On September 19, 2016, Salesforce announced a new, machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) called Salesforce Einstein. The goal for Salesforce Einstein is to learn from human behavior to predict and personalize the customer service experience in sales, marketing, service, and more. Salesforce AI also automates repetitive, time-consuming processes while looking for new ways to attract and retain new customers. “With Salesforce Einstein, we are delivering the world’s smartest CRM,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce. “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.”
The recent announcement comes after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s announcement on June 13 on linking Microsoft Office 365 with Dynamics CRM, a direct competitor of Salesforce, and Microsoft’s most recent purchase, LinkedIn. Salesforce also made multiple purchases, buying out deep-learning startup MetaMind and data-automation maker Implisit Insights, to name a few, to integrate Einstein AI machine learning with email, chat, social networks, and databases.
Salesforce Einstein AI extends beyond the customer relationship management (CRM) software. With the announcement of Salesforce Einstein, Salesforce announced additional support cloud storage units that would feature Salesforce AI machine-learning capabilities:
- Anticipate sales opportunities with Sales Cloud Einstein.
- Proactively resolve cases with Service Cloud Einstein.
- Create predictive journeys with Marketing Cloud Einstein.
- Embed intelligence in every app with App Cloud Einstein.
According to Salesforce, Sales Cloud Einstein can help users anticipate sales opportunities using the highly-anticipated tool called Predictive Lead Scoring. Another Einstein AI feature is Predictive Scoring in Marketing Cloud Einstein, which scores the likelihood an email will be opened based on receivers’ past behaviors.
With powerful, new machine-learning capabilities, a whole new wave of change is coming through CRM technology. Salesforce is poised to be among CRM industry leaders with Salesforce AI. Benioff is expected to release much more information about Einstein AI at Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual conference, in San Francisco from October 4-7, which Affirma will be attending.
