Generative AI is poised to completely reshape how organizations think about data analysis. However, facilitating widespread change requires that anyone can easily visualize and understand the data.
We sat down with Christian Hagel-Sorensen, who oversees user-experience design for Tableau Pulse, to learn how generative AI is impacting data design and the way people see, understand, and act upon data across organizations. Here’s what he had to say:
The mark of a good visualization is the ability to understand it in a split second. Will someone get the right impression from the data visualization before their brain is able to process it? Time is money. And it costs you if your audience isn’t able to immediately and accurately comprehend what the data is saying.
Time is money. And it costs you if your audience isn’t able to immediately and accurately comprehend what the data is saying.
Christian Hagel-Sorensen, Director User Experience Design, Tableau
You also need simplicity. I believe that having two, three, or four visualizations is often better than one because smaller bits of information are usually easier to understand. Think about a run-on sentence — they usually take more time for our brains to comprehend than if they were broken into smaller, more digestible nuggets.
Tableau Pulse is designed with this in mind. We’ve stripped out information and all the visual clutter, but not the data, so the data can be grasped more quickly and accurately than if it were presented in a singular, more complex visualization.
Generative AI seems like magic. You can upload a CSV file and instantly be able to analyze it. Then you can ask the LLM to make a bar chart of two columns in the data — and it does. And that feels pretty magical. Still, it doesn’t solve a core problem for most people, which is knowing what questions to ask to get an even deeper understanding of the data they’re looking at.
In fact, roughly 70% of people aren’t well served by their data. They use it in their jobs, but it isn’t foundational to their role, and it’s not one of their core skills.
Most people who fall into this bucket are responsible for some KPIs but aren’t able to accurately share how they are doing because, while they can easily ask the first one to three questions about their data, it takes a data expert to ask questions that will uncover meatier insights.
You can tell a sales manager that they’ve sold $1,000 worth of product — and even call out that it’s 15% more than last quarter — and that’s great base-level data. But what’s really helpful is being able to pinpoint why they sold more. Being able to visualize, analyze, and understand where they can double down to get a more thorough story — like if there’s something that isn’t going well, whether the 15% increase came alongside a drop somewhere else, etc. – will help them make more informed decisions that will lead to a more positive impact over time.
With Tableau Pulse, generative AI is bringing these deeper questions forward for people who are less familiar with data — ultimately surfacing key metrics and bringing new insights forward to drive better decision-making and efficiency. We’re working to give customers the power of analytics in a way that both doesn’t feel intrusive and isn’t completely random.
When using something like Chat GPT and opening a chatbot, there might be a couple of prompt questions that you can choose from to help get started. When you click one of those, the AI bot will answer that question … but you’re then left on your own. What questions should you ask after that?
Chatbots fail us when their guidance stops — especially when we’re mapping something that might feel like uncharted territory. We don’t want to leave our customers hanging. So we take what we’ve learned during the last two decades in analytics and apply trusted generative AI to lead you to the next best question so you’re able to squeeze as much information as possible from your data and make more informed decisions.
So we take what we’ve learned during the last two decades in analytics and apply trusted generative AI to lead you to the next best question so you’re able to squeeze as much information as possible from your data and make more informed decisions.
Christian Hagel-Sorensen, Director User Experience Design, Tableau
Steve Jobs had this amazing quote about the computer becoming a bicycle for the mind, in that they’re both innovations that can take us beyond our inherent abilities. AI is not being created to replace people. It’s being created to assist and augment — and effectively help people operate at a level they might not have known was possible. It’s about giving people superpowers in terms of being able to understand or run their businesses at a deeper level.
As a designer, I want to be accelerated. I want to be augmented. One of the things we focus so much on in design is exploring multiple paths — that’s a place where I really believe AI will help — being able to look at all of my options forward and say, ‘Okay, which of these things should I put together to create something greater than I had originally imagined.’
Trust is our number one value at Salesforce and we’re diligent in making sure that we live up to that value in everything we do. This helps me sleep well at night.
However, there are a couple of things that I do think about. To start, Tableau Pulse provides an explanation along with every visualization. So when we add a textual explanation, I need to make sure that it’s in sync with what the visualization is saying and that the explanation isn’t hallucinating or delivering made-up results. These are things I’m always thinking about because we’ve spent considerable time and energy honing that. We have to make sure that the understanding is correct and that we don’t lead people astray. And that is a constant thing to be vigilant about at all times, all the time, every day in every discipline and in everything we do.
According to new research released today in Salesforce’s sixth State of Sales report, 67% of sales reps don’t expect to meet their quota this year, and an even larger 84% missed it last year. These numbers highlight the significant pressure sellers are under. Lagging productivity may also be a factor. Sales reps report spending 70% of their time on non-selling tasks, making it difficult to connect with prospects.
But there is good news. To address these challenges, many companies are using predictive and generative AI to free reps to focus on selling and building trusted relationships with customers. In fact, 81% of sales teams are either experimenting with or have fully implemented AI. The results speak for themselves: 83% of sales teams with AI saw revenue growth this year vs. 66% without AI.
The State of Sales report includes these and other insights from 5,500 sales professionals across 27 countries, revealing how companies drive growth and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Across most sales organizations, revenue growth isn’t keeping pace with company goals. Worldwide, sales professionals say rising customer demands and competition are their top obstacles. Fifty-seven percent of sellers say competition has gotten more challenging since last year, and only 13% say it’s gotten easier.
Competition isn’t the only obstacle to sales. Non-selling tasks, such as administrative work and meeting preparation, consume 70% of reps’ time. Without time carved out for critical selling efforts, reps struggle to connect with customers.
B2B buyers specifically have flagged this disconnect. Eighty-six percent say they’re more likely to purchase when companies understand their goals, yet non-selling work may be getting in the way: 59% of buyers say reps don’t take the time to understand their business’ unique challenges and objectives.
“Deep relationships with customers are the difference-makers when it comes to challenging sales environments,” said Ketan Karkhanis, EVP and GM of Sales Cloud at Salesforce. “B2B buyers are more likely to purchase when reps act as trusted advisors. However, too often, deep knowledge of customer need and opportunity is lacking or not effectively communicated. That makes it difficult to build trust, derailing deals.”
Deep relationships with customers are the difference-makers when it comes to challenging sales environments.
Ketan Karkhanis, EVP and GM of Sales Cloud at Salesforce
In a climate of heightened competition and scarce hours in the day to sell, many sales teams are looking to AI for support. Currently, 40% of sales organizations are experimenting with AI, and an additional 41% say they have the technology fully implemented in their operations. Of course, given the exceptionally rapid pace at which AI is evolving, whether teams consider their current implementations complete may change in the future.
Regardless, the benefits of AI for sales teams are clear and growing. For example, 80% of reps working on teams using AI say it’s easy to get the customer insights they need to close deals, compared to just 54% at orgs without AI.
Sales teams are taking action to address these obstacles. Fifty-three percent of sales teams that have fully implemented AI first consolidated their tech stack, which helps streamline data. Nearly the same amount (51%) implemented additional data security measures.
“AI is no longer a nice to have — it’s a must,” noted Sales Cloud CMO Amber Armstrong. “Its impact is greatest when every tool in a team’s tech stack is consolidated. Having a single platform — like Sales Cloud — allows sellers to leverage comprehensive data for the most accurate, relevant AI outputs. It also streamlines workflows for maximum productivity.”
Beyond the benefits to core sales motions, AI is linked to higher employee retention. High levels of stress can threaten employee longevity, but on teams with AI, sales reps are 2.4x less likely to feel overworked. This can help lower anticipated staff turnover: Two-thirds of reps using AI say they have no intention of leaving, compared to just over half on teams without AI.
Data also suggests that AI is not replacing sales jobs, as some fear. Quite the opposite: 68% of sales teams with AI added headcount in the past year, compared to 47% of teams without AI.
“In the era of AI-driven sales, the value of retaining skilled reps has never been more critical,” said Karkhanis. “Employee retention keeps staffing and training costs down. So, by investing in both cutting-edge AI technology and the continuous development of our people, we ensure that our teams are not only more productive but also more engaged and committed, leading to stronger teams and higher sales.
Data in this report is from a double-anonymous survey conducted from March 8 through April 18, 2024. The survey generated 5,500 responses from sales professionals across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. For more demographic information, please refer to the full State of Sales report.
Salesforce today announced new out-of-the-box service components, an automation tool, and a new app for Service Cloud customers, enabling agents to solve customer cases faster than ever before and helping companies easily scale support.
Why it’s relevant: Sixty-nine percent of agents say that balancing speed and quality is a challenge. And with the volume of cases increasing and interactions becoming more complex, companies need tools that help their agents work more efficiently without compromising quality.
Innovation in action: All Service Cloud customers now have access to a suite of efficiency tools that help them automate processes and discover the right product capabilities needed to deliver better service at scale. These new out-of-the-box capabilities allow customers to get the most out of Service Cloud, increasing the return on their Salesforce investment:
The Salesforce perspective: “Every service leader wants to drive operational efficiencies and drive team productivity. With our new efficiency tools, companies of all sizes and in different industries can get even more out of their Service Cloud investment. Ultimately, this helps them increase service team productivity so they can serve their customers even better and faster.” – Kishan Chetan, EVP & GM, Service Cloud
Every service leader wants to drive operational efficiencies and drive team productivity.
Kishan Chetan, EVP & GM, Service Cloud
Reaction to the news: “Service teams are looking for quick wins when it comes to maximizing their investment in technology vendors. Service Cloud’s latest innovations make it easy for teams to get even more value out of their implementation and increase operational efficiency with easy to use components, templates, and apps.” – Rebecca Wettemann, CEO & Principal Analyst, Valoir
Fast facts:
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.
A recent Salesforce survey revealed that 65% of sustainability professionals believe their company needs to balance the benefits of AI with its environmental costs. If built and used without care, for example, the technology can contribute to spiking energy usage that can increase carbon emissions and exacerbate the climate crisis.
These same professionals are also optimistic about using AI to aid in their sustainability efforts. AI can augment the sustainability workforce by taking on tasks to quickly analyze complex datasets to reduce energy consumption and even address threats to ocean health.
And yet, only 20% of these professionals have worked AI into their regular business practices — reporting they aren’t yet sure how to use this powerful technology.
As our planet faces a dire climate crisis, there’s no time to wait. We sat down with Boris Gamazaychikov, Senior Manager of Emissions Reduction at Salesforce, to hear how the company is striking the all-important balance between AI’s challenges and its solutions, and how his team is using AI to help move sustainability efforts forward — before it’s too late.
AI is a catalyst for increased power demand because training large AI models, especially large language models (LLMs), can be extremely energy-intensive. For example, training an LLM like GPT-3 can consume as much energy as 130 homes would use in a year. Once trained, running AI models also requires energy, which can eclipse the initial training impact, especially if the models are used at scale.
AI runs primarily on cloud data centers across the world, where specialized hardware demands immense computational resources, resulting in substantial energy consumption and water usage.
The electricity needed to power data centers often emits carbon because in many parts of the world that power is supplied by fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. And while companies including Salesforce are encouraging and even requiring the use of renewable resources like solar and wind to power these assets, AI’s rapid growth means the demand for those resources is outpacing the current supply.
There’s a race in the industry to create bigger models that can unlock the next wave of AI capabilities. The reality is, however, that these models require a massive amount of energy, and it’s not always necessary to use the biggest, most powerful model for specific enterprise needs. That’d be like using a semi-truck to go get groceries or pick up a single passenger. That’s why our Salesforce AI Research team develops efficient task- and domain-specific models that can be used for CRM applications — greatly reducing the energy and compute required to accomplish specific tasks.
For example, the team developed xGen, the world’s first LLM for CRM. It generates call summaries that offer sales reps contextually relevant insights and recommendations to enhance productivity and effectiveness.
These are very specific CRM use cases to limit energy usage — it’s also trained on relevant data, so users are less likely to get inaccurate results. Because of its compact size, training xGen resulted in significantly less emissions than many other models, as well as making it more energy-efficient to use.
While choosing smaller, domain-specific models makes the biggest difference, choosing low-carbon data centers can also play a role in reducing impact. Data center emissions vary widely depending on how much fossil fuel is being used to power them.
To reduce AI model emissions, Salesforce trained its models in lower-carbon data centers powered by electricity that emits 68.8% less carbon than global average electricity. This resulted in 105 fewer tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (tCO2e) than if data centers with global average carbon intensity were used for training.
Our data center infrastructure team uses AI to predict and anticipate our customers’ usage patterns, automatically scaling the volume of servers required. This allows us to tailor the way our data center infrastructure is used so we don’t waste excess energy. This automated application saves time, reduces carbon emissions, and ensures that our products are running smoothly for our customers.
This automated application saves time, reduces carbon emissions, and ensures that our products are running smoothly for our customers.
Boris Gamazaychikov, Senior Manager of Emissions Reduction at Salesforce
AI is also helping us perform sophisticated forecasting of our own carbon emissions by analyzing millions of data points from our supply chain, business travel, data center infrastructure, real estate, and more. These insights help us make better, smarter decisions as we work to reduce our emissions. And, we’ll soon be able to bring this same functionality to customers through Net Zero Cloud.
We’re also using AI to help our customers improve the efficiency of their Salesforce deployment. Since Salesforce is so customizable, users can tweak it in a lot of different ways that are use-case specific. We’re using an internally developed LLM called CodeGen to analyze the code base and provide automatic suggestions that improve efficiency through the Apex Guru feature of Scale Center. The latest version of CodeGen 2.5 is optimized for efficiency, with multi-epoch training and flash attention, performing as well as larger models at less than half the size.
The first important KPI is related to an AI model’s training. Both the energy and carbon emissions of that model are evaluated, and that number is disclosed as a key reference point.
Training is done once per model, so that metric is a single number rather than an ongoing collection of data. The second critical number is ongoing efficiency — the energy and carbon output as the model continues to operate. That’s essentially the operational carbon expended over time — similar to miles per gallon used while driving a car. Salesforce invested in and has been working with Hugging Face, as well as other AI leaders, to standardize this metric and establish an Energy Star-like rating system for AI models. This will help AI users make sustainable decisions.
This is a critical time to act. We want to look back at this moment in 20 years and see that AI has evolved in the right way. To that end, Salesforce recently shared its sustainable AI policy principles — a framework aimed at guiding AI regulation to minimize environmental impact and spur climate innovation.
If your company is using AI, start by asking questions — ask AI providers about sustainability, model details, and efficiency ratings. Make it clear that AI sustainability is a priority for you and your organization. In short, be a voice for good.
Boris Gamazaychikov, Senior Manager of Emissions Reduction at Salesforce
Everyone can contribute to this moment. If your company is using AI, start by asking questions — ask AI providers about sustainability, model details, and efficiency ratings. Make it clear that AI sustainability is a priority for you and your organization. In short, be a voice for good.
A recent survey of nearly 500 sustainability professionals found that while almost 4 in 10 worry about AI’s potential negative impacts on sustainability efforts at their organization, even more (57%) are optimistic that they can balance the negative impact with AI’s benefits.
Why it matters: AI-driven data center power usage could double by 2026 — putting efforts to reduce corporate carbon emissions at risk. As a result, sustainability teams around the world are grappling with the challenge of how to help their companies implement this groundbreaking technology without hurting the environment. Fortunately, there’s evidence that AI can aid supply chain management, ESG reporting, and do more to help businesses combat the climate crisis — and Salesforce’s new research suggests that companies are already managing this balancing act.
AI: A Sustainability Balancing Act. Uncover insights from nearly 500 sustainability professionals on how they manage AI’s sustainability balancing act.
“Sustainability and AI education and training not only narrows the gap between businesses and their climate goals, but also helps create a culture of learning and innovation,” said Suzanne DiBianca, EVP and Chief Impact Officer, Salesforce.
What businesses can do: According to DiBianca, companies can ensure that the benefits of AI are universal to all of their stakeholders, including the planet, by:
Go deeper: “Investing in innovation and the social impact of AI is crucial for reducing the carbon footprint of AI tools and ensuring the technology benefits everyone equitably,” said Boris Gamazaychikov, Senior Manager of Emissions Reduction, Salesforce. “At Salesforce, we employ a comprehensive approach, leveraging our corporate philanthropy, strategic investments, and cutting-edge technology to drive sustainability in AI.”
Methodology: Salesforce conducted a double-anonymous survey in partnership with YouGov from June 5-10, 2024. It included 452 sustainability professionals (including 384 sustainability leaders) representing companies of a variety of sizes and sectors in three countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The survey took place online.
Salesforce today announced Partner Connect, a new feature for its Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solution that will allow businesses to share real-time visibility into partner channel sales and make it easy for teams working across CRM platforms to streamline deals shared across businesses.
Why it matters: Tech companies are increasingly under pressure to deliver results without spending more — and are looking to partner selling strategies to help. Fifty percent of companies are pursuing a partner experience in some form or another, if they don’t have it already, and 75% of the world’s commerce comes through indirect channels.
But teams struggle to coordinate deal data and co-sell for deals managed and sold across multiple businesses. These sellers and channel managers, often in different locations and using different CRM platforms at different companies, either opt out of co-selling these deals because they’re not easy to access, or lack real-time visibility into shared deals and spend too much time manually reconciling disparate data sources across teams.
Innovation in action: Partner Connect, which will be available this fall inside the Salesforce PRM product (as a part of the SKU offering), makes it simple and easy for teams to focus and collaborate. With Partner Connect’s field mapping functionality, teams can easily specify which fields get updated across partner CRM platforms and determine how best to match the data in one given CRM with another. This data harmonization helps ensure that data is both reliable and also securely shared in a trusted way. Partner Connect also provides bi-directional integration, enabling automated updates that appear as notifications in each company’s CRM platform, offering more clarity to channel managers who want to track deals as they progress.
For example:
Partner Connect will completely change how our customers co-sell with their partners.
Ketan Karkhanis, GM of Sales Cloud
Salesforce perspective: “Partner Connect will completely change how our customers co-sell with their partners. Partners can now co-work deals by easily sharing opportunities in their own CRM platforms and using their preferred data sets securely and in real time. This new heightened level of collaboration and efficiency will undoubtedly unlock new revenue.” – Ketan Karkhanis, GM of Sales Cloud
Customer perspective: “Appfire’s partner portal, built on Salesforce, is central to our partner business and represents the most scalable way of engaging and enabling our network of hundreds of partners. We are excited about Salesforce’s Partner Connect and its potential for connecting our CRM with partner CRMs, a critical advancement in creating visibility and real-time insights to the sales pipeline.” – Rick Buie, Sr. Director, Channel Strategy & Operations, Appfire
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 story is part of an ongoing series to spotlight our Equality Groups and how they serve Salesforce employees globally. Check out previous interviews with the leaders of Outforce, Asiapacforce, Southasiaforce, and Earthforce.
Indigenousforce is a Salesforce Equality Group dedicated to education, engagement, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing, with the aim of respecting and celebrating Indigenous peoples and their cultures around the world. The Equality Group brings together unique Indigenous experiences and perspectives, cultivates a psychologically safe community for Indigenous employees and allies, preserves culture and heritage, and gives back to the community.
We spoke with Margot Tollefsen, a Salesforce product marketing manager and Global President of Indigenousforce, to learn more about the power of representation, bringing awareness to issues faced by Indigenous people, and uplifting voices within the community.
I’m a proud member of the Cherokee Nation, and I’ve always been passionate about equality. As part of my undergrad, I studied Native American rights, and Salesforce’s continued commitment to equality is what attracted me to join the company four years ago. When I started at Salesforce, there wasn’t an Indigenousforce presence in Dallas, where I was based at the time, so I connected with another Indigenous colleague in the area, and we started a local hub.
As part of my undergrad, I studied Native American rights, and Salesforce’s continued commitment to equality is what attracted me to join the company four years ago.
Margot Tollefsen, a product marketing manager and Global President of Indigenousforce
For the next year, I helped organize events and got involved with the global team on a larger scale. I continued to take on more responsibility, and now as the Global President of Indigenousforce, I get to make an impact on a community that is part of my family’s history.
Indigenous people are historically underrepresented in society and in tech. We’re focused on uplifting and bringing awareness to indigenous cultures, voices, and traditions. We want to make sure that the Indigenous community at Salesforce and in our broader ecosystem are represented in a way that feels authentic. This includes building a community that shares similar values, cultures, and family histories, and partnering with our allies to ensure they understand the Indigenous cultures we represent.
It really depends on where in the world you are, but many Indigenous communities face issues with land ownership, pollution, and a lack of resources, such as access to water and WiFi. We address some of these challenges through external partnerships, internal events centered on education and awareness, and giving back in our communities.
For example, we partnered with the Salesforce Sustainability team and the United Nations’ Indigenous People’s Platform to help the community have a voice on issues that impact them.
In the aftermath of the Maui wildfires, we helped lead a fundraiser, alongside our Philanthropy team, to support native Hawaiians who were displaced from their homes. Thanks to Salesforce’s generous donation matching, we raised over $1 million for this effort.
We continue to look for ways to address the most pressing needs of Indigenous populations around the world, while bringing our allies along in this work.
Advancing representation is critically important in building products that serve our communities. We’ve partnered closely with Salesforce recruiting teams, and volunteered with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), and the Lakota AI Code Camp to help identify Indigenous candidates interested in careers in STEM. And we’ve participated in events for native Hawaiian college students to help them learn more about Salesforce and our ecosystem.
We also work closely with Indigenous tribes that run their organizations on Salesforce. During the pandemic, the Cherokee Nation invested in Saleforce technology to build the Gadugi (“working together”) Portal – a grants management portal that the Cherokee Nation tribal government uses to engage its citizens. Indigenousforce has since partnered with Cherokee members to promote and highlight their work at Dreamforce.
Finally, members in our Australian hub worked with local Salesforce leaders and our Government Affairs, Philanthropy, Procurement, Marketing, and Employee Success teams to implement a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) — a framework that organizations like Salesforce can use to contribute to reconciliation efforts for Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples. The RAP consisted of four main pillars: building relationships, establishing and demonstrating respect, creating opportunities, and governance. The Australian hub put this plan into action through ongoing education and training for employees and executives in Australia, setting hiring and recruiting goals for First Nations employees, incorporating appropriate cultural protocols within presentations, and creating and developing partnerships with First Nations-led organizations in Australia.
Indigenous people and communities span across the globe, and their identities intersect with almost every Equality Group we have at Salesforce. We lean on our allies to uplift our traditions and cultures, and we want to do the same for them.
We lean on our allies to uplift our traditions and cultures, and we want to do the same for them.
Margot Tollefsen, a product marketing manager and Global President of Indigenousforce
One example of this is the Native American belief of “two-spirit” people, or individuals who have combined traits of both men and women and occupy a distinct gender status. In many tribes, these individuals filled special religious roles, such as healers, shamans, and ceremonial leaders. Giving voice to this history can go a long way in elevating our allies in the LGBTQ+ community.
I’ve learned how vulnerability can be a strength. It’s much easier to say and harder to do, but when I’ve opened up about the challenges I’m facing, people have rallied around me in support. I’ve always admired vulnerable leaders and it’s something I’ve tried to embody in my current role.
Principal® – a global financial services company that helps individuals and businesses build a financially secure future — has expanded a 10-year relationship with Salesforce and adopted Data Cloud to unify customer data, powering more personalized, automated digital experiences for customers.
Data Cloud provides a 360-degree view of a company’s customers to build stronger relationships across every line of business by unlocking actionable data. By unlocking customer data from any source, Data Cloud powers more insights and automation and enables trusted AI that keeps customer data secure while tapping into all business data and metadata to enhance overall customer experience. Data Cloud addresses the core challenge businesses face — unlocking data and making it actionable for CRM, AI, automation, and analytics across all touchpoints and channels.
Now, with Data Cloud, Principal has a more complete view of customer-related data, which is essential to driving automation, analytics, personalization, and trusted AI across every interaction at scale. As a result, teams can make data-driven decisions directly in their flow of work and provide a consistent experience across multiple channels, fostering sales growth with new and existing customers.
The challenge: Assembling relevant customer data in one place is a significant hurdle for most businesses, with more than 80% of business leaders reporting they struggle with data fragmentation and data silos. And, disconnected information undermines customer experience, as evidenced by the fact that 74% of customers anticipate improved experiences from the data they permit companies to gather about them.
The impact: By unifying Principal’s customer data in Sales Cloud with Data Cloud — including third-party repositories — Principal can:
Customer perspective: “Salesforce has proven to be a powerful asset for Principal, enhancing our operational efficiency and refining the way we engage with our customers. Data Cloud is crucial to our customer-centric approach and is instrumental in empowering our teams to engage customers with personalization and efficiency.” – Kathy Kay, EVP & CIO, Principal
Salesforce perspective: “By consolidating its customer CRM, web, advertising, and email data into a single, harmonized, and unified view through Data Cloud, Principal is now uniquely positioned to deliver highly personalized and enriched customer experiences. Recognizing that data is the cornerstone of every customer interaction, Principal will leverage our zero copy sharing technology to easily access and take action on all of their customer data, no matter where it resides, fully leveraging it to drive business growth.” – Rahul Auradkar, EVP and General Manager of Unified Data Services & Einstein, Salesforce
Recognizing that data is the cornerstone of every customer interaction, Principal will leverage our zero copy sharing technology to easily access and take action on all of their customer data, no matter where it resides, fully leveraging it to drive business growth.
Rahul Auradkar, EVP and General Manager of Unified Data Services & Einstein, Salesforce
Resolve cases more quickly and accurately through an intelligent, conversational interface that mirrors natural language, grounded in trusted customer and business data
Deploy in minutes with out-of-the-box templates, Salesforce components, and an LLM to engage customers autonomously across any channel 24/7
Set clear privacy and security guardrails for trusted responses and easily escalate complex, high-touch cases to human agents
Salesforce today announced Einstein Service Agent, Salesforce’s first fully autonomous AI agent. Einstein Service Agent makes conventional chatbots obsolete with its ability to understand and take action on a broad range of service issues without preprogrammed scenarios, helping make customer service far more efficient.
Unlike traditional chatbots — which can only handle specific queries that have been explicitly programmed into their system and don’t understand context or nuance — Einstein Service Agent is intelligent and dynamic. Built on the Einstein 1 Platform, Einstein Service Agent interacts with large language models (LLMs) by analyzing the full context of the customer’s message and then autonomously determining the next actions to take. It uses generative AI to create conversational responses — grounding its responses in a company’s trusted business data, including Salesforce CRM data — tailored to a company’s brand voice, tone, and guidelines with a few clicks. For service organizations, this means they can offload a large number of tedious inquiries that bog down their productivity so they can focus on tasks that require a human touch. For customers, this means they get the answers they need much faster because they no longer need to wait for human agents.
Einstein Service Agent is standing ready 24/7 to communicate with customers in natural language, respond across self-service portals and messaging channels, and perform tasks proactively while operating within clear guardrails that companies can define using the Einstein 1 Platform. And when more complicated, high-touch issues arise, requiring escalation to a human worker based on the parameters set by the company, Einstein Service Agent performs the handoff quickly and easily.
Currently in pilot and generally available later this year, Einstein Service Agent can be set up in minutes with user-friendly interfaces, pre-built templates, and low-code actions and workflows.
“Salesforce is delivering a future where human and digital agents join forces to improve the customer experience,” said Service Cloud General Manager Kishan Chetan. “Einstein Service Agent, our first fully autonomous AI agent, will not just complete service jobs on its own; it will augment how human agents work and completely transform how service teams operate, making them far more efficient and productive. We are reimagining customer service for the AI era.”
Salesforce is delivering a future where human and digital agents join forces to improve the customer experience.
Kishan Chetan, General Manager, Service Cloud
Why it matters: Studies show most companies use chatbots today, but 81% of customers would rather wait to speak to a live agent because the current generation of chatbots aren’t meeting their expectations and the experience can be frustrating. Yet, 61% of customers say they’d rather use self-service to resolve simple issues, underscoring an opportunity and need to deliver more intelligent, autonomous agents powered by generative AI.
Dive deeper:
Customer perspective: “Einstein Service Agent’s speed and accuracy in handling customer inquiries is promising. It understands and responds like a human, adhering to our diverse, country-specific guidelines. I can see it becoming an integral part of our service team, freeing our human agents to tackle higher value issues.” – George Pokorny, SVP of Global Customer Success, OpenTable
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.
Having first fallen in love with the islands as a child, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff has long held a deep appreciation for the state of Hawai’i. Marc and his wife, Lynne, have been giving philanthropically there for more than two decades. In the last few months, they have taken their biggest steps yet with major donations toward health care and affordable housing in the state.
In 2024, the Benioffs announced a $150 million donation in Hawai’i to increase health care access, address critical infrastructure gaps, and help ensure excellent and continuous care for communities in the state. They’ve also purchased and given away more than 440 acres of land to a local nonprofit focused on building affordable housing on the island of Hawai’i.
Why these donations in Hawai’i are important: The healthcare donation, one of the largest private donations in Hawai’i’s history, will enable two centers, renamed Hilo Benioff Medical Center and Straub Benioff Medical Center, to expand access and build out critical areas of care. It will also support a continuum of care partnership with the University of California San Francisco Health system, where the Benioffs have also been major donors over the years. The Hawai’i land donation, along with a cash gift to facilitate planning and infrastructure development, was made to Hilo-based Hawai’i Island Community Development Corp., which over the past 30 years has developed nearly 900 affordable housing units on Hawai’i Island.
The Salesforce perspective: Marc Benioff pioneered Salesforce’s 1-1-1 model, which commits 1% of the company’s equity, technology, and employees’ time to build a more equitable and sustainable world.
What Marc is saying:
We feel fortunate to have been part of the Hawai’i community for many decades and to be able to support our Ohana in this way. Nothing is more important than the health of our community, and access to care for all who need it.
Marc Benioff, Chair & CEO, Salesforce
Fast facts on Marc and Hawai’i:
Salesforce’s ranking now includes United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan operations
For the sixth consecutive year, Salesforce has earned a top ranking on the “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion” list published annually by global inclusion and equality nonprofit Disability:IN.
Why it matters: Disability:IN’s comprehensive benchmarking tool analyzes companies’ equality practices and scores them on a scale of zero to 100, helping them build a roadmap of measurable, tangible actions they can take to achieve greater disability inclusion in the workplace.
The ranking previously recognized companies for their accessibility efforts in the United States. This year, Disability:IN launched a global benchmarking index, giving Salesforce the opportunity to benchmark its efforts in the U.K., Germany, and Japan as well. All three countries joined U.S. Salesforce operations with top scores of 100 and earned recognition as “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.”
Salesforce perspective: “We’re thrilled to be recognized as one of the ‘Best Places To Work for Disability Inclusion’ in four countries this year — but we’re just scraping the surface of the work we need to do,” said Catherine Nichols, VP, Office of Accessibility. “We’re continuing to make progress toward our North Star of making Salesforce the most accessible company in the world by cultivating the most inclusive work environment.”
We’re continuing to make progress toward our North Star of making Salesforce the most accessible company in the world by cultivating the most inclusive work environment.
Catherine Nichols, VP, Office of Accessibility
How scoring works: To be included in the “Best Places to Work” list, companies needed to score at least 80 on the Disability:IN Disability Equality Index (DEI®).
After decades of dealing with vendors who lock customers into their own proprietary or “closed” platforms, most technology leaders today favor open ecosystems, a new Salesforce survey found.
Indeed, tech leaders are 3x more likely to believe an open ecosystem is critical to implementing new and business-critical innovation like artificial intelligence (AI) and more than half of those already deploying such technology believe open ecosystems will become standard within two years.
The survey highlights a pivotal AI debate — the choice between an open ecosystem, which supports integration with other systems, services, and platforms, or a closed ecosystem, which interacts only with a select few compatible or internal systems.
Why it matters: Ninety percent of IT teams say generative AI has forced them to re-evaluate their technology strategy, and a large part of that re-evaluation lies in the decision to adopt an open or closed AI ecosystem. The new research discovers that while tech leaders point to some open ecosystem challenges like security, interoperability, and lack of industry standards, they are bullish toward an open approach — citing increased innovation and faster adoption of AI.
The new research discovers that while tech leaders point to some open ecosystem challenges like security, interoperability, and lack of industry standards, they are bullish toward an open approach — citing increased innovation and faster adoption of AI.
AI Ecosystem Showdown: Open vs. Closed. Uncover more insights from over 500 technology leaders here.
In partnership with YouGov, Salesforce conducted a double-blind survey of 502 tech decision makers. The data was fielded between June 5-12, 2024. Tech leaders were defined as those who have decision-making ability regarding the procurement of technology at their company. An Open Ecosystem was defined as ‘an artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem that freely supports and encourages integration with other systems, services and platforms.’ A Closed Ecosystem was defined as ‘an artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem that only interacts with a limited number of systems, services or platforms that are inside or exclusively compatible with that platform.’
