UPDATED 08:00 EDT / MARCH 07 2023

AI

Salesforce embraces generative AI tools with Einstein GPT

Salesforce Inc. today announced the launch of Einstein GPT, a new artificial intelligence tool that integrates with every part of the company’s cloud to make employees’ jobs easier by auto-generating personalized content and automating tasks.

The new technology uses generative AI, which can understand natural language and produce new content based on data that it has been trained on. Generative AI was recently popularized by OpenAI LLC’s ChatGPT, which took the internet by storm when the startup released its chatbot, which can generate realistic text conversations, to the public. The same technology has been put to use by Microsoft Corp. with its Bing chatbot.

Einstein GPT will combine Salesforce’s proprietary AI models with generative AI technology from external partners and real-time data from the company’s own cloud services that have been purpose-built for sales, services, marketing, commerce and even developing applications.

“The world is experiencing one of the most profound technological shifts with the rise of real-time technologies and generative AI,” said Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff. “Einstein GPT, in combination with our Data Cloud and integrated in all of our clouds as well as Tableau, MuleSoft and Slack, is another way we are opening the door to the AI future for all our customers, and we’ll be integrating with OpenAI at launch.”

One of the first ecosystem partners customers can connect their data with is OpenAI, and they can get access to the enterprise-grade power of ChatGPT for their AI-generated content. Customers can also bring their own generative AI models and connect them as well.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said integrating with Salesforce would “allow more people to benefit” from the technology. “And it allows us to learn more about real-world usage, which is critical to the responsible development of AI – a belief that Salesforce shares with us.”

The addition of Einstein GPT to Service Cloud allows customer service workers to fashion personalized chat replies quickly because the AI can understand customer questions, look up information in company data and external sources, and write appropriate replies. In this way, the AI can act as a research assistant for the customer service agent, helping them save time and energy.

Sales associates can automate tasks such as scheduling meetings, receiving summarized notes on their last meeting to prepare for their next interaction and have emails composed for them. The AI can also describe sales accounts based queries such as, “Can you write me an overview of this company?” or “Who are likely contacts?” and it can automate adding information and contacts to the account as well as updating information. All of this is done by combining information with Salesforce’s data cloud and external news drawn from the internet.

Einstein GPT for Marketing can help auto-generate advertisement copy, as well as generate personalized content for engaging customers across different mediums such as email, mobile and web. If a marketing manager needs help putting together a landing page for a campaign, they could ask Einstein GPT to design one along with marketing copy, and with a few queries tailor it to their liking including graphics and sign-up forms.

A Slack integration means that users can “@Einstein” with questions and it will return with answers from the company’s customer data as well as external data sources providing rich opportunities for insights right inside of conversations. There is also an app integration for Slack that allows Einstein to be queried as a sidebar during private conversations so users can get the same information without needing to spam their chats.

Developers also got a boost from Einstein GPT that can have the AI rapidly auto-generate code for them by simply having them describe what they want in comments such as “Create a method that returns a list of contacts with name and address limited to 10 records.” The AI will then create code sufficient to do the job within moments, according to Salesforce.

This launch comes at a time when more enterprise businesses are eagerly looking into generative AI. A survey of more than 500 senior information technology leaders revealed that two-thirds see it as a priority in the next 18 months. However 59% also believe that the AI could be inaccurate or biased. As a result, Salesforce focused on making sure that its models were built as ethically as possible and that all generated content is reviewed by a human before being published.

With an eye toward the future of generative AI, Salesforce also announced a $250 million fund from Salesforce Ventures, the company’s global investment arm. The Generative AI Fund will focus on high-potential startups working in the next-generation generative AI industry, work to innovate in the ecosystem, and assist with the development of responsible and ethical generative AI.

Photo: Pixabay

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