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There has been much discussion about putting the customer first and the value of customer relationship management. Today, with vast amounts of customer data flooding in from multiple touch-points - the internet, social media, mobile and the Internet of Things, the role of CRM has never been more critical. The challenge is in integrating this data and mining it in a way that can help better understand the customer and provide better experiences. After years of promise, Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has finally arrived. Meaningful algorithms, developments like deep learning and machine learning are advancements that unlock the power of AI to solve very complex problems, very quickly. With Salesforce Einstein, we have integrated AI into CRM in order to help organizations better digest and put to good use all that customer data.

Recently, I sat down with Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher, MIT Technology Review to discuss a wide range of topics including:

  • The types of companies that are succeeding at customer innovation through using predictive capabilities and AI
  • Salesforce's approach to surfacing AI within CRM apps by leveraging a “model-ready”, “data-ready” approach with the focus on business value outcomes
  • The power of Salesforce Einstein and IBM Watson partnership with specific use cases in industries such as financial services
  • How Einstein has become a new management team member to help executives predict business performance well in advance of them occurring
  • The role of AI on our economic employment and how it will help make employees smarter, not replace them

AI will revolutionize how we connect with customers. Embedded into CRM, and easily surfaced in any Salesforce app, Einstein removes the requirement of having to have your own data scientist on staff. Having been involved in AI since the 80's it is very exciting to see Salesforce customers already using predictive algorithms, image recognition, and the next-best actions powered by AI without having to build complex models. It is going to be an incredible journey. I hope you enjoy the discussion.

You can watch our Q&A here.