Salesforce Embeds Artificial Intelligence into its Core Platform
Salesforce revealed that it has embedded an artificial intelligence dubbed as “Einstein” into its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) core platform.
“With Salesforce Einstein, we are delivering the world’s smartest CRM. Einstein is now every customer’s data scientist, making it easy for everyone to take advantage of best-in-class AI capabilities in the context of their business,” Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce, said in a statement.
Capabilities of Salesforce Einstein
The company likens Salesforce Einstein to “having your own data scientist dedicated to bringing AI to every customer relationship.”
The company said that this AI learns from the data gathered from the customers – including CRM data, email, calendar, social and internet of things (IoT). From the data gathered, this AI then offers predictions and recommendations in the context of what the customer is trying to do. In some instances, this AI automates tasks for the customer.
In concrete terms, the company said Salesforce Einstein can do the following:
- Anticipate sales opportunities
- Proactively resolve customer issues
- Recommend personalize product to shoppers
- Provide predictive scoring for customer’s likelihood to engage with an email
- Explain insights from millions of data combinations in minutes
- Provide predictive device scoring for streaming data from connected IoT devices
The company added that Salesforce Einstein enables customers to build their very own AI-powered apps.
“With just a few clicks, admins will be able to build apps that include Einstein-powered fields in any object, page layout or workflow, making every business process smarter,” Salesforce added.
Artificial Intelligence in Business Applications
AI application in businesses is nothing new. Giants such as Apple, Facebook and Amazon have their very own AI implementations that are responsible for a variety of product functions that rely on continuous learning, pattern recognition and data analysis.
According to Salesforce, consumers are now expecting that companies anticipate their needs. This expectation, Salesforce said, is what its AI is starting to create. Salesforce highlighted an AI assistant that knows who the customer is – the customer’s historical banking activity, and the best way to answer questions based on past inquiries and interactions.
With an AI assistant, Salesforce said, the questions of the customers of the company can be answered faster all from the smartphones of the customers, without the hassle of calling or visiting the bank’s website.
While AI is not a new concept, this is beyond the reach of many companies. In order to integrate AI into business applications, Salesforce said, diverse and large data sets, as well as substantial engineering resources to manage complex data integration processes are needed.