News
The Gist
- It's revealed. Salesforce announced the AI Cloud suite, an array of generative AI capabilities focused on CRM, during AI Day on June 12.
- It's secure. The suite includes the Einstein GPT Trust Layer, an enterprise-grade secure generative AI that doesn't retain sensitive customer data.
- It's integrated. The AI Cloud integrates numerous Salesforce technologies and supports large language models from third parties within Salesforce's infrastructure.
It’s AI Day. And as Salesforce prepares to announce what they consider “the future of trusted enterprise AI” this afternoon, CMSWire has a sneak peek at one of the biggest reveals: Salesforce AI Cloud, a new suite of generative AI capabilities and experiences across all applications and workflows specifically for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Trust in the Cloud: Salesforce's AI Cloud Hopes to Bridge the Data Divide
The AI Cloud is built around Einstein, the company's flagship AI for CRM, that currently drives more than a trillion predictions per week across Salesforce's applications. It also features what Salesforce calls “a new benchmark for enterprise-grade secure generative AI” — the Einstein GPT Trust Layer, designed to bridge the trust gap associated with generative AI by ensuring that large-language models (LLMs) don’t hold onto sensitive customer data. This, Salesforce officials say, establishes a clear division between the data and the LLM.
According to company officials, in addition to Einstein, the AI Cloud integrates several Salesforce technologies, including Einstein, Data Cloud, Tableau, Flow and MuleSoft, and will host large language models from various third parties, including Amazon Web Services, Anthropi, and Cohere, entirely within Salesforce's infrastructure. It also supports the use of Salesforce's large language models developed by Salesforce AI Research, as well as customers' own domain-specific models trained outside of Salesforce.
Essentially, these enhancements provide a GPT-frosting, if you will, on existing Salesforce apps: Sales GPT, Service GPT, Marketing GPT, Commerce GPT, Slack GPT, Tableau GPT, Flow GPT and Apex GPT.
Related Article: Salesforce Expands AI Arsenal With New Marketing Tools and Partnerships
AI for a Pretty Penny: Salesforce's AI Cloud Starter Pack Price Tag
Salesforce currently lists the AI Cloud Starter pack is for $360,000 annually, which includes building blocks like Data Cloud, MuleSoft automation, Einstein, Tableau Analytics, Slack, CRM, and a free AI-readiness assessment from Salesforce Professional Services. The Einstein GPT Trust Layer will be generally available this month, with other features becoming available in the following months.
“AI is reshaping our world and transforming business in ways we never imagined, and every company needs to become AI-first,” Marc Benioff, CEO at Salesforce, said in a statement. “AI Cloud ... is the fastest and easiest way for our customers to unleash the incredible power of AI, with trust at the center driven by our new Einstein GPT Trust Layer. AI Cloud will unlock incredible innovation, productivity, and efficiency for every company.”
Benioff on AI: 'Most Important Technology of Any Lifetime'
Editor's note: This rest of this article was added on Tuesday, June 13.
Benioff played host during his company’s very first “AI Day” event on Monday, June 12. Addressing the crowd, he shared his belief that AI and generative AI may be “the most important technology of any lifetime.”
Last week, during its annual Connections event, Salesforce unveiled a duo of new AI-powered tools designed with marketers in mind — Marketing GPT, which leverages generative AI to craft customized campaigns, and Commerce GPT, aimed at assisting brands in providing highly personalized shopping experiences.
Monday, Benioff touted the additional tools including, Service GPT, Commerce GPT, Slack GPT, Tableau GPT, Flow GPT and Apex GPT. Speaking alongside members of the Salesforce AI team, much of the focus was on providing trust and security for their customers with its new AI Cloud and the new Einstein GPT Trust Layer.
“We already know that every CEO needs an AI strategy now. We’ve been talking about that for over a decade, and we have the best team when it comes to enterprise AI, there’s no question,” Benioff said. “But when we look at these new models that everyone’s going to roll out, we know one thing and that is there’s a pretty big gap — and it takes place in every conversation I have with every CEO ... It’s this AI trust gap.”
The Einstein GPT trust layer will be rolled out to customers worldwide this month.
Can Enterprises Trust AI?
Jerry Levine, chief evangelist and general counsel at ContractPodAi, believes the Salesforce announcement makes clear that generative AI is more a “dot com boom” than a “crypto bust.”
“For companies that are hesitant to use generative AI technology, the general trust of Salesforce as a platform, combined with their trust layer, will appear to be a positive step for protecting intellectual property and customer usage,” Levine told CMSWire. “We already know, and OpenAI, Google and others are very clear about this, that the public models folks are touching are being used for training and can learn from what’s being input.”
Levine said that while that works for casual users as they attempt to learn about the basics of these tools, it doesn’t work for business records, legal usage, medical analysis and any other use case which needs to be secure and private. In other words, generative AI in the enterprise has a laundry list of compliance and security.
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“Any business offering generative AI capabilities for the enterprise," he added, "should make it clear the method by which they’re applying the generative AI tools, the manner in which they’re restricting and managing the AI, and the way that they’re securing user data to ensure data is secure, private, and intelligently managed."
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