Dubai: Salesforce has announced the Einstein 1 Platform, which features major advancements for Salesforce Data Cloud and Einstein AI capabilities, all built on Salesforce’s underlying metadata framework. A trusted AI platform for customer companies, the Einstein 1 Platform gives companies the ability to safely connect any data to build AI-powered apps with low-code and deliver entirely new CRM experiences.“A company’s AI strategy is only as good as its data strategy,” said Parker Harris, Co-Founder and CTO, Salesforce. “We pioneered the metadata framework nearly 25 years ago to seamlessly bridge data across applications. It’s the connective tissue that fuels innovation. Now, with Data Cloud and Einstein AI native on the Einstein 1 Platform, companies can easily create AI-powered apps and workflows that supercharge productivity, reduce costs, and deliver amazing customer experiences.”Why it matters: Customer data is highly fragmented. On average, organizations use 1,061 different applications, yet only 29% of them are integrated. Enterprise data stacks have grown more complex, and prior computing revolutions – cloud, social, and mobile – have generated massive, siloed islands of customer data.Salesforce’s original metadata framework helps companies organize and understand data across Salesforce applications – the equivalent of having a common language so different applications built on the core platform can communicate with each other. It now creates a unified view of the data across an enterprise regardless of how that data is structured in disparate systems by mapping it to the Salesforce metadata framework.This allows organizations to customize every user experience and action their data using a variety of low-code platform services – including Einstein for AI predictions and content generation; Flow for automation; and Lightning for user interfaces. These customizations are instantly available to the rest of the organization’s core applications without having to write costly and brittle integration code.Additionally, Salesforce delivers automatic upgrades three times per year, and the metadata framework prevents any integrations, customizations, or security models from breaking. Organizations can easily add, extend, and build on top of Salesforce as the platform evolves.This allows organizations to customize every user experience and action their data using a variety of low-code platform services – including Einstein for AI predictions and content generation; Flow for automation; and Lightning for user interfaces. These customizations are instantly available to the rest of the organization’s core applications without having to write costly and brittle integration code.Additionally, Salesforce delivers automatic upgrades three times per year, and the metadata framework prevents any integrations, customizations, or security models from breaking. Organizations can easily add, extend, and build on top of Salesforce as the platform evolves.Einstein 1 Data Cloud Supports Big Data Scale and High Speed Automation to Power a New Wave of Data-Driven AI ApplicationsData Cloud – Salesforce’s real-time hyperscale data engine – unifies and harmonizes customer data, enterprise content, telemetry data, Slack conversations, and other structured and unstructured data to create a single view of the customer. The platform is already processing 30 trillion transactions per month, and connecting and unifying 100 billion records every day.With the new Data Cloud now natively integrated with the Einstein 1 Platform, companies can unlock siloed data in entirely new ways; create rich, unified customer profiles; and deliver entirely new CRM experiences. Data at Scale: The Einstein 1 Platform has expanded to support thousands of metadata-enabled objects per customer, each capable of having trillions of rows. In addition, Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud, consumer-scale technology stacks that joined Salesforce’s Customer 360 portfolio via acquisitions, have been re-engineered onto the Einstein 1 Platform.Automation at Scale: Now massive volumes of data can be brought into the Einstein 1 Platform from other systems and immediately made available as actionable Salesforce objects. Flows can be triggered by any change on any object at scale, whether it’s an event coming from an IOT device, a computed insight, or an AI prediction – up to 20,000 events per second – and can interact with any system in the enterprise, including legacy systems, through MuleSoft.Analytics at Scale: Salesforce offers a variety of insights and analytics solutions for different use cases — including Reports and Dashboards, Tableau, CRM Analytics, and Marketing Cloud Reports. With the Einstein 1 Platform’s common metadata schema and access model, all of these solutions can work on the same data at scale — providing rich insights for any use case.Salesforce also announced that every customer with Enterprise Edition or above can now get started with Data Cloud at no cost. Customers can started ingesting, harmonizing, and exploring their data with Data Cloud and Tableau to extend the power of their data across every line of business and jumpstart their AI journey.Einstein Delivers a Generative AI-powered Conversational Assistant – Baked Seamlessly Into the Flow of Work To Drive Significant Productivity Gains Salesforce’s next generation of Einstein brings a conversational AI assistant to every CRM application and customer experience, including:Einstein Copilot: A new and trusted out-of-the-box conversational AI assistant built into the user experience of every Salesforce application. Einstein Copilot will drive productivity by assisting users within their flow of work, enabling them to ask questions in natural language, and receive relevant and trustworthy answers that are grounded in secure proprietary company data from Data Cloud. In addition, Einstein Copilot proactively takes actions and offers additional options beyond the user’s query – such as providing a recommended action plan after a sales call, checking a consumer’s order status, or changing the shipping date. Einstein Copilot Studio: An easy new way for companies to build an entirely new generation of AI-powered apps with custom prompts, skills, and AI models to close sales deals faster, streamline customer service, auto-create websites based on personalized browsing history, or turn natural language prompts into code, as well as hundreds of other business tasks. Einstein Copilot Studio also provides configurability to make Einstein Copilot available for use across consumer-facing channels like websites to power real-time chat, or integrate with messaging platforms like Slack, WhatsApp, or SMS.Salesforce also announced that every customer with Enterprise Edition or above can now get started with Data Cloud at no cost. Customers can started ingesting, harmonizing, and exploring their data with Data Cloud and Tableau to extend the power of their data across every line of business and jumpstart their AI journey.Einstein Delivers a Generative AI-powered Conversational Assistant – Baked Seamlessly Into the Flow of Work To Drive Significant Productivity Gains Salesforce’s next generation of Einstein brings a conversational AI assistant to every CRM application and customer experience, including:Einstein Copilot: A new and trusted out-of-the-box conversational AI assistant built into the user experience of every Salesforce application. Einstein Copilot will drive productivity by assisting users within their flow of work, enabling them to ask questions in natural language, and receive relevant and trustworthy answers that are grounded in secure proprietary company data from Data Cloud. In addition, Einstein Copilot proactively takes actions and offers additional options beyond the user’s query – such as providing a recommended action plan after a sales call, checking a consumer’s order status, or changing the shipping date. Einstein Copilot Studio: An easy new way for companies to build an entirely new generation of AI-powered apps with custom prompts, skills, and AI models to close sales deals faster, streamline customer service, auto-create websites based on personalized browsing history, or turn natural language prompts into code, as well as hundreds of other business tasks. Einstein Copilot Studio also provides configurability to make Einstein Copilot available for use across consumer-facing channels like websites to power real-time chat, or integrate with messaging platforms like Slack, WhatsApp, or SMS.

DUBAI: Salesforce today announced the general availability of Einstein Studio, a new, easy-to-use “bring your own model” (BYOM) solution that enables companies to use their custom AI models to power any sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT application within Salesforce, helping them get more from their AI and data investments. Einstein Studio makes it easy for data science and engineering teams to manage and deploy AI models more efficiently, and at lower cost. Companies can now easily use their proprietary company data from Salesforce Data Cloud to train models from Salesforce’s ecosystem of curated AI models, including Amazon SageMaker from Amazon Web Services(AWS), Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, and other AI services.Einstein Studio trains AI models on proprietary customer data from Data Cloud, the first real-time data platform for CRM. Through this BYOM solution, customers will be able to use their custom AI models alongside turnkey LLMs provided through Einstein GPT, enabling them to deliver comprehensive AI fast.Why it matters: Companies across every industry are rushing to integrate AI as IT leaders anticipate an enormous impact on their business. However, nearly 60% say they are still a year or two away from implementing AI solutions. And according to a Gartner® press release “On average, 54% of AI projects make it from pilot to production.”Einstein Studio trains AI models on proprietary customer data from Data Cloud, the first real-time data platform for CRM. Through this BYOM solution, customers will be able to use their custom AI models alongside turnkey LLMs provided through Einstein GPT, enabling them to deliver comprehensive AI fast.Why it matters: Companies across every industry are rushing to integrate AI as IT leaders anticipate an enormous impact on their business. However, nearly 60% say they are still a year or two away from implementing AI solutions. And according to a Gartner® press release “On average, 54% of AI projects make it from pilot to production.”The solution: Einstein Studio makes it faster and easier to run and deploy enterprise-ready AI across every part of the business, bringing trusted, open, and real-time AI experiences to every application and workflow.How it works: With Einstein Studio, companies can leverage their proprietary, real-time customer data from Data Cloud to train AI models that solve specific business needs. And with Einstein Studio’s BYOM solution, companies can train their preferred AI model with Data Cloud, which connects all customer data from any source, and automatically harmonizes that data into a single customer profile that adapts to each customer’s activity in real time for use across any department.  Einstein Studio makes it faster to train AI models by providing pre-built, zero-ETL integration, which reduces the complexity of moving data between platforms. Einstein Studio allows technical teams to simply “point and click” to access their data in Data Cloud, then build and train their custom AI models for use across Salesforce applications. This process provides current and relevant customer data to inform AI predictions and auto-generate content.Einstein Studio provides a control panel for managing the use of AI models, empowering data scientists and engineers to govern how their data is exposed to AI platforms for training. Einstein Studio’s zero-ETL framework allows companies to power their custom AI models without the need for time-consuming data integration across systems. This means Data Cloud can connect to other AI tools without the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process, saving customers time and money while accelerating AI implementation.The solution: Einstein Studio makes it faster and easier to run and deploy enterprise-ready AI across every part of the business, bringing trusted, open, and real-time AI experiences to every application and workflow.How it works: With Einstein Studio, companies can leverage their proprietary, real-time customer data from Data Cloud to train AI models that solve specific business needs. And with Einstein Studio’s BYOM solution, companies can train their preferred AI model with Data Cloud, which connects all customer data from any source, and automatically harmonizes that data into a single customer profile that adapts to each customer’s activity in real time for use across any department.  Einstein Studio makes it faster to train AI models by providing pre-built, zero-ETL integration, which reduces the complexity of moving data between platforms. Einstein Studio allows technical teams to simply “point and click” to access their data in Data Cloud, then build and train their custom AI models for use across Salesforce applications. This process provides current and relevant customer data to inform AI predictions and auto-generate content.Einstein Studio provides a control panel for managing the use of AI models, empowering data scientists and engineers to govern how their data is exposed to AI platforms for training. Einstein Studio’s zero-ETL framework allows companies to power their custom AI models without the need for time-consuming data integration across systems. This means Data Cloud can connect to other AI tools without the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process, saving customers time and money while accelerating AI implementation.What people are saying: “Companies need quick, ROI-driven AI investments that deliver value through actionable business insights and personalized customer experiences. Einstein Studio offers a faster, easier way to create and implement custom AI models, including a BYOM approach that allows customers to use the most relevant AI models – all while bypassing expensive ETL data pipeline processes. Now, Salesforce customers can harness their own proprietary data to power predictive and generative AI across every part of their organization.” – Rahul Auradkar, EVP & GM, Unified Data Services & Einstein, Salesforce  “Salesforce and Google Cloud share a commitment to helping businesses create real-world value with generative AI. Expanding access to Google’s powerful models for Salesforce customers through Einstein Studio means businesses can train AI models on Salesforce data, and then use the models throughout Salesforce’s business applications. In the future, this will allow customers to more easily deploy Google Cloud’s diverse models to address particular use cases, including Google’s foundation models, highly specialized models developed for specific industries, and a variety of open source models and those from our ecosystem of partners.” – Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate VP, Global Ecosystem and Channels at Google Cloud“Tens of thousands of customers have tapped Amazon SageMaker to train models with billions of parameters and generate more than a trillion monthly predictions. That is why Amazon SageMaker has become the tool of choice for numerous customers since launching in 2017, but to make the most of their investment in machine learning, customers need access to data, which can be siloed and difficult to use. Working together with Salesforce, we are making it even easier for customers to bring together their Salesforce data with Amazon SageMaker, so they can take advantage of the breadth and depth of SageMaker features to fuel machine learning-powered insights and quickly take action on what they uncover.” – Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Database, Analytics, and Machine Learning at AWS“Through Salesforce’s Data Cloud and Einstein Studio, customers will now have the ability to bring their own Amazon SageMaker models, providing them greater choice in how they utilize AI and customer data. The democratization of such a capability is key to the success of our clients. Deloitte is excited to be a part of this journey and has developed a series of ‘bring your own models’ that our clients can leverage as part of the Salesforce ecosystem.” – David Geisinger, Global Alliance Lead, Deloitte Digital

Dubai: Salesforce has announced plans to collaborate with Accenture to accelerate the deployment of generative AI for CRM. Together, the companies intend to establish an acceleration hub for generative AI that provides organizations with the technology and experience they need to scale Einstein GPT – Salesforce’s generative AI for CRM — helping to increase employee productivity and transform customer experiences.Significance: When deployed effectively, generative AI has the power to transform how companies do business and free employees’ time to focus on more complex and creative work. In fact, most senior IT leaders (84%) say generative AI will help their organization better serve customers. And with 67% of these leaders prioritizing generative AI for their business within the next 18 months, there is an urgent need to ensure the new technology is deployed effectively.Driving the news: The powerful combination of Salesforce and Accenture’s AI industry knowledge and connected customer experience aims to provide companies across every industry with strategies and technologies that harness generative AI effectively. By connecting to Accenture’s Generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) Center of Excellence, the new acceleration hub will facilitate:Custom AI Strategies and Accelerators for Growth: Senior leaders from Salesforce and Accenture plan to work with customers to develop customized AI strategies using new accelerators for Einstein GPT, user interfaces, and process automation, which can help increase productivity and profit for their businesses.Innovative Use Cases for Sales and Service: These use cases will showcase generative AI’s benefits and potential return on investment, with an initial focus on sales and service. Examples of these use cases include:Sales: Generative AI can increase seller productivity with automated tasks to help drive ongoing engagement with customers and prospects.Service: Generative AI can also help improve customer experience and agent productivity for every customer service interaction with trusted CRM data, and automate knowledge management to help companies respond to the needs of their customers more effectively.Industry-Specific AI Models: Salesforce and Accenture intend to build industry-specific AI models for customers in the financial services, health, manufacturing, and public sector industries.Generative AI & Data Cloud: Using Data Cloud to connect and harmonize information, Salesforce and Accenture will explore how generative AI can learn from customer data to create more personalized experiences for customers faster.Upskilling for AI Success: Salesforce and Accenture plan to develop learning resources that help teams develop and enhance their generative AI skills, fostering the next generation of talent within the Salesforce ecosystem. Specific areas of focus include programming for Einstein GPT, AI literacy, data science and analytics, and ethics and responsible AI.The hub will also tap existing learning content on Trailhead, such as how to use AI to meet business needs, how to create ethical AI, and how Einstein GPT is transforming the future of work.Generative AI for CRM: Einstein GPT has the power to transform customer experiences with generative AI. It enables companies to create personalized, AI-generated content across sales, service, marketing, IT, and more. For example, Einstein GPT can generate:Personalized emails for salespeople to send to customersSpecific responses for customer service professionals to respond to customer questions more efficientlyTargeted content for marketers to increase campaign response ratesCode for developersSoundbites:“Generative AI has enormous potential to transform the way companies interact with customers and drive business growth. Accenture and Salesforce together have years of experience in AI and play a critical role in ensuring customers get the most value from this technology. We want to come together to bring the visionary and technical expertise needed to unlock new possibilities for AI- and data-powered CRM, driving a profound transformation in customer interactions.” – Bill Patterson, EVP and General Manager, C360 Applications, Salesforce“Generative AI has the potential to transform work and reinvent business, with large language models impacting up to 40% of all working hours across industries, changing the way companies interact with their customers and ushering in a new era of generative AI for everyone. Companies need the infrastructure and knowledge to deploy this new technology to help address their unique business needs. By combining Accenture’s industry experience with Salesforce’s technology, we plan to be well positioned to help customers solve problems with generative AI faster and more effectively.” – Emma McGuigan, Senior Managing Director and Enterprise & Industry Technology lead, Accenture

Dubai: Salesforce has announced new Commerce Cloud innovations that will help companies in any industry connect to their customers with personalized experiences powered by real-time data – all on one unified platform.Significance: Eighty-one percent of consumers plan to reassess their budget over the next 12 months, shifting spending toward more personalized experiences. Retailers who don’t focus on increased personalization while also increasing efficiency will find their business at risk.Technology context: Commerce Cloud leverages the full power of the Customer 360 to deliver personalized experiences at scale that are intelligent, automated, and real time, while driving efficiency, productivity, and time to value.Einstein GPT for Commerce will combine Salesforce’s proprietary AI models with generative AI technology from an ecosystem of partners, and real-time data from the Salesforce Data Cloud, which ingests, harmonizes, and unifies all of a company’s customer data, to help customers automate and tailor recommendations in Commerce Cloud.Go deeper: Two new Commerce Cloud innovations will help merchants build seamless, personalized experiences — on any commerce platform.Leveraging customer demographic data and shopping history through Data Cloud, Einstein GPT for Commerce can build personalized product listings or engagement for each individual customer without preloaded product descriptions or information inputted on the back end.For example, a customer in Australia will see a different product description for an umbrella than a customer in the United States, without the retailer having to manually add pre-written versions of the copy for each season into Einstein GPT.Merchants can also design custom-tailored promotional offers, with personalized auto-generated messaging to customers over WhatsApp, SMS, and email.A new, fast and flexible page designer for Composable Storefront helps control the site experience and create rich landing pages with a drag-and-drop editor and reusable components that eliminate the need for a third-party content management system and let merchants build headless commerce experiences with less cost and complexity.Page designer reduces costs and time to value with an out-of-the-box integration and supporting React utilities for a headless page editor that eliminates the need for a third-party CMS.With new Composable Storefront accelerators, integrations, and pricing from Salesforce partners Astound, Capgemini, Deloitte Digital, DEPT, Valtech, IBM, Forward, and Uniform, merchants can build headless commerce experiences with less cost and complexity.Quotes:Thierry Nicault, Area Vice President, MENA, Salesforce, said: “With these new innovations, Commerce Cloud will help retailers adjust to a fast-changing environment and enable them to focus their efforts on where they are needed most – including offering a stellar, hyper-personalized customer experience. This is vital at the current time given that consumer spending  is expected to decline in many parts of the world, putting additional pressure on retailers to innovate and do more with less.”Fast facts:A recent survey of more than 500 senior IT leaders found that a majority believe generative AI is a ‘game changer,’ with 84% saying it will help them better serve their customers.Einstein GPT, the world’s first generative AI CRM technology, delivers AI-created content across every sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT interaction, at hyperscale.Salesforce is incorporating the technology across its product line, with new applications across every cloud, including Sales, Service, and Marketing, to transform every customer experience with generative AI.Salesforce is building on its Trusted AI Principles with a new set of five guidelines focused on the responsible development and implementation of generative AI.

Dubai:  Salesforce, The Global Leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), partners with PwC’s Egypt Technology and Innovation Centre (ETIC) to offer a free, three-week Salesforce training that aims to equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to lead off a thriving career in the Salesforce ecosystem. This partnership comes to reinforce the strategic alliance between Salesforce and PwC to accelerate the digital transformation across the region.The program is designed to help Salesforce's new learners to grow and sharpen essential technical skills. Additionally, the program offers a valuable opportunity for participants to gain a full scholarship and be considered for subsequent employment at PwC’s ETIC as Salesforce Developers.Kicking off on April 26, the program will be starting with a keynote session and in-person career panels to brief the participants on the program’s activities which will include weekly in-person and pre-recorded sessions, and scheduled emails with recommended modules on Trailhead – Salesforce’s free app for consultants. Over the course of three weeks, participants will be exploring:The growth of customer relationship management tools and related in-demand careersSalesforce Business Skills: Discovering Salesforce in business contexts, from a customer and Salesforce Administrator perspective.Different tools and practical ways to acquire Salesforce skills, and how to connect with employers.Commenting on the program, Thierry Nicault, Area Vice President, MENA, Salesforce, said: “This training program is an ideal opportunity for people who recognise the potential of digital technology to transform organisations and to learn everything they need to know to develop a career as a Salesforce expert. Currently, the economic headwinds are reinforcing the need for organisations to digitise and make their operations smarter, allowing them to transform challenges into opportunities for growth.”From his side, Wael Moustafa, Partner and ETIC CEO & Board Member, commented: “We’re proud to continue our investment in the local talent in Egypt through our strategic partnership with Salesforce to build the next generation of digitally-enabled talent. Throughout Egypt’s resilient, high-quality digital infrastructure, we will continue to build on the Public Sector efforts to accelerate the digital transformation in Egypt. At PwC’s ETIC, we will continue to build a community of solvers who collaborate to evolve technology enabled services that reimagine the future of businesses and leverage leading practices.”With Salesforce’s anticipation of 9.3 million jobs to be created in the global Salesforce ecosystem by 2026, the program will contribute in offering significant opportunities for those with the right knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, the program will be taking place in Egypt where young talent and governmental initiatives (ex. ICT 2030 strategy) are growing to drive economic growth.

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, has released its eighth annual State of Marketing report. In the report, UAE marketers say their work provides increasing value despite macroeconomic and labor headwinds. The report also reveals how marketers in the countries surveyed are adapting to changes in privacy regulations — all while managing more data sources than ever before.86 percent of UAE marketers say their work provides greater value than it did a year ago. However, they face an uphill battle in an uncertain economy: 19% of UAE marketers cited budgetary constraints and 59% agreed that customer expectations are more difficult to meet than they were a year ago.To help meet the moment, marketers are focusing on:Experimenting with new marketing strategies / tacticsBalancing personalization with customer comfort levels “Organisations in the UAE are increasingly looking to their CMO and their marketing teams to meet the challenge presented by customers’ digital-first expectations. There are also growing concerns about budgetary restraints and the ability to do more with less in the face of global economic headwinds, and the need to accommodate evolving data privacy requirements to prepare for a cookieless future,” said Robbie Kearns, Senior Regional Vice President, Salesforce.The trends revealed in the State of Marketing report were collected from a survey of 6,000 marketing leaders across 35 countries and six continents, including 100 from the UAE. Insights include the following:The march toward digitally-led engagement treads new and familiar paths. Marketers are investing in a combination of channels and technologies to reach audiences in new places and build lasting relationships. Audio, Events and sponsorships, and website/app have seen the largest increase in usage in the last year by UAE marketers. However, email marketing remains dominant, accounting for over 80% of all outbound marketing messages, according to trillions of message sends from Salesforce Marketing Cloud.Marketers navigate a complex technology and regulatory landscape. Marketers are adapting to changes in privacy regulations and calls for data transparency. Although 72% of UAE marketers still invest in third-party data, 80% say they have a fully defined strategy to shift from third-party data.KPIs shift as marketers pursue real-time intelligence. Across every stage of the funnel, marketers are tracking more metrics year over year than ever before. Speed to insight remains a competitive advantage. Seventy-eight percent of UAE marketing organizations engage customers in real time across one or more marketing channels.Distributed teams unite with collaboration technology. Recognizing that remote and distributed work is here to stay, leaders are making investments into new collaboration tools. 58% of UAE marketers say it’s harder to collaborate now than pre-pandemic and are turning to an average of 3.38 collaboration tools to help.