Dive Brief:
- Salesforce released an artificial intelligence solution called Salesforce Einstein, which is described as “artificial intelligence for everyone" in a company blog post.
- The AI will become part of the core of Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform and will be powered by advanced machine learning, deep learning, predictive analytics, natural language processing and smart data discovery. Salesforce Einstein will optimize for each individual customer by learning from each new piece of data and interactions within the CRM.
- “We couldn’t be more excited to finally unveil Salesforce Einstein after two years of hard work and targeted acquisitions,” wrote VP of Marketing Jim Sinai in the post. “As we continue to build out AI for CRM, we are committed to understanding the next generation of AI technology and how it can best be applied to Salesforce. This effort will be led by Salesforce Research, a new research group focused on the future of AI, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Socher, our Chief Scientist.”
Dive Insight:
Salesforce Einstein is the latest example of how powerful business technology is becoming. AI tech helps bring high-end data handling such as predictive analytics to a wider range of marketers by making the process more manageable. Salesforce is launching its AI solution at a time when AI is becoming more prominent, particularly via IBM’s high profile ad campaign for Watson, its AI solution. Google is another tech giant spending R&D budget on AI and deep learning, and Facebook uses AI for facial recognition with around 98% accuracy.
As marketing becomes ever more data-driven, tools like Salesforce Einstein and Watson will become more necessary in order to manage and make sense out of massive, and growing, data sets.
Big brands have embraced AI so far, and with Saleforce's large customer base, Einstein is likely to drive another big step forward for the technology. However, IBM Watson has already made quite a name for itself in this space and Salesforce will need to do some catching up.
