Salesforce’s AI journey: From Einstein to Agentforce

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming so prominent in our everyday lives that it will soon one day be the leading piece of technology in the world. For some, it may feel as if AI sprung out of nowhere, yet the concept has been around for much longer than you think.

The first piece of AI technology was produced back in the 1950s, after Alan Turing published his work “Computing Machinery and Intelligence," and introduced the Turing test. The term Artificial Intelligence, however, was coined by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon in 1956, meaning that we have had working AI for over 70 years.

Yet, it feels like AI happened so suddenly, as it is now so easily available to the public with tools such as Chat-GPT and Midjourney.

But when it comes to using this technology for the CRM world, it’s Salesforce that’s paving the way.

While many were unsure of what AI would be capable of and how it could benefit businesses, Salesforce could see its potential and the multitude of opportunities it could offer its customers.

In just a few short years, Salesforce has shown why it is the leading CRM for medium to large businesses across the world with its AI advancements, starting with the introduction of Einstein to the release of its latest AI advancement; Agentforce.

AI & Salesforce: The perfect pair

Not having a CRM (especially in a medium to large corporation) is just unthinkable in today’s world.

Before the CRM any stored data would be on different platforms and applications making processes bulky and time-consuming, and much easier to lose or misplace information. CRM systems have ensured that this is no longer the case.

But how could you go one step further? By implementing AI.

Unless you’ve been vacant from the CRM world, then of course the use of AI isn’t big news anymore. Talks of pairing Artificial Intelligence with CRM systems have been in the air for over a decade. And it isn’t just Salesforce that is using and implementing AI into their CRM, but almost every system across the world is doing the same.

But it was back in 2014 when Marc Benioff announced that Salesforce was to become an ‘AI-first company’ to transform Salesforce into an ‘intelligent’ CRM that the revolution started to take shape.

Seen a natural evolution for Salesforce, it was just two years later when Salesforce released its first AI tool, Einstein, the first comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) technology for a CRM.

Einstein

Developed to ‘further the mission of democratising enterprise AI’, Einstein wasn’t made for the data scientists, but for all customers to use across all areas, transforming the user experience and helping thousands of customers streamline their processes.

To do this, however, Salesforce acquired several AI and learning businesses that would become integral to the development of Einstein which included:

• 2016 - PredictionIO, offered machine learning technology
• 2016 - MetaMind, specialising in deep learning technology and enhancing AI capabilities
• 2016 - Implisit Insights provided predictive intelligence solutions

Salesforce has continued to acquire corporations from across the world that specialise in AI and learning technology. And this constant progression is just one of the reasons why Salesforce is the leader not just in terms of pairing AI with their CRM, but as the leading CRM company overall.

The next steps

But of course, Salesforce didn’t just stop with Einstein. If they did, they wouldn’t be where they are today. So, what other AI tools and updates did Salesforce introduce over the coming years?

2018

• Salesforce introduced Salesforce 360 (now Einstein 1)
• Einstein Voice is introduced, giving employees and professionals the ability to ‘speak’ with Einstein

2022

• Customer Data Cloud, the hyper-scale real-time data platform that now powers the Einstein 1 platform
• The acquisition of MetaMind in November 2022 would bring the next phase of AI and introduce generative AI.

2023

• It is revealed that over 1 trillion AI-powered predictions were made every week per customer
• Einstein 1 was revealed at Dreamforce

2024

• Einstein Copilot is released, bringing conversational AI assistants to every application and customer
• The first Salesforce AI centre location is revealed to be situated in London, bringing industry experts, customers, and partners to advance AI and upskill opportunities.

Yet it was in June of this year that Salesforce announced their biggest AI update so far; Agentforce.

Agentforce

Described as the ‘Third wave in AI revolution’, Agentforce works by allowing organisations to build and manage both assistive and autonomous AI agents to complete tasks across the CRM and different departments.

For some departments and roles, there can be more tasks and processes than there are hands to complete effectively. Agentforce is designed to work with Salesforce professionals and employees to relieve the stress of completing these tasks by using AI agents.

What can these agents do?

Falling into two categories, assistive and autonomous, these Agents can deliver and complete certain tasks using a natural language, unlike chatbots and copilots which can sound robotic.

Assistive Agents are those that ‘work with’ and require human input to function effectively, and Autonomous Agents will be able to operate independently, with much less human interaction.

Does this mean that no human activity is involved? No. Instead, think of AI Agents as an extra pair of hands working beside you to assist with completing routine tasks, to qualify leads that haven’t been managed, or to answer customer questions, allowing you to focus on the most high-value aspects of work.  

Every customer with Agentforce can build their own or use pre-built agents to complete specific tasks. As stated previously, this allows everyone, whether you’re a Salesforce professional or a customer to use it to its full potential.

Yet if more specific agents were needed to complete more complex tasks, agents can be easily built with existing Salesforce tools including flows, prompts, APIs, and Apex.

Conclusion

Not only was Salesforce the first to implement AI successfully and be accessible to every customer, but it was the first to realise that AI could be the next phase of the CRM system.

Since the release of Einstein, many other CRM systems have followed suit with their own versions of AI tools to enhance their productivity. But only a handful have come close to the success of Einstein and the innovation of Agentforce.

Through dedication and a constant need to progress, Salesforce continues to be the number one CRM worldwide and develop the most advanced AI for a CRM to date.