It seems anytime I open up LinkedIn these days, 70% of the posts have some reference to AI and how it will revolutionize whatever vertical they are targeting that day. There’s been A LOT of noise, and for the most part, that’s all it’s been. I’ll be the first to admit, I tend to listen less closely if AI is thrown into a conversation without an explanation on how it would actually be deployed to enhance processes, marketing, or day-to-day operations for organizations. Most things sounded like they were early stage, ground floor applications of a very specific AI flavor.
Enter Einstein Copilot, the very shiny new feature available for organizations who are purchasing (or upgrading to) the Einstein 1 Edition of Salesforce. This includes Data Cloud, Copilot, Slack, Tableau, and CRM in a single package. But why is this different from all the other noise? Well, that’s because we can actually see it in action, and for Salesforce junkies like myself, the applications are clear.
With Copilot, we can simplify the user experience in CRM by having a sort of AI butler. Need a quick summary of an account before following up on an opportunity? Alfred Einstein can help (in my fantasy, the AI Butler is a combination of Alfred from Batman, and Einstein from, ya know, SF branding and human history). Need to quickly look up any open cases related to an account? Einstein is there for you. Want to tell Einstein to recommend a product that may fit your accounts needs/wants? No worries, just tell Einstein what you need.
Why this matters
It’s not like Salesforce didn’t have AI offering before (ie. Einstein has been around for a while) . What makes this time different? Einstein Copilot combines a foundational large language model (LLM), your company’s own meta-data, and a conversational UI to create an experience which will be unique to your business. Those three components allow for the prompts we gave Alfred Einstein to return the necessary information back to the user. Gone are the days of clicking through your CRM to find the info you need, Einstein will do it all for you.
Einstein Copilot Capabilities
Grounding Prompts in Organizational Data – Einstein Copilot grounds its responses with data from Data Cloud. That means we are not limited to what’s available in our CRM, we can use context from other data integrated into Data Cloud as well. Since Data Cloud can bring in data from almost anywhere, this means we have some very rich metadata to support the responses from our prompts to Einstein. Since it’s our own data being used for reference, not only is the data relevant to our business, but also trusted since it’s supplied by our own systems.
Actions – Copilot comes with some out-of-the-box actions and the ability to customize our own! Salesforce is adding more OOTB actions soon, but have started off with the basics. Things like querying records, showing related cases, or updating a particular record require a back end process to complete. A lot of these backend processes are executed through Flow (ie. the new and improved Process Builder). That means, we can create our own Flows to support specific actions that our organizations may need! This is where the customization of the product comes into play, and probably what I’m most excited about. We can now simply type in a prompt to Einstein, and thanks to our customized Flow, have Salesforce execute on a number of tasks with one prompt.
Reasoning Engine to Interpret Intent – This is the capability that allows Copilot to interpret and process information to produce the most relevant response to a prompt. It interacts with an LLM and analyzes the FULL context of the prompt, then determines the action or series of actions (remember those from above?) to take so that it can generate a response. To put it simply, it’s what makes Einstein smart. Instead of inputting the exact magic words to take a specific action, it learns over-time, and with the right context, generates the most relevant response and accompanying actions.
Trust – This isn’t skynet. Put your Sarah Connor style fatigues back in your closet. Einstein Copilot is embedded with the privacy and security measures provided by its Trust Layer. It’s part of the Einstein 1 Platform and performs functions like masking PII, scoring toxic outputs, and helps protect information from unauthorized access. Largely thanks to the zero-data retention from Salesforce’s LLM partners.
What We’re Thinking
AI is not just a buzzword to Salesforce. It is the future, and it’s here now whether we like it or not. With Copilot, teams stand to be more efficient and require less of a ramp up period to learn the ins and outs of CRM. It makes for a conversational user experience, backed by organizational data, and the ability to customize the output/actions. So, I’m listening closely this time, and we’re excited to help you navigate this awesome new tool.
