availability of Einstein Copilot for Tableau, a new capability designed to help users in every role and function explore data with AI assistance.
Businesses tend to distribute insights from data in reports and dashboards created by expert analysts. Dashboards created in Tableau are visual and interactive, allowing users to adjust scope by exploring predefined guided paths. But sometimes a user doesn’t find the answer to their question in a dashboard. They need the ability to perform their own exploration of the data without the prerequisite for deep analytical training. With Einstein Copilot for Tableau, users can dive deep into their data, utilizing Tableau’s powerful analytical engine through natural language to query and derive rich insights from data sources like spreadsheets, cloud and on-premises data warehouses, and Salesforce Data Cloud.
Einstein Copilot for Tableau enables customers to increase productivity and uncover deeper data insights through a guided, natural language-driven analytics experience.
Organizations in every industry are searching for efficiencies, better decision-making, and are asking their teams to use new tools that leverage AI.
Einstein Copilot for Tableau makes data analysis accessible to every business user, and even suggests questions to users based on analyzing the business data and metadata, helping reduce the number of change requests and updates needed from data analysts, often resulting in faster data-driven decision-making.
Einstein Copilot for Tableau also leverages the Einstein Trust Layer, giving business and data teams robust tools to help protect data and limit exposure to third-party models. Unlike other AI orchestration engines, the Einstein Trust Layer does not retain customer prompts or the LLM’s responses. This helps customer and proprietary data remain private.
Following Salesforce’s recent introduction of Einstein Copilot, Tableau’s new AI assistant is designed purposely for analytical use cases. Einstein Copilot for Tableau features include:
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Salesforce Introduces Public Sector Einstein 1 for Service: Trusted AI and Automation Capabilities That Drive Efficiencies for Government Agencies
Salesforce Positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape Report for Enterprise B2B Digital Commerce
With Einstein Copilot for Tableau, novice analysts and data-curious users can create analytical views and dashboards without learning complex calculation syntax.
Salesforce perspective: “Every employee, in every function, must develop fundamental data skills to be successful in the modern enterprise,” said Ryan Aytay, CEO, Tableau. “Einstein Copilot for Tableau streamlines that skill development, helping anyone become experts at understanding data, and enables everyone in the business to surface insights more quickly with trusted AI. Now everyone’s a data expert!”
Einstein Copilot for Tableau streamlines that skill development, helping anyone become experts at understanding data, and enables everyone in the business to surface insights more quickly with trusted AI. Now everyone’s a data expert!
Ryan Aytay, CEO, Tableau
Analyst perspective: “Generative AI has the potential to truly revolutionize how insights are accessed and interacted with across the business, but organizations want assurances that the data can be trusted,” said Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. “With trust guardrails in place, gen AI can evolve from an ambition to a super-charged tool for business.”
As Einstein Copilot capabilities evolve, customers of Salesforce and Tableau will be able to ask natural language questions of data, visualize insights, and turn those insights into action that creates better experiences for customers. More information will be shared at Tableau Conference, April 29-May 1, in San Diego.
Availability: Einstein Copilot in Tableau is currently available in beta for limited customers, and will be generally available this summer.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM.” For more information please visit https://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.
Today, Salesforce announced it has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape Report: Worldwide Enterprise B2B Digital Commerce Applications 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment¹. Salesforce was evaluated for Commerce Cloud, which recently added new features including generative AI and data innovations for enterprise B2B commerce customers.
Why it matters: B2B ecommerce grew 17% in 2023, and 7 out of 10 B2B buyers see online buying as more convenient.
Consider Salesforce Commerce Cloud if your organization is primarily focused on differentiating via business agility, AI, and data, and deep relationships from a platform that is very business-user friendly.
The Salesforce perspective: “B2B businesses grow with Commerce Cloud because it delivers on the trust, agility, and innovation customers need to win in the AI era,” said Michael Affronti, SVP and General Manager of Commerce Cloud. “With trusted AI capabilities embedded across every buyer touchpoint, integrated data from Salesforce Data Cloud that powers AI, automation, and insights, and one of the most robust partner ecosystems in the world, Commerce Cloud is helping B2B companies drive stronger customer relationships and profitable growth every day.”
Innovation in action: Salesforce continues to invest in B2B commerce innovations to help global companies drive profitable growth and efficiency while meeting customer expectations. Some of the latest enterprise innovations in Commerce Cloud include:
¹IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise B2B Digital Commerce Applications 2023–2024 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US49742523, December 2023)
Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series to spotlight Equality Group leaders and how they serve Salesforce’s global employees. Be sure to check out additional interviews with the leaders of BOLDforce, Faithforce, and Vetforce.
Salesforce Women’s Network (SWN), founded in 2008, is Salesforce’s largest and longest-standing Equality Group with more than 18,000 members and allies. Challenging the status quo and empowering women to unlock their potential is at the heart of this group.
For Women’s History Month, we spoke with Shreya Sethi, Regional Vice President of Sales and Global President of SWN. She shared her passion for giving back to the Salesforce community through this role, and her commitment to ensuring more women have a seat at the table where decisions are made.
Before Salesforce, I worked at the global consulting firm McKinsey on various diversity initiatives including their annual Women in the Workplace report. The report outlines women’s career ambitions and how organizations can advance women and improve gender diversity in the workplace. I was a subject matter expert in Australia and New Zealand and was responsible for taking the findings and making a difference for women in the region.
Later, I joined Salesforce, and after about six months at the company, I wanted to find a way to give back. A mentor I was working with at the time encouraged me to get involved directly with SWN in Australia and New Zealand, and then later with some initiatives at the Asia-Pacific (APAC) regional level. Over time, I became the APAC regional vice president for SWN and joined the global board. That was three years ago, and I’ve been a part of SWN ever since.
As a brown woman from India, I’ve experienced my fair share of prejudice and bias throughout my career — both in the workplace and outside of it. I’m passionate about changing that for others. I’ve had a strong network of sponsors and mentors, and I want to be able to provide the same for other women around me.
As a brown woman from India, I’ve experienced my fair share of prejudice and bias throughout my career — both in the workplace and outside of it. I’m passionate about changing that for others.
Shreya Sethi, Regional Vice President of Sales and Global President of SWN
Learning and growing as an individual also fills my cup. I am constantly learning new things in this role from our global board, our executive sponsors, and our members about the issues that are important to women across the globe and how we can best support them.
I want women to know they belong in every room they enter. I also believe what we see is what we become, which is why I’m so passionate about having equal representation at the executive level. Salesforce’s global gender goal to reach 40% women and non-binary employees globally by the end of 2026 is one of the ways we’ll get there. Beyond that, the SWN continues to strive for gender parity in all aspects of the workplace
Our main priority this year is to continue the momentum of some of the amazing programs we launched last year. These include quarterly all-hands calls with Salesforce executives, global tours in local hubs, a recognition program called Women of Impact, events and programming for Women’s History Month, and most importantly, a focus on upskilling, especially around AI.
AI is impacting every industry and the way we work. We want women to be able to step into meetings and contribute to conversations about how AI affects their role and their customers. Later this month, we’re hosting a Women in AI Day, where we’ll bring in expert speakers and host panels that focus on skill-building, ethics, equality, accessibility, and more.
We’re also focused on helping our members develop soft skills, such as negotiating, presenting, networking, engaging with executives, and personal brand building.
Salesforce Women’s Network President and members of SWN’s global board participate in Salesforce’s Global Equality Leadership Summit.
I’m committed to making sure SWN is where women find strength in community. Many of the members of Salesforce Women’s Network are caregivers who have to balance work with their responsibilities at home, which has become increasingly difficult in this era of hybrid work.
Our events celebrate women, help them build community, and empower them with resources to navigate everything they’re juggling. For example, we often partner with Salesforce’s benefits and employee success teams to help explain what benefits are available to them and how they can prioritize their mental health and well-being.
Well first, it’s absolutely the right thing to do! Our leadership and decisions must have equal representation, and our workplace should reflect the communities we live in and the customers we serve. One of the main reasons I joined Salesforce is because of its commitment to Equality as a value since its founding 25 years ago. I’m proud to be living that value every day.
One of the main reasons I joined Salesforce is because of its commitment to Equality as a value since its founding 25 years ago. I’m proud to be living that value every day.
Shreya Sethi, Regional Vice President of Sales and Global President of SWN
It is also the smart thing to do. Women have unique ideas, skills, and abilities to contribute to the workplace. McKinsey estimates diverse teams outperform non-diverse ones by 25%. There are studies that also show that gender equality can add $12 trillion to global GDP, and companies with diverse boards embrace more sustainable business practices. These are all more reasons to speed up our progress and push ourselves to achieve more.
Imposter syndrome is real — irrespective of your level. I have imposter syndrome. But most surprising has been realizing what can break it. I have worked with many phenomenal, strong leaders on the SWN board, but often they underestimate themselves. Once you push them a little and show faith and belief in them, they learn, grow, and thrive.
I’m also blown away by how many women want to give back to the community. Participating in Salesforce Women’s Network is volunteer-based, and we regularly find ways to volunteer with our local communities. Watching all of these women around me juggle all that’s on their plates is inspiring.
