Salesforce leadership staged a marathon two-hour artificial intelligence ( AI ) hype session on a damp, misty September morning in San Francisco to launch their annual Dreamforce jamboree in a development as predictable as the coming of autumn. With over 1,500 additional sessions to be covered over the course of two days, they may be correct.
CEO Marc Benioff added colour to announcements made , back of the show’s standard opener, concerning the release of its agentic AI , platform, Agentforce– which he has been carefully teasing all summer long.
Agentforce is a service that gives AI agents the power to make their own decisions and goals, giving users the ability to better manage a growing number of daily operations, including chatbots. Beyond just being conceptual AI assistants, Benioff thinks it will change the game because it includes AI capabilities in the software itself rather than just add-ons.
” What we’re going to talk about at this event, and what’s really happening in our entire industry right now, and why we are more excited than ever, is because of what’s happening with AI”, he said. We’ve been talking about the emergence of AI and how AI has been a crucial part of our future through Dreamforces for the past ten years.
It became evident to us that this was a moment as we developed our own models, developed our own technology, and did everything else to become a pioneer in AI,” said Benioff. This was a time of transformation; this production is our most significant Dreamforce to date. There’s no question … This is the second wave of AI. It’s agents.
” Agentforce has to be the biggest breakthrough that we have ever had on technology, and I think it’s the biggest breakthrough that I’ve seen in a longer time in artificial intelligence, “he continued”. It’s about humans, with agents, driving customer success up on the Salesforce platform.
” We’re not just tossing you another model, or tossing you a hyperscaler, or tossing you an AI engineer, or tossing you something else”, said Benioff. ” We’re on the same platform that you already love and use every day – right inside the configurator, right inside the system that you already know and love, you’re going to find this remarkable functionality. And the initial reports from customers are mind-blowing.
Enhancing value
In fact, a number of customers followed Benioff’s speech and discussed how they intend to use Agentforce to enable their customer-facing people agents to create stronger relationships where they matter, deliver better services, and extract more value from the numerous datasets that Agentforce agents have analyzed and sifted through.
Among them, hotels big Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and restaurant reservation service OpenTable, both of which claim to expand the experience for diners and guests by going beyond just chatbots. Agentforce, according to OpenTable,” could be Salesforce’s most strong support tool yet.”
However, Benioff waxed lyrical about his Disney fandom, proposing a fictional Agentforce agent embedded in the theme park guide app who would match his preferences and prior encounters with the current state of the rest of the park to create a unique experience for him, taking into account similar rides or prioritizing those whose queues are not too much.
In addition, Saks Fifth Avenue, a prestigious US department store, and Salesforce executives who purchased fresh outfits for the keynotes demod the service by introducing more challenging variables and questions to Sophie, a customer service agent for Agentforce AI, in more detail.
In the last demo, Salesforce explained Sophie’s ability to manage the store’s” light glove” interactions with a wealthy customer who wants a designer handbag, gather the customer’s prior purchases, take into account her lifetime spending with the company, and invite her to an exclusive in-store event with drinks and nibbles.
In this scenario, the fictitious customer wanted to go even further by asking Sophie to provide her with style advice for an impending date. However, Salesforce’s AI guardrails actually prevent Sophie from offering fashion advice, so Saks ‘ flesh and blood actors, who were in this instance, were called on to step in and relinquish the relationship with humans, with smiles all over.
Marc Metrick, CEO of Saks Global, the store’s parent, said:” We are thrilled to partner with a technology leader like Salesforce to accelerate our efforts to meet luxury consumers ‘ increasing demands for a highly individualized shopping experience. We will be better able to provide luxury shoppers with smooth experiences that are personalized to their specific preferences thanks to Salesforce’s expertise in utilizing the power of data and AI.
” Salesforce has been key to our success in luxury retail, especially in e-commerce, “he said”. As we continue to advance our relationship, we look forward to everything we can accomplish up.
Agentforce will be generally available from October 2024 across all of Salesforce’s several industry clouds, from banking and healthcare to public sector and financial, with over 100 industry-specific prompts currently available.
