AI Is No Longer for the Few — AI Is for Everyone

AI is now for everyone, and its role is expanding rapidly. So, how can organisations ensure that all teams fully harness its power to enhance productivity, leverage data, and drive revenue growth?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t new. It’s been around much longer than you might think. One of the earliest examples dates back to 1956 with the introduction of IBM’s AI system ‘Deep Blue’ which was used to play games against a human opponent.

However, until recently, it has primarily been accessible to computer scientists with huge amounts of processing power (and technical know-how). Today, AI is available on a variety of software platforms, meaning non-technical people can use it too, no matter their role. 

The growing role of AI

Do you or your colleagues use AI at work? The chances are you do. In fact, globally, 45% of service organisations, 62% of marketers, and 33% of sales leaders use AI. 

With a dedicated AI assistant, you can replace legacy processes and manual tasks to free up time and resources to reach unprecedented heights in productivity and efficiency. Whether it’s note-taking, meeting attendance, call summarisation, content generation, or automated service responses, AI offers solutions that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Here are two key features of AI that, in the past, would’ve required specialists to implement, high costs to run, and a long time to conduct. Now, anyone can use them.

1. Data orchestration

At the heart of AI lies CRM data. But maximising your AI requires orchestration of that data, which can be a big challenge. So, what do you need to get ready? Connie Dea, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce, explained at the Sales keynote presentation at Dreamforce 2023: “You need it [CRM data] connected, you need it together all in one place, and you need it to be fuelling the decisions your team is making every day. That’s why we built the data platform.”

2. Data automation

At Salesforce, our Sales Cloud platform can automatically capture data across all interactions, across all users. It brings that data into one place and harmonises it in real time, so there’s no need for any manual entry. In the keynote, Julie Bordato, Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce, further explains that with AI process intelligence, you gain “x-ray vision into your business… You can find insights and opportunities that make your processes more efficient.” This is a massive improvement for resourcing, forecasting, and boardroom planning.

How AI’s growing role benefits everyone

The benefits that you can leverage from adopting AI into your business operations are extensive.

1. Save time

In the keynote, Bordato continues by highlighting the timesaving benefits of AI, “I definitely won’t be doing this work in spreadsheets — watch me cut months’ worth of work right down to minutes.” With Sales Cloud, users can record three times more customer calls and easily access insights, saving 3.5 hours per day — it’s no wonder 77% of desk workers globally say automating routine tasks would improve their productivity.

2. Maximise selling

With a human at the helm and AI working to assist, your entire organisation can supercharge its selling capabilities, “AI solves my biggest pet peeve; I can now edit across record types, and it saves back to CRM… This is game-changing. I can bring my CRM and powerful data with me wherever I work” says Kristen House, VP of Sales and Commerce Cloud UX at Salesforce.

3. Increase trust

Salesforce research found that while 77% of customers trust companies to make honest claims about their products and services, only 53% trust them to use AI ethically. This highlights the importance of having AI that your teams and customers feel safe using. With trusted AI, you mitigate risks that might otherwise reduce confidence and stifle innovation, and instead benefit from growth, operational efficiency, and improved wellbeing for your teams and customers.

At Salesforce, we’ve ensured that trusted AI is accessible to all. Let’s take a look.

Putting your trust in AI 

As you integrate AI across your organisation, having a framework in place to ensure it’s secure, private, and compliant is really important. Indeed, in Forrester’s report The Journey To AI-Powered CRM, 96% of global business decision makers say that trust is critical when considering an AI vendor.

To address this crucial issue, we provide the Einstein Trust Layer. This innovative layer ensures everyone can leverage AI without compromising data security and privacy controls. It does this through:

1. Secure Data Retrieval: Ensures data retrieval is conducted securely.
2. Dynamic Grounding: Incorporates customer context to enhance prompts safely.
3. Data Masking: Protects sensitive information through effective masking techniques.
4. Toxicity Detection: Identifies and filters out harmful content.
5. Auditing: Maintains a comprehensive record of AI interactions for transparency.
6. Zero Retention: Ensures minimal retention of sensitive information.

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, few innovations have the potential to revolutionise our way of life and work as profoundly as AI. As we head into this new era with AI woven into our daily lives, no matter your industry, no matter your team, AI is for everyone.

Ready to accelerate sales with trusted AI for everyone? For more information on how Salesforce can help you get the most from your AI, see here.