Salesforce.com Inc. today previewed Einstein Automate, an upcoming cloud offering that will enable users to create workflows for automating tasks such as processing customer requests with little to no coding.

Einstein Automate is made up of two tools: Flow Orchestrator and MuleSoft Composer. Both are expected to become accessible for customers in 2021.

Flow Orchestrator provides a low-code interface for creating automation workflows. A bank could put together a workflow that detects when a customer submits a mortgage application, notifies the lending team and, if the application is approved, sends a congratulatory email to the applicant. During the development process, artificial intelligence models built into the interface show users suggestions on how to improve automation efficiency. 

Complex business processes often involve not just multiple steps but multiple applications. The system that sends out the congratulatory email to loan applicants, for example, may not be the same system that notifies the lending team about the request. That’s where MuleSoft Composer, the other component of Einstein Automate, comes into the picture.

MuleSoft Composer packs more than 700 pre-packaged connectors that companies can use to share data between the different applications involved in a business workflow. To enable automatic invoice processing, for example, an enterprise could sync purchase details stored in Salesforce with its accounting and enterprise resource planning systems.  

MuleSoft Composer is based on technology that Salesforce obtained through the $6.5 billion acquisition of MuleSoft in 2018. The deal was one of the largest in the company’s history, behind its purchase of Tableau last year and the $27.7 billion proposed acquisition of Slack Technologies Inc. that it announced Tuesday.

Salesforce’s push to expand its presence in the low-code development market comes at a time when the technology is drawing growing interest from enterprises. Gartner Inc. estimates that most large enterprises will use four or more low-code development tools by 2024 and that, moreover, those tools will power more than 65% of application development work.

Salesforce rival Microsoft Corp. is also working to address the opportunity. The company recently added an integration between its Power Platform product suite, which includes multiple low-code development features, and GitHub that aims to make it easier for companies to deploy automation workflows their users build.  

Photo: Salesforce