Play
Show Navigation
Show Transcript
00:00
Play
Seek 10 seconds backwards
Seek 10 seconds forward
00:00 / 36:09
Mute
Disable Captions
Settings
Picture in picture
Fullscreen
Search in video
You can search the video captions for specific words or phrases.
Popout transcript
Hide Transcript
Skip transcript
- Thank you, Allie.
Please join me in welcoming
our incredible lineup
of speakers for a
conversation on the power
and potential of AI,
including Paula Goldman,
chief Ethical and Humane
use officer at Salesforce.
Susan Gonzalez, founder
and CEO of AIandYou.
Robin Washington,
Lead Independent Director at Salesforce,
board member at Alphabet and Honeywell.
Natalie Scardino, President
and Chief People Officer at Salesforce.
And our moderator, Leah McGowan Hare, SVP
of the Trailblazer
Community at Salesforce.
Over to you, Leah.
Welcome. Alright, is
- Everyone feeling great?
- All right, let's jump straight into it.
We have these amazing minds here
and I want to tap in,
have your notebooks ready,
'cause they're about to drop some gems.
So my first question is for
all of the panelists, I'd like
to start by asking you, in your view,
what is the most transformative potential
of AI in our society today?
Why don't we start with Paula?
- Oh my gosh, there's so many.
But the thing that's top of mind for me is
that I think we all know
we're at this moment
where AI is transforming how we work,
and we have are on the
precipice of this choice.
AI can be this massive
equalizing force for inclusion,
for propelling people into
their careers for access.
But we have to be intentional about it.
And I think that's why we're here today.
- Yes. Oops. Did I lose my mic? Oh, no.
I would say similarly, I see
AI as has, has a potential
to be a great equalizer,
but what's going to hold us back
is fear of the technology.
And, and I'm talking about, I mean,
I know there's some wonderful
engineers and AI experts,
and like I'm here for the
people, you know, and,
and to help people
overcome some of the fear
so then they can become more
comfortable with the technology
and then ultimately adopt it.
But right now the numbers
speak for themselves
that the fear is so high
that we have the potential
to also create an even
bigger digital divide.
- Yeah, both great points.
I think for me, you know,
we we're here in Silicon Valley, right?
Where we've just seen innovation abound in
so many different ways,
Leah, but AI has a tenfold
and it's gonna impact every
person, every industry.
So I think our ability to do it right
and make it inclusive is
really, really important.
But the power is exponential in terms
of being an equalizer in a lot
of different ways if we do it correctly.
- Yeah, I think that's just a
very important point on the,
the people, you know,
think about when spreadsheets
were first created
and there was a fear that
there'd be an eradication of,
you know, finance professionals
and there's 10x the number
of finance roles just doing
different higher value work.
And so I think part of
it is the education and,
and for good use of ai.
But it's here already.
I mean, you know, on the way
in there was like 10 Waymo's
waiting and I'm like, I should get in one
of them at this point.
That's right. My son, my 7-year-old said,
I'm in a robot car,
mom, I'm in a robot car.
It's, it's, it's happening around us.
You know, my mom paid for
her groceries with her hand.
- That's right.
- And so it's already here
and now it is understanding the use and,
and how it impacts those.
But I do think it's a
democratizer as far as access
to technology in a different way.
- Completely agree with that.
Robin, I'd like to ask you,
you're trusted advisor
to several companies
and across multiple industries,
including Salesforce.
What advice would you give
to companies as they look
to leverage AI in the way
that is both inclusive and ethical?
- Yeah, great question.
You know, we talk a lot about the ROIs
and the business cases, which
are all really important.
And I find particularly,
you know, as a board member,
I'm stepping back and
asking as you think about
that use case or the business implication,
who's involved in the decision making
and what, how have you thought
about change management?
We were talking about people, et cetera.
So really stepping back
and doubling down on
where you think you can make a difference
and you're, you're thinking
about the folks around the room.
For instance, if I hear, you know,
it was just the developers
in a room that came up
with the business case go,
where are the business people?
Where's HR? Where are
the legal implications?
So I think particularly
with this technology,
it's really important that you
have that inclusive diversity
of thought, diversity of
different backgrounds at the table
as you think about how to really leverage
and get the value from AI.
- I love that. It sounds
like being intentional too,
like knowing who's not
at the table to make.
Exactly. I love that Nathalie,
with AI rapidly evolving,
how are we, how,
what skills do you believe
the next generation
of leaders will need to
effectively manage the AI driven
- Teams?
Yeah, there's so much
data on this research.
You know, one of the latest
reports from LinkedIn
and the, the World Economic
Forum about the next decade
of skills, number one will be no surprise,
which is creative thinking.
You know, number two was
data and AI literacy. Yes.
But the rest of the
skills I would classify
as like self-management,
self-regulating skills, resilience,
empathy, active listening, you know,
emotional intelligence,
self-awareness was the other big one.
And so in a world that is
changing so much technologically,
that's becoming part of
our consumer experience,
we're really focusing on
like what are those skills
that are omnipresent for that
are the most durable skills?
How do you build, you know,
I'm the oldest of five,
I have a 20-year-old sister and
- Got grit,
- Grit, resilience.
Sometimes she reminds me about empathy.
But all of those things that are,
are no matter if you're a
developer, if you're a seller,
if you're, whatever
leadership role you're in,
if you're in the ethical
and humane use, I think those self
regulating skills are
no longer soft skills.
- No. - They become the skill,
the meta skill and learning
- Yes.
- Was in the top 10.
- Yes.
- Not just like being tapped
on the shoulder to learn,
but learning right here.
You know, always finding
those opportunities.
- Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
It's those things that are uniquely human
that we must double down on.
Yes, yes.
Susan, you often use the
example of AI as a bakery.
I love good carb where we can walk in
and only see the end result
and don't think about
the recipes behind all
of the favorite baked goods.
Will you tell us a little
bit more about that analogy?
- Yes, actually is algorithms.
So I I, I come from tech
and I learned about AI
about 10 years ago there
and left about five years
ago to launch a nonprofit,
to educate marginalized
communities about AI, an easy
to understand language
because I learned, when
I was in tech working
with engineers, I was
always saying, oh, so
what you mean is, and so I
was on, I was on a bike ride
and I was thinking, how do
I describe an algorithm?
Like how, how would my
family understand it?
And I was like, it's like a recipe.
And so we create these
short explainer videos
for people like all of our families,
and even those that may not be
here, the folks in marketing
or admin assistants, but like
everybody to create a baseline
of understanding because
without a baseline,
we can't expect people to
take on like say upskilling opportunities
or reskilling if they don't
understand what it is.
And so that's really where we focus,
is on helping people build
a foundation of knowledge
so then they can be a little
more comfortable, right.
In exploring. But right
now, there's so many
of our community members are just stuck,
including a lot in my
own family, you know?
And that's, I think that's
the biggest opportunity
that we have because, you know,
it's unlike the digital divide
where you either had broadband
or you didn't, that was really clear.
But I was speaking at an event
recently in Washington DC
and I asked the audience,
so who has used Gen AI?
And almost everybody (it
was a young audience),
almost everybody raised their hand.
And then I said, okay, so who,
who used AI first thing this morning?
And hardly anybody raised their hand.
And that's, that's the issue, right?
People don't understand
how we interact with it,
how it's part of our daily life.
And from there to build on that.
- Yeah, I remember in our prep call, you
and I were talking about, yes,
people have to be AI literate
and what my baseline was different
than your baseline, right?
I was like, that's even,
that's even a more aha moment.
Like getting that middle ground of
what is the baseline and where
- We,
- Yeah. Great.
- I just think of it too just
is, you know, when you go
to school, we don't start
with trigonometry, we have
to start with algebra one.
And I think,
and coming from tech respectfully,
we get caught in our bubble
where we think everybody
just understands this,
just general understanding.
And I do a lot of work with
policy makers in Washington DC
and here's the one thing I'm
finding here at home in the Bay
Area and out there, nobody
wants to raise their hand
and say they don't understand it
because people assume in our little bubble
that everybody understands it.
But again, what about the entire ecosystem
of a company, right?
That's, that's the opportunity.
- Yes.
- Great point. Can I just jump in
- On that?
Yeah. Paula, okay.
I just, I wanna put a finger
on what you just said.
I was, because I think it's
actually the most important
question we can be asking, right?
As we're delegating tasks
to AI, we need people
who can ask critical questions of it
and say like, Hey, it said
this, I don't understand that.
Why did it do that? And let's
take a look at it. Right?
Right. And sometimes AI can
feel like it's intimidating.
No, it's actually never been
easier to interact with it.
We can interact with
it in natural language
and we all need to have
the confidence to be able
to ask questions of it.
So I really loved what you brought up.
- And speaking of asking questions,
I wanna ask questions of you, Ms.
Paula, how do you define
ethical technology
and what factors do you consider
when determining ethical
implications of a technology?
- It's a great question.
I've been privileged
to have been doing this work at Salesforce
for coming on six years.
And I will say this is a
great example of what we mean
by ethical technology, right?
What we mean is that when
we're creating technology,
we're asking what are the consequences
of this technology intended, unintended,
does it work for everyone?
Is it excluding people?
And how do we create
technology with the tools so
that people know how to get
the results that they want
and avoid those that they don't?
That's the kind of thing that we mean.
- Yeah. And that's regardless, that's,
that's technology agnostic.
It's of any technology, whether it be ai,
blockchain, all of those. Yeah,
- Thats exactly right. Yeah.
- Excuse me. Can I just want
just one second? Sure can.
Let's just women, all women, oh yes.
AI, a conversation about
AI with all women, right?
I mean, yes, in San Francisco,
who knew?
- I'll take a pause for that.
Robin, I wanna bring it back to you,
you've been very intentional
about using your platform
to empower underrepresented communities
with the tools needed to succeed in tech
and corporate spaces.
Especially when we think about ethical AI,
what responsibility do we have
and how can we enroll more of
our communities in the future?
- Yeah, it's a great question.
And again, I applaud
Salesforce for this forum
and doing this because this
is the, the great example,
as Paul just said, of really
putting your, you know, we,
we save one of our key
cultural tendencies, equality,
and access,
and we're proving it by
creating these type of forums.
You know, one of the things that I think
that's never been important
to your point Paula, is
this technology learns and we
have to also learn with it.
And unlike a lot, you know, when ChatGPT,
the chat box came out,
everyone had access to it
for free right away.
So it's not that typical
early adopter phase.
So this idea of creating
cultures of continuous learning
and engagement is
really, really important.
You talked about this panel,
one of the organizations
that I'm a co-founder on
is Black Women on Boards
and we put together a forum
and brought women from the technical side
consulting implementation.
Leah was a participant as well.
But how do we educate people
and to your point, take the fear out of it
and create environments
where people are safe
to ask basic questions.
You know, what are,
what's basic terminology?
What are these things?
And I think it's never been
more important to point,
if we're really going to get the benefit
for everyone from this technology,
we have to, as you said,
break it down so everyone
can understand it,
make it accessible,
and ensure that we're creating the forums
where everybody can participate.
And also just encouraging
those that we're supporting.
You have to be willing to learn.
I mean, think the idea of it is-
and it's not just using it one time, it's
how do you incorporate it into
everything that you're doing
and, and how will it change
not only what you do,
but how your children learn,
you know, how you interact
with your parents, how you interact
with your doctors, et cetera.
So it is really important
that we continuously focus
on learning and leaning in
and not be afraid of the outcomes
because we can influence
right now. We do have a
window to be influential in
what AI can mean for all
of us and for society.
I love that. And something
many may not know about, most
of these people on the
panel as well as Robin are,
they are instrumental in
using their platform to ensure
and bringing other people along
and really kind of lifting as they climb.
And that's exactly what each
of these folks have done.
And as you talked about,
learning, learning so essential,
there's never too much
learning ever. Never too much.
- Never too much,
- Never.
- And the feedback loop.
to your point on curiosity,
like it's a two way thing
right now. We're in this moment
where things do feel like
they might be happening to us,
you know, like taking a minute
and saying, well, hang on a minute,
I don't fully understand every technical
piece of what is happening.
Okay, fine.
But it's also using your voice
to give that feedback.
You know, we have employees around what,
40 different countries worldwide
and hearing what's happening
in the UK versus Hyderabad
and Dublin, the experiences
there when using AI
even in the workplace is critical.
And we say all the time,
please give us that feedback.
What is working, what isn't?
And, that will only make the
design the product better
if we use our voices. Now
- I do have a question for you, Nathalie,
but I wanna it back to Robin.
- I want to chime in you brought up
a really important, as much
as we think they're experts
or this is predetermined
and there's this group that
knows all and we don't, right?
It's just not true.
But we're all learning.
We're all learning. So
we can all participate
and come along on this journey together.
But there are not any resident experts
with this technology yet.
- I think, yeah, I had, I had
that conversation earlier
in the year with Robin.
It was an "aha" moment for
me and I was like, really?
I just thought everybody knew the answers
and I was just was like, absolutely not.
They are learning as they're going.
- Yeah.
- Never too much learning.
Nathalie, I have for
you, Salesforce is known
for its focus on innovation
and people first culture.
How are you leveraging AI at Salesforce
to enhance the employee experience?
And what role do you see AI
playing in shaping the future?
- Great question. We have a a, we're lucky
to have a very passionate workforce
who we do get feedback from.
And a lot of that feedback
was, Hey, I wanna use AI
for this HR task or this
finance task, this sales task.
And so at this point we've
deployed about a hundred
different use cases working
really closely with Paula's team
because just because you can, should you,
and that's kind of step one
with the AI Work Council that we have.
And we look at the data,
where's the data coming from
and can this use case really
benefit our employees?
And we started, I would
say, pretty foundational.
For example, you know,
we did a study of some
of our new hires
and they were spending
hours retrieving information
around our policies, benefits, you know,
how do you think about
performance at Salesforce
and going into disparate systems.
And so step one was saying, no, let's,
let's get hyper-personalized,
bring those six different systems
of unstructured data into one place.
So now you're no longer having
to go to multiple places
to find information
that's beneficial to you
in your onboarding. I
mean, it's as simple as that.
And you have the semantic search
and now it will feed up to you, Hey,
you just joined in this
location, in this role,
here's the five things that
you might need to know.
So that was number one.
And the other is that I
use a lot in, we have Slack
as our user interface
and in Slack we have AI
and agents that will summarize meetings.
We've talked about this before.
I had missed a meeting and
at the end, Slack nudged me
and said, Hey, you missed this meeting,
here were the action items
and here are the items assigned to you.
- That's what happens
when you miss a meeting.
- That's what happens
when you miss a meeting,
miss a meeting, you get an assignment.
And I was like, oh wow. Well thank you.
That is good to know, but,
but again, it's taking the action for you
to then take action.
So the efficiency of it as well,
or scheduling a meeting agenda, you know,
summarizing it in the flow of work.
Those are the biggest kind
of use cases that we have right now.
- Yeah. I love to see how
we're using technology
to really operationalize our
values right there. Yes. It's good
- Stuff.
Can I just add one thing? Yeah.
As a follow up to that,
the one thing when you're
talking about employees,
particularly the one thing
I've learned in my work is
marginalized communities,
whether women, people
of color, disabled and others.
Unfortunately what I've learned
is this is not a build it
and they shall come because
the fear is so high.
And so I would just offer an opportunity.
So, you know, maybe it's with the ERGs
and it's like pushing information out
or having smaller events like this
with particular employee
groups that again are going
to be intimidated by in some,
some 'cause culturally or just
because there's uncertainty.
Nobody's gonna wanna raise their hand
and say, I don't understand
this, so I understand I get, I see
how Slack it does that,
but like, what is that?
- Yeah.
- You see what I mean? And like,
pushing the information out.
- Huge, huge, huge
point with the BRG. Yes.
We have, you know, equality
groups at Salesforce,
I think 12 or 13,
and Ally, who you met,
our Chief Equality Officer
and Paula, we work very closely
with those groups when we're
deploying new technology either
to help us design or to
message, to educate and adopt.
But to your point, you have
to be very intentional about
bringing all the groups along.
- Well, and I would say, again, it's, it's
to keep in mind if you're
looking at a pyramid,
it's the foundational knowledge.
'cause if you come up here,
their people are still gonna nod, right.
And they're still not gonna understand.
- Well I was gonna jump in
and say, I think one
of the, one of the best
uptake we've had is when
we ask our employees
and particularly our
business resource groups to try
to break it, you know, like try
to break it so we can fix it.
And we've done a bunch of that
sort of adversarial testing.
And I think the way that we
learn AI is by using it, right?
And the way that we learn
where it goes wrong is by
trying to break it, right?
And then we get a better product,
we get the feedback loop.
And that's been a really fun
way to get people involved.
And I think it's, I'm looking
forward to doing even more of
that as we roll out more AI.
- That's wonderful. And as
you're talking about people
learning and sharing
their learnings, your work,
Susan focuses on empowering,
amplifying that new generation
of AI leaders by telling their stories.
Why do you think that's so important?
- Well, again, it comes back to,
I think maybe just flip the digital divide
of 20 something years ago, right?
And I happened to be in the
cable industry at the time,
and maybe that's where this
comes from, of like, okay.
And we saw during the pandemic
that is alive and well.
And so where I sit, I see
We're kind of in a crossroads
and the window is going to close
and we're going to be in a worse divide.
And so now is the time even
let's imagine if everybody in
this audience, if you asked
or had family dinner conversations
and just help people understand Yeah.
You know, when you swipe
this at the grocery
store, this is how it works.
Or you know, I,
I'm doing some Instagram
stories on like real life.
So I did one from of the pumpkin patch
'cause everybody was using Venmo
and I, so my post was
this is how Venmo uses AI.
Did you know, like that face painting
and the pony ride and everything.
So it's everywhere.
- That's awesome. I love how we talk about
how it is everywhere.
And it's so funny that
you said earlier that
who used Gen AI this
first thing this morning,
they probably did and didn't
even recognize.
because it's so embedded
in the way that we operate
and the education of how we
are using it is so important.
- It's, it's it, sorry,
it just seems like it's
never been a better time
to think about base case analogies
and things that take
the technoid out of it.
Exactly. Because it is
embedded in everything we do.
- I think of it as like,
I think we're at a point
where we need to normalize AI.
you know,
because our
communities, including women,
we're going to be left behind.
I was sharing earlier months
after ChatGPT was launched,
a study came out that 70%
of the users were men.
That's a bad sign.
And so now that's why I'm doing,
I've switched our social
media, I was like, nope,
I'm just gonna be everywhere I can be.
And just, I went to the
ER a couple weeks ago
and I'm like, yep, my face is all bruised.
I had a bad fall and here's
what I learned at ER, you know,
and how they use AI, but to
just to normalize the topic
for all of the, your employees, but,
but our families and friends.
- Awesome. Paula,
I wanna come back to
you for a moment here.
Can you provide examples
of specific initiatives
or projects at Salesforce
that has undertaken the
prioritization of the ethical
and humane use of technology?
Like something tactical
we could understand?
- Well, I mentioned
our adversarial testing
and involving employees in that,
but what I will say the big
focus right now is on agents
and Agentic AI.
And as we were launching
a variety of products
that under the agent force
umbrella, we spent a lot of time
with each one thinking about
how do we avoid unintended consequences
and give the right controls built in
so that people know how to use it.
So let me give a couple
of examples around that.
One, people need to know
that they're interacting
with AI and not a person.
So even though, for example,
you might be interacting
with an agent that's very
fluent in their use of language
and very natural, we always make sure
that there's a toggle built in
that says you're interacting
with AI, here's what to expect.
Or for example, maybe you're
setting up an agent that is
for, for sales to help,
like think about nascent demand
and go reach out to prospects.
Well, in the setup flow,
there'll be a little toggle
that says, how do you want to
limit the number of emails
that get sent so you don't
inadvertently send like a
thousand emails to one person in a minute.
Right? It's those kinds of
things that when we're sort
of testing and thinking through
what are the unintended
consequences of this
and what are the unintended
consequences of this
for particular groups,
that intersection is
what actually helps us
come up with not only sort
of safety features,
but I think it breeds
innovation, it breeds adoption,
it breeds products
that actually serve the
markets you wanna serve.
- And I love like a thought
around creating checklist almost
for developers
or testers to be like, these
are things you should be like,
here are the top 10 things
you should be thinking about
as your developing in this AI system.
And I know we used to do
it with predictive right?
Around zip codes and
things of that nature.
Is that something we continue to explore
and grow as this technology grows?
- Yeah, a hundred percent.
And I would also say
that generative AI made
it even slightly more
complicated, right?
Because it's not deterministic.
So what that means is you
can ask the same question
and get a different answer.
But we have found that
some large language models,
because some of them are trained on kind
of the broad internet,
they have all the promise
and wonderfulness of the internet,
and they have some of
the bias that's in there.
And so small things like
for example, testing
that when a user identifies themself
as from a particular racial background,
or even if something as simple
as a first name can
possibly change the results.
And sometimes that's okay and appropriate
and sometimes it's not.
So it's those types of checks
that you wanna make sure take place
as you're setting up a
particular product flow
- And almost become part
of their muscle as you're developing.
So it's a no brainer that they, you know,
- That's exactly right.
Embedded. But let me
just add one, oh, sorry,
one thing on the, the agents.
So, okay, and I hear you.
And at the same time then why do companies
and I don't know if Salesforce has this,
but put a photo of a
person next to the chatbot,
you know, so I just did
a post the other day.
I'm like, and by the way, if
you think you're a person,
it's not, it's just a
picture of somebody there.
You know, there are defined
algorithms that determine
what answers you're gonna get.
So there's that too.
So that's what I think complicates things
for your average person,
- Even though it says, you know, this is
- But like, do, but do
they understand what
that means? Right,
- Right.
Yeah. This question is for everyone.
So how should organizations
approach the ongoing education?
And we sort of talked about
this in training of employees
to ensure they're equipped to work
with AI technologies in an
ethical, inclusive manner.
So it's sort of, you know,
piling onto your point
of, is that ethical?
Should we put a picture
then say, oh, by the way,
this is a chatbot, then put a picture
of a robot, they should put a cute robot.
Right, right. Well, Astro bot.
So how do we ensure, go ahead, Robin.
- Well I'll maybe start, you know,
even at the boardroom,
I find, particularly
with my technology companies,
we're seeing demos.
We're learning, we're in learning mode.
You know, one of the CEOs
that I know says everyone
should have a minor in AI.
And I think it is
important that we all experiment
and spend a little bit of
time every day reading,
understanding, leveraging it, using it.
I think that's
really, really important.
And, to the other points being made
this technology, it has, you know, a lot
of times we talk about productivity
and people think about
the bottom of the pyramid,
which unfortunately is kind
of wider when you think
about underrepresented groups.
But AI has the potential
to change even the top
area of the pyramid.
So it is very different, but
it's gonna impact all areas.
So just ensuring that, I
think the change process
that people go through, how do
we get people over the fear?
How do we create room
and space so that everyone can experiment?
And how do we break it down
so that it's very basic
and understandable.
I think those are fundamental things that,
that we talked about
that are really critical
to success for everyone.
And we have to get over that fear
that it's okay not to know.
- Yeah. No, it's (not) okay.
And I think it was one of
your summits where they said,
you should not be fearful of
the technology
of replacing you.
It will be the people
who learn the technology.
The technology, exactly right.
- And that
we have an e-learning,
as you know, Trailhead,
- Trailhead, your free
online learning platform.
- It is free take out today, all of our,
it's a $50 million investment
over the next two years of all
of the premier AI learning.
So if,
and it's for everybody no matter
where you are on the AI learning journey.
But you know, with curiosity
also being a super skill Yes,
it is that, that is on us to lean in and
and learn a little bit more there as well.
So I think that 'cause the answers have
not yet been defined.
- You can be part of
helping to write this story.
- Yes,
- Absolutely. And I remember
following the point earlier
about employees and,
and the jobs I remember, I don't know,
last year there was a, a list
from World Economic Forum
and there was one list that
said, here are the jobs
that are expected to be impacted by AI.
And those were, you know,
paralegals, admin assistants,
repetitive skills.
And here are the jobs that are
expected to be created by AI.
And that was a data scientist,
you know, engineers,
I'm thinking, you know, an admin assistant
likely is not gonna
become a data scientist.
So what are we telling our families
and friends that we
know are at those jobs?
And this goes back to just
start with understanding.
I was speaking somewhere and
someone raised their hand
and they said, well, when did I first
interact with AI today?
And I said, well, what time
did you pick up your device?
Did you use your face?
That's facial recognition.
Did you get on any website?
Did you click on anything
that's predictive AI.
And so I think that especially
for those that their jobs are
likely to be impacted already are,
I know it's like a company laid off a ton
of translators just
like that to replace 'em
by AI overnight.
What are we help, you know,
what are we telling those folks
in our communities?
- Yeah. And where are all the new jobs?
- Right? because Paula and I, we
are they talking about that?
- And when we talk like we weren't hired,
there's many jobs we weren't
hiring for even 12 months ago,
like a prompt engineer.
Where now it is the value
less about, you know,
you coding skills per se
and the quality of your questions
to prompt the quality of the code.
But this is a rewrite in
what we think of an experienced engineer.
We're kind of rewriting what that means.
And that also is an education about access
and the art of the possible.
And Paula has, has done a
lot of work on that as well.
- Right. And I think the
other thing I would say
that gives me hope around
all of this, first of all,
I wanna say no one has a crystal ball.
Not anyone that's
publishing a report. No one.
The future is Paula up to us.
Paula, she's got of has a crystal ball.
No, but the future, that's
us. That's a critical point.
So true. Employee voice has
never been more important.
Right. I wanna emphasize that.
You know, when I started at
Salesforce six years ago, one
of the first things we did
was set up confidential,
non-confidential, many
different ways for employees
to ask questions
and raise their voice about
ethical questions about ai.
That's really important.
And just general questions about AI.
But then the third thing that
really gives me optimism,
you were talking about this, Robin, is
that I think AI has the potential
to be an equalizing force, right?
It has the potential to
lower the barriers of entry
for the number of skills that are needed
for a particular job.
Right? Right. And we're also
seeing people use AI to sort
of, and Salesforce is
doing this mapping skills
that people have in their roles right now
and where they map to
other roles as they evolve.
We can use AI to guide
people in this revolution.
We can use AI to center people
and human strengths in this revolution.
But we have to choose to do
it. We have to do it together.
It's up to us.
- Well, I will tell you,
Paula does have a crystal ball
because she read into my
next question, which is
what gives you hope about
this technology and the future?
And I'd like to start with Nathalie
and then go to Robin and Susan.
- I mean, I think Paula
said it beautifully,
which is democratizing
access to technology in a way
that I think we've not ever experienced
because of the consumer viral
nature of the technology.
And people give me a lot of hope. Yeah.
- Yeah. I'd add, you
know, I've been fortunate
to have a tech background in biotech
and I am very hopeful for
what I believe AI is going to do
to accelerate drug discovery,
to help get people access to information
so they can be better
advocates for themselves.
Even when it comes to education,
I do think it will be an equalizer
that allows people in remote areas
or with different skillsets
or different ways of
learning, to be more engaged
and be more inclusive.
But it does come back to people.
But we all, as you said,
we have to lean in.
We all have to become a part of this
and really focus on investing
our time to really, you know,
ignite our curiosity and
our continuous learning.
Lean in. This is not the
time to lean out. Yeah.
and let something happen to you.
We all need to lean in.
- Love that.
- Susan? You know, I'm hopeful
with the conversations that are changing.
In fact, I'm just very hopeful
after this call I had this morning
with a global organization out of Paris
and I said, I'm telling you,
this is the year 2025 is
the year for AI literacy
or AI competencies.
And they agreed.
So we're going to move forward in 2025
and create more of a
global conversation about
what we're talking about here,
about that baseline, about,
you know, Algebra 101,
so communities can
leverage everything else.
And so I do have to say I'm
hopeful with this event.
I mean, I think, you know, Salesforce can
lead the charge in this industry
because again, people
that are in AI are having
the conversations about AI
and that's not gonna get us anywhere.
We need to be having them
with the entire ecosystems
to really make a difference.
- Completely agree. Go ahead Paula
- Well, I was gonna say something
specific, which is,
I'm privileged to be responsible
for product accessibility work.
And I have to say AI is a
total game changer for access
for people with disabilities.
I've seen how using voice
and using images can really
make a huge difference.
So that gives me a ton of hope.
I'm super excited about it.
But then I also wanna
repeat what Susan said,
which is these kinds of
conversations were not happening 20,
30 years ago with the
internet at this scale,
regulators weren't paying
attention at this scale.
So the fact that we're
having this conversation,
that you all cared enough to
take time out of your day,
to be here, to have this conversation
that gives me a huge amount of hope
and your voices give me
a huge amount of hope.
- Well I can't end on
a better note than that.
with that I want to thank you all
for this amazing conversation
and thank you, as Paula said, for
taking your time out today.
So please give it up our
amazing panelists.
Resume AutoScroll
Questions about Salesforce+? We have answers.
What is Salesforce+?
Salesforce+ is the free streaming service for business. It’s a place to watch live events and original series that help you grow your career and company, on your own time. Salesforce+ is produced by Salesforce, so you’ll find our company’s big events like Dreamforce here — as well as new original shows and virtual learning made for your role and industry. Everything is free and unlimited.
What can I watch on Salesforce+?
You can watch all kinds of helpful, entertaining, and inspiring videos on Salesforce+. One thing our members love is our events. Whether you catch them live or on demand, Salesforce+ gives you a free front-row seat to our biggest global events, like Dreamforce, TrailblazerDX, and Connections. Our members are also big fans of our original series. These entertaining business shows star people in roles and industries just like yours, giving you fresh ideas for how to grow your company and do better work. The best part is, it’s all free.
Do I have to pay for Salesforce+?
Salesforce+ is free. Watch any Salesforce+ events or series at no cost. To enjoy unlimited free access to our entire library of videos, become a member by signing up for Salesforce+ with a Trailblazer account. You don’t need a Trailblazer account to watch original series. To join us for virtual events like Dreamforce or Connections, you need to create your own Trailblazer account (it’s free!).
What is a Trailblazer account?
Your Trailblazer account gives you access to a unified profile across the Salesforce ecosystem and allows you to manage your settings and access across multiple Salesforce sites.
How do I sign up to register for live and on-demand events, like Dreamforce?
Sign up or log in to your Trailblazer account and complete a few additional details to watch Salesforce+ events live and on demand. We recommend preregistering for all events on Salesforce+ to get your own personalized journey, reminders, recommendations, and more.
Do I need to be a Salesforce customer to watch Salesforce+?
You don’t need to be a Salesforce customer to watch Salesforce+. Our virtual learning is open to everyone.
