Salesforce recently made a significant announcement, introducing AI Cloud, an enterprise AI solution designed to enhance productivity across all Salesforce applications. This innovative open platform integrates multiple Salesforce technologies, including Einstein, Data Cloud, Tableau, Flow, and MuleSoft, providing real-time generative AI capabilities that seamlessly integrate into business operations.
At the heart of AI Cloud lies the groundbreaking Einstein Trust Layer, which Salesforce believes will set a new standard for enterprise AI architecture. This layer not only harnesses the power of generative AI but also prioritizes data privacy and security, ensuring the utmost protection of sensitive information.
Customers using AI Cloud will enjoy the flexibility to select their preferred large language models (LLMs) based on their specific needs. Options will include models from leading tech companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, as well as Salesforce’s proprietary and domain-specific models.
Adam Caplan, SVP of emerging technology at Salesforce, expressed his enthusiasm for AI Cloud, stating, “We developed AI Cloud to enable customers to leverage AI-generated content across sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, and IT interactions, fostering more personalized connections with their audiences.” Caplan further added, “Our new offering empowers enterprises to unlock the potential of generative AI in all their applications, seamlessly connect their enterprise data, gain valuable insights about their customers, and automate workflows.”
Salesforce emphasizes that the Einstein Trust Layer aims to instill trust in enterprise generative AI by safeguarding sensitive data within AI applications and workflows. This layer prevents the integration of proprietary data into public models and addresses critical concerns regarding data privacy, security, residency, and compliance in generative AI.
Furthermore, Salesforce has developed prompt templates and builders to enhance the quality and relevance of AI-generated content. These tools leverage harmonized data to ground the generated outputs within the unique context of each company, while also striving to eliminate AI hallucinations and optimize workflows.
In summary, Salesforce’s AI Cloud marks a significant milestone in enterprise AI, promising to revolutionize productivity and drive personalized experiences through the power of generative AI. With its comprehensive suite of technologies and the industry-leading Einstein Trust Layer, Salesforce is poised to empower organizations to unlock new insights, automate processes, and connect with their customers in unprecedented ways.
Salesforce Empowering Safer Use of Generative AI Models
New research conducted by Salesforce indicates that by 2030, AI is expected to drive over $15 trillion in global economic growth and increase GDP by 26%. However, the widespread adoption of AI is contingent upon establishing trust and safeguarding data privacy.
The research findings reveal that 73% of employees perceive generative AI as introducing new security risks, and nearly 60% of those intending to use the technology are uncertain about securing their data.
To tackle this challenge, the AI Cloud incorporates a Trust Layer, prioritizing data privacy and security. The company aims to grant users greater control over enterprise AI and data strategy by providing an open ecosystem.
Salesforce also asserts that integrating generative content powered by secure CRM data will cultivate trust among users.
“With trust at the center, AI Cloud will help customers get the most out of their data using generative AI to create a better customer experience and empower employees to work smarter and faster,” Salesforce’s Caplan told VentureBeat.
Caplan said the new offering enables sales teams to generate personalized emails customized to meet their customers’ needs. Additionally, marketers can use the tool to create audience segments, using natural language prompts and AI-driven recommendations to enhance targeting.
A customizable platform for LLM deployment
The Einstein Trust Layer offers a flexible platform that empowers customers to integrate their preferred large language models (LLMs) into their chosen deployment environment.
Developed in collaboration with OpenAI, the platform enables customers to use external models while ensuring the confidentiality of their prompts and generative responses within Salesforce’s secure environment. To enhance security measures, AI Cloud hosts Salesforce’s proprietary LLMs, as well as LLMs from AWS, Google, Anthropic, Cohere and other domain-specific models. This comprehensive approach allows businesses to integrate diverse large language models with customer data.
The introduction of Einstein GPT serves as a gateway for customers to use their preferred LLMs. Salesforce’s LLMs, including CodeGen, CodeT5+ and CodeTF, offer advanced capabilities like code generation and business process automation assistance.
Salesforce’s Caplan added that the company has developed a set of guidelines specific to generative AI, based on Trusted AI Principles, a framework to help companies think through how to work thoughtfully with generative AI.
“Our guidelines for responsible generative AI aim to help Salesforce and all users of generative AI mitigate these issues by following responsible best practices when it comes to development,” said Caplan. “Customers who have trained their own models outside of Salesforce can benefit from AI Cloud while storing data on their own infrastructure. These models connect directly to AI Cloud through the Einstein Trust Layer, where all customer data remains within the customers’ trust boundaries.”
Salesforce’s announcement of its new AI Cloud services comes as competition in the fast-moving generative AI-for-enterprise space continues to escalate, with new startups launching targeting the same customer base, and incumbents like Microsoft and Google also offering enterprise-friendly AI services.
