Welcome to AI for
Impact, where we
explore how AI and AI
agents are positioned
to change the world
for the better.
I'm Carolyn Bathour,
and today we'll hear
how Compass Working
Capital is using age
and force to support
families building
economic stability to
exit poverty. We're
joined by George
Bruder, Director of
Impact and Innovation
at Compass Working
Capital. So let's dive
in. George, welcome.
Thank you, Kevin. So
glad to see you in
person. Yes. In a
sentence or two, can you
let us know what does
Compass Working Capital
do and what were
the biggest business
challenges that you
were looking to address?
Yeah, so Compass
Working Capital is a
nonprofit financial
services organization,
and we are seeking
to narrow the racial
and gender wealth
divides in the U.S. We
do that primarily
through pairing one-on
-one financial coaching
with a savings
account. And today
we've worked with over 7
,000 families who have
saved $35 million
to support their
goals, things like
purchasing a home,
starting a small business,
their children
to college.
And one of the things
about supporting that
many clients with that
many different goals
is that we need a
team of financial
coaches who need to
develop a really personal
relationship with
those clients to be
effective. And right now,
each of those coaches
works with between
150 to 200 clients at
any one time. And they
need to be able to
make sure that they
are going into every
conversation with that
relationship in their
mind. And then after
an appointment, they
need to make sure that
they're documenting it
so that the next
time that they have a
conversation with them,
it feels like it just
picks up where it
left off. And so that
challenge of managing
that many different
relationships at any
one time was really the
problem that we were
trying to focus on.
Yeah, and I can only
imagine that, like, the
conversations that
they're having, that
trust factor is built
and the vulnerability.
And so being able to
remember and have, you
know, an extended
conversation versus
starting over every time
really helps to build
that choice. So when
you look at AgentForce,
what did that, like,
what did it help
you enable to solve
those challenges that
you mentioned? Yeah,
so that really the
starting point for us
was helping our coaches
be able to record the
information, do that
data entry that feels
so tedious for them
so that they could come
off of an appointment,
just put the transcript
into Salesforce,
and Salesforce will do
the whole data entry
for them. And we've
used some other AI
tools, but what's special
about Salesforce's
AgentForce product is
that it already knows
how to enter the
data. Like, it knows
our field validations.
We can train it to
know how we want our
notes to be written up.
All of that stuff
makes it so much faster
and, like, more
relevant for our coaches
to actually use the
tool. I love that.
And so now when
you're thinking about
the impact this is
having, so what is
the impact on the
team and then as a
byproduct on the
families that you help
serve? So we estimate,
so our coaches have
about 400 appointments
in any one year.
and each of those
appointments with the time
savings going into
the prep and then also
time savings to enter
that data, they're
getting about 30 minutes
back in their calendars
for every one of those
appointments. Up to
6,000 hours we're seeing
agency-wide. And so
what does that mean?
Well, a couple of
things. One is they can
use that time for other
things, like they
can follow up with a
difficult situation,
maybe a client who needs
extra support, maybe a
client who's starting a
small business, and
they really need to go
into more detail about
how to build that
action plan. So having
that extra time to follow
up with our clients
who need them most is
one piece of it. And
then the other piece of
it is if you've used
any of these tools that
allow you to do the
summaries and note
-taking, I think you'll
find that you can actually
focus on the conversation
again. So what
does it mean when you're
not the whole time
trying to take all the
notes that you need
to? Because we care
about our impact. We need
to have really detailed
information about
our client's trajectories.
But is that what
the coach needs in
their head while they're
having a conversation
with their client?
Probably not. And so if
they can sit down and
have a better
conversation, a stronger
relationship, better
listening, because they have
this tool sort of
taking care of the data
entry that they know
they're going to have to
do, that's just a huge
benefit to our clients.
Yeah, that active
listening helps build
that relationship, and I
love that. I've noticed
that in our own
meetings and the note
-taking, just being
able to truly engage is
incredible. So the
relationship you mentioned
between your financial
coaches and the families
that they support is
critical. So how do
you intend to scale
agent force use cases to
meet that particular
need? Yeah. So again,
we come back to that
relationship. And the
thing that tells us what
to do is our clients.
So we spend a lot of
time doing interviews,
doing surveys, asking
them like, what is
the thing that we could
be doing better? Where
are we falling short?
Where are the things
that you want more?
And our clients tell
us over and over again,
they really appreciate
the assets that come
with our program, the
savings account. But
what they really, really
want is more interaction
with their coach.
But how do we scale
that? Well, we need to
be able to do the things
that allow and free
up that time for the
coach that they're
available to the clients
when they want that.
So how we really think
about it is trying to
make sure that we're
solving the problems
that free up our coach's
time, that give them
the ability to develop
a deeper relationship
with them. I love that.
And so our customers
always want to know
what advice you have,
you know, as you went
through your journey,
what are some of the
things, you know,
that you would
recommend to other
organizations looking to
implement Agent Force?
Give them your advice,
your best lessons.
Yeah. And I love talking
about this. So a couple
of things. So if
you're a nonprofit
organization, 100%, go
check out the Salesforce
Foundation's pack that
gives you some Agent
Force credit so that
you can play around with
it, see how it actually
works. Don't just
read about it. Actually
give it a try. See what
it looks like in your
instance. The other
thing is, Because I
think you quickly learn
with all AI tools how
much the data matters.
And like we've been
working with Salesforce
now for 10 years. So
we have 10 years of
historical data with
all kinds of decisions
that people have made
and Agent Force sees
it all. So you need to
really make sure that
you've thought about
that technical debt
and how you're going
to manage it, whether
it's instructions,
whether it's cleaning up
things, like that's
going to be absolutely
critical before you go
anywhere else. I think
right now I heard
some other people here
at Dreamforce talking
about moving from like
prompt engineering to
like context engineering.
And I think that
is exactly what we
found. Like if you
have not controlled the
context, you are not
going to get good output.
So those are probably
my first couple.
Well, fantastic advice.
Thank you, George, for
your insights. And
to learn more about
AgentForce nonprofit,
scan the QR code on your
screen or go to sforce
.co slash nonprofit.