Dive Brief:

• Salesforce launched a public beta for Einstein Copilot, its generative AI assistant for its CRM, the company announced Tuesday. The employee-facing tool is designed to answer questions, summarize or create new content, and automate tasks, among other features.
• Einstein Copilot accepts natural language prompts and generates responses based on the context. Examples include helping customer service agents provide offers or assistance based on a customer’s historical data with a company.
• With its new feature, Salesforce is aiming to ride a wave of generative AI interest and investments. One-quarter of desk workers say they have tried AI tools as of January, compared with 1 in 5 as of September, according to a survey of over 10,000 workers released Tuesday by Slack and Salesforce. 

Dive Insight:

The number of companies adopting AI-powered tools for their workforce is on the rise. Large companies like Walmart have rolled out generative AI-powered assistants among its staff, and vendors such as Medallia are adding generative AI solutions to their portfolios.

Salesforce is seeking to leverage its status as the leading provider of CRMs to become the premier provider of AI-powered tools. Einstein’s predictive and generative AI features handle a combined 1 trillion transactions a week, Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce, said during a November 2023 earnings call .

A July Salesforce survey found 86% of IT executives believe that generative AI will have a major impact on their companies — a belief that is fueling its adoption. 

These leaders will need to educate themselves on how generative AI can assist their employees, according to Amelia Dunlop, CXO at Deloitte Digital.

Executives need to experiment with the technology first to understand the learning curve associated with new processes and to ensure technology is being applied in a manner that genuinely improves customer experience outcomes, Dunlop said.

“The stakes are high,” she told CX Dive. “As we think about chief experience officers and people who are responsible for these decisions, giving them the space to actually play and learn and test and create with the technology is going to be very important.”

Einstein Copilot is currently available for Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and Service Cloud globally, with Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud integration expected later in 2024.