Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominates our thoughts, beliefs, conversations, and actions. Typical of any zeitgeist, AI continues to divide opinions. There are those who dismiss it as hype, while others vouch for its necessity with an almost evangelical zeal.
Whether pro-AI or anti-AI, the zeitgeist has forced both parties to confront the question: How can we navigate the AI era successfully?
The question is particularly important to marketers as they’re the last people who can afford to alienate themselves from the predominant cultural discourse without cutting off their revenue sources and eventually threatening their existence. The question has vast implications for us.
This is what Salesforce, the leading CRM in the world, addressed in the just-concluded Salesforce World Tour Essentials event in Mumbai. Salesforce has proactively integrated AI into its architecture, transforming the truism of “customer-centricity” into actuality.
As Salesforce partners and having served over 800 SMFC customers across 50+ countries, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. So, we flew to the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai last week.
Here’s the entire scoop on how Salesforce is leveraging AI and how Indian businesses are embracing the winds of change.
- Build a Customer 360
- Unify & harmonize your data
- Collaborate with AI
- Deliver AI analytics
- Deploy trusted AI & Copilot
Major announcements
At the heart of the event were two major announcements by Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and Chairperson of Salesforce India:
- The introduction of Salesforce’s Public Sector Division in India
- The launch of new digital lending solutions
1. Public sector division
The new Public Sector Division aims to revolutionize public services in India by leveraging advanced digital solutions. It will enhance government operations, citizen services, and public sector efficiency. Salesforce’s suite of tools will help streamline processes, improve data management, and foster transparency.
“Our focus on the public sector,” Arundhati Bhattacharya said, “comes at a time when the cloud has become the underlying strength of digital transformation efforts, playing a pivotal role in paving the way for innovation and propelling India to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030.”
2. Digital lending solutions
Salesforce also introduced a robust digital lending platform designed to boost financial inclusion. This platform will make it easier for financial institutions to provide loans and credit to underserved populations. By utilizing Salesforce’s technology, lenders can offer personalized and efficient services, reducing the barriers to accessing financial support.
“Given the potential of technology in driving change,” Bhattacharya said, “our new product ‘Digital Lending for India’ can offer multiple benefits. With its rich scientific heritage, diversity, and strong aspirations for a technology-driven economy, India finds itself at a juncture, facing both challenges and opportunities in this global technological race.”
The Salesforce economy & India
The Salesforce economy is growing.
A recent study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) reveals that Salesforce, empowered by AI, is projected to create approximately 11.6 million jobs worldwide, with India contributing nearly 2 million of these new positions in the country.
Image Source: IDC
India is rapidly converting to the AI zeitgeist. Currently, 79% of Indian companies leverage AI-driven CRM solutions and 80% rely on enterprise AI platforms. The era of exploration and experimentation is shifting toward a need for practical AI skills, with over 59% of organizations now expecting business-ready AI expertise from potential hires.
However, as with any emergent market, AI brings its own set of challenges, chiefly along these lines: AI/data bias, skill deficiency, and loose AI governance.
“New technologies require new skills and have different impacts. That was true with the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the digital revolution, and now the AI revolution,” the IDC report states. Below is a list of new key roles needed in the AI generation.
Image Source: IDC
Salesforce & the “AI revolution”
The keynote set the tone for the day with insights from Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India, and Jim Steele, President, Global Strategic Partners, Alliances & Channels, Salesforce. (see image below) The focus was on how AI, combined with CRM and data, is revolutionizing customer service.
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
Air India has been one of Salesforce’s illustrious customers. In 2022, with the support of Salesforce’s Data Cloud, Air India unified its siloed customer data, enabling the leading Indian airline to deliver a seamless customer experience across its 550,000 phone-operated service cases each month.
Speaking at the event, Ramaswamy said, “It [AI] is very disruptive, obviously, but we don’t believe that the contact centre agents will disappear entirely. There are a lot of complex scenarios where at least at the moment, there is a need for contact centre agents. We have achieved a first call resolution rate of about 80 per cent today, a lot of that can be attributed to Salesforce’s ability to integrate multiple Air India systems.”
AI is reshaping various business functions, from marketing to sales to customer service. Marketers will discover how AI enables personalized campaigns, while sales teams will learn about leveraging AI insights to boost productivity and revenue. Customer service professionals will see how AI scales operations, meeting the growing demand for speed and personalization.
In the context of the AI revolution, Salesforce has identified the following five steps to the AI enterprise:
- Build a Customer 360
- Unify & Harmonize your data
- Collaborate with AI
- Deliver AI analytics
- Deploy Trusted AI & Copilot
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
5 steps to the AI enterprise
1. Build a Customer 360
This holistic view of your customers consolidates data from multiple touchpoints into a single, trustworthy source. In Salesforce, Customer 360 facilitates:
- Data integration: Salesforce allows you to centralize all your customer data from sales, service, marketing, and commerce into a single location
- Unified customer profiles: By encapsulating all interactions and transactions, the 360-degree view enables more accurate and insightful interpretations of customer behavior and preferences.
- Deeper personalization: These insights will help you deliver personalized experiences, leading to greater engagement, satisfaction, and customer loyalty.
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
2. Unify & harmonize your data
Having data and leveraging it are two different things. With Salesforce Data Cloud, you can take advantage of:
- Data management: Oversee and synchronize extensive datasets. Use Data Cloud to cleanse actionable data and prepare it for AI applications
- APIs and connectors: Integrate third-party data sources to access and utilize a diverse dataset
- Data activation: Use features like Einstein Co-pilot for real-time data analysis. Generate accurate predictive insights and recommendations
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
3. Collaborate with AI
Salesforce offers tools that foster “collective intelligence” via third-party integrations:
- Slack integration: Teams on Slack can collaborate in real-time, share data-driven insights, and execute data-driven tasks
- AI-fueled workflows: Develop AI-powered workflows to streamline operations and improve inter-departmental communication and decision-making
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
4. Deliver AI analytics
Analytics is the cornerstone of insight-driven decision-making. With the help of Salesforce’s Copilot for Tableau and Tableau Pulse, you can:
- Visualize data: Use Einstein Analytics to explore data, create intuitive, user-friendly dashboards, and discover customer trends and behavioral patterns
- Leverage real-time insights: Copilot for Tableau gives you instant insights, recommendations, and simplifies navigation through complex datasets, extending the scope of deriving value from data to non-technical users as well
5. Deploy trusted AI & Copilot
Trust and transparency sit at the core of Salesforce’s AI integration. Salesforce ensures AI models are transparent and explainable, with a strong focus on ethics to ensure fair and unbiased decisions:
- Einstein AI: Salesforce Einstein brings advanced AI functionality into the entire Salesforce ecosystem so that you can automate day-to-day tasks, prognosticate outcomes, and offer personalized recommendations
- Copilot functionality: Copilot assists sales reps with next-best actions and service agents with customer inquiries, accelerating productivity and enhancing decision-making.
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
Einstein Copilot works seamlessly with all Salesforce applications. It enables tasks such as texting customers, generating time-saving summaries, updating records, and creating campaigns from concise prompts.
Einstein Copilot for Data Cloud
In Data Cloud, leveraging Einstein Copilot simplifies the creation of segmentations and beyond. Through natural language inputs, you provide context, and Einstein Copilot handles the rest seamlessly.
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
Once an audience is created in Data Cloud, it seamlessly integrates into Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Journey Builder, facilitating the creation of personalized customer journeys.
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
A fitting end to a memorable experience!
Last week swept by as we connected with fellow Salesforce enthusiasts, engaged closely with top business leaders, and immersed ourselves in learning amidst the dynamic atmosphere of innovation-driven marketers and businesses. From exchanging insights to networking with seasoned professionals nationwide, and topping it off by representing our own SFMC affiliation, it surpassed our expectations.
And best of all, thanks to Salesforce, we could finally catch up with Mr. Einstein himself. 😊
Photo courtesy of: Mavlers Salesforce Team
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Harsh Makadia - Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Harsh is the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Solution Architect and Team Lead at Mavlers. With over 7 years of experience in marketing automation, he specializes in implementing advanced tools like Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Account Engagement (formerly Pardot). Harsh is dedicated to helping companies achieve their business goals through innovative and efficient strategies.
Mrugesh Dabhi
Mrugesh is the Associate Director - Email & Marketing Automation at Email Uplers. With 12+ years of experience in email marketing, he has been responsible for planning, strategizing, optimizing& producing innovative campaigns & enhancing performance. Catch him on his next trip to the deserts and beaches while he is busy crafting that next perfect email.
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