Salesforce is strengthening its AI offering with new support and functionality. Just ahead of World Tour NYC, the company announced it is adding vector database support and enhancing its Einstein Copilot generative assistant with AI search capabilities. The features will make their way into the Einstein 1 Platform, which was recently rebranded Salesforce platform.
Streamlining Workflows with AI
The enhanced Salesforce platform brings together various elements such as the Data Cloud, Copilot, CRM apps, and Copilot Studio for building AI-powered apps. This integration allows teams to take full advantage of AI in their workflows, whether they are creating custom generative AI apps or utilizing the Copilot assistant for project-related information.
Salesforce Data Cloud, the company’s in-house data platform, combines data points from different customer touchpoints to create unified customer profiles in real time. Previously, teams had to spend significant time and resources fine-tuning off-the-shelf large language models (LLMs) to enable generative AI in their CRM workflows using this data. However, with integrated vector database support, Salesforce eliminates the need for fine-tuning. It converts unstructured business data, such as PDFs, emails, documents, and transcripts, into a usable vector format and unifies it with structured information, enabling generative AI and analytics across various Salesforce CRM application workflows.
By leveraging the integrated vector database support, users gain robust data insights and streamlined processes with relevant prompts. For example, a marketer building an email campaign can use Marketing Cloud Intelligence to analyze unstructured survey data and transcripts hosted inside Data Cloud, understanding the intent of the targeted customer base. With these insights, they can iterate on email templates, optimizing their strategies.
“By integrating both structured and unstructured data, our new Data Cloud Vector Database transforms all business data…into valuable insights. This advancement in Data Cloud, coupled with the power of LLMs, is a game-changer, fostering a data-driven ecosystem where AI, CRM, automation, Einstein Copilot, and analytics turn data into actionable intelligence and drive innovation.” – Rahul Auradkar, EVP and GM of unified data services at Einstein at Salesforce
With the growing recognition of the potential of unstructured data, especially in data science and AI, Salesforce is focusing on offering vector database support. Other major data ecosystem vendors, like Snowflake and Databricks, also provide support for structured and unstructured data.
Einstein Copilot Powered by Vector Database Capabilities
Alongside CRM apps, Salesforce’s generative AI assistant, Einstein Copilot, will leverage vector database capabilities in the Data Cloud. This technology will enable AI-driven Einstein Copilot Search, allowing users to query all their business data, both structured and unstructured, and retrieve precise information seamlessly.
For instance, a sales representative can prompt Einstein Copilot to pull up specific information, such as a customer’s financial filings or past email interactions, in preparation for a meeting. They can then ask follow-up questions about the data to gain a detailed understanding. Einstein Copilot will serve as a conversational helper across various CRM apps, providing a consistent user experience for different tasks. Additionally, it will provide citations to its source material, ensuring teams can use the generated information with complete confidence.
“While the features push Salesforce’s AI agenda ahead, it is important to note that none of these capabilities are available just yet. In February 2024, the company will launch Einstein Copilot for general use. As the conversational assistant becomes available to customers, the company will pilot vector database support and AI search. This will also happen in the same month; however, the timeline for general availability remains unclear at this stage.” – [Original Author]
