AI has been around for decades but largely remained under the radar for those outside the tech and science industries. The appearance of Generative AI (Gen AI) within the last few years has brought AI into the mainstream, creating an explosive hype cycle. While the hype has created interest, it hasn’t necessarily sparked adoption. A recent CIO Dive article states, “Organizations are bullish on what AI can do for their operations long-term, but most aren’t ready for widescale adoption just yet.” In fact, “More than 3 in 5 organizations have significant gaps in AI readiness when it comes to infrastructure and data ecosystems.”
Salesforce has been innovating with AI in the CRM industry for several years, but Gen AI with Data Cloud represents a significant advancement in capabilities and opportunities. Broadly speaking, AI is a significant field with multiple subcategories. For this article, we’re going to simplify a bit and focus on predictive machine learning (ML) and Generative AI (Gen-AI).
Salesforce is incorporating both Predictive ML and Generative AI into its applications, customer experiences, and user flow-of-work. This creates a number of new opportunities to both optimize how we use Salesforce and how our customers engage with our brands. However, to take advantage of this, we need to get more comfortable with Gen AI and how it works.
Unconstrained prompts give the AI model more freedom to generate text, while constrained prompts provide specific instructions to guide the output. The choice between the two depends on the desired level of control and creativity in the generated text.
“Grounding" is crucial for enhancing AI response accuracy and relevance. It involves applying context to AI outputs, significantly improving their usefulness. Salesforce has made this approach central to its AI strategy, offering multiple types of grounding that can be combined within a single prompt set. This feature makes Salesforce's AI solutions particularly compelling, as Salesforce often has access to the best customer datasets in an organization.
These grounding techniques can be combined to create sophisticated prompts, allowing for highly contextual and relevant AI responses. Such advanced prompts can be utilized by both internal users and external consumers, enhancing the overall effectiveness and versatility of Salesforce's AI solutions.
The learning curve requires experimentation, and because of this, getting engaged now is imperative.
When identifying and categorizing use cases for AI adoption in Salesforce, consider the following approach:
When considering specific applications, you have three main paths:
For maximum impact, consider focusing on use cases that cater to high-value audiences within your organization or customer base. This approach ensures that your AI adoption efforts deliver significant value where it matters most.
Assessing data readiness is a critical step in adopting Salesforce AI solutions. This evaluation ensures your data foundation is robust enough to support AI-driven insights and predictions. Consider two key areas: Data Quality and Data Accessibility & Integration. Within each area, you’ll find specific factors that contribute to successful AI implementation.
Effective governance is crucial for successful AI adoption. It ensures responsible use, manages expectations, and maintains data quality and accessibility. Consider the following key aspects:
Launching a well-structured pilot program is crucial for successfully adopting Salesforce AI. When defining your pilot program, consider first adopting out of the box Einstein capabilities, and work up to more advanced custom predictive and generative solutions.
Key considerations for your pilot program:
Putting AI to work is a bit of art and a bit of science. The learning curve requires experimentation, and because of this, getting engaged now is imperative. Even if getting started is you, at home, conversing with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to plan weekend getaways or tonight’s dinner—that experimentation will help you understand more about how it works. At work, we need to plan with that mindset. AI isn’t a backlog item that can be checked off. Both the technology and how we apply it will be constantly evolving.
Reach out today to explore how Publicis Sapient and Salesforce can help your business unlock the full potential of AI. Learn more about our Value Alignment Lab—an outcome-driven discovery workshop focusing on delivering value.