SALESFORCE HAS been on an acquisition tear of late with
one important goal in mind: to build an AI team that can make
artificial-intelligence-based knowledge available to every
Salesforce user. The company’s Einstein AI technology draws
on the expertise of over 175 data scientists, many of whom
have come from acquired companies, including RelateIQ,
MetaMind, Implisit, PredictionIO, and Tempo AI. As company
CEO Mark Benioff said in a call with analysts before its release,
“Salesforce Einstein is AI for everyone. It’s going to democratize
artificial intelligence. It’s going to make every company and
every employee smarter, faster, and more productive.”
So what does Einstein, which is sold as a separate add-on,
mean for the individual Salesforce user? Einstein adds a new
level of ease and functionality to the objectives of data capture
and intelligence. While SaaS reports and dashboards do a great
job of providing historical information, they are not predictive
in any sense—a bit like driving a car by looking in the rear-view
mirror. As AI becomes increasingly integrated with our systems,
it will be exciting to see how predictive it will become in helping to
solve current problems.
Here is an overview of some of Einstein’s top features,
including some new capabilities for Spring ’18:
• Einstein Activity Capture – Connects your email and calendar
to Salesforce, allowing your emails and events to be logged
automatically. Requires Gmail, Microsoft 365, or Microsoft
Exchange 2013 or 2016.
• Einstein Automated Contacts – Suggests or adds contacts
to Salesforce accounts automatically. This feature is especially
useful when a customer or prospect copies their colleagues
and Einstein proposes adding these new contacts. Requires
email connection to Salesforce and Einstein Activity Capture
activated.
• Lead Insights – Scores each lead based on any past history as
well as various standard and custom fields and information from
third-party data sources. The goal is to identify the best leads,
provide scoring information, and increase conversion rates. This
high-volume feature requires at least 1,000 leads created in the
previous six months and more than 20 conversions per month.
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• Opportunity Insights/Opportunity Scoring – Provides
predictions about which deals are likely to be won, follow-up
reminders, and notifications regarding key moments in a deal.
It allows users to focus on the highest scoring opportunities
and analyze lower-scoring opportunities to enhance the
likelihood of conversion. Scores are calculated based on
record details, history, related activities, and even the lead
owner’s track record.
• Forecasting Insight s – Available only in beta, this feature
uses opportunity scoring to reveal gaps between closed
and predicted sales and quotas. It provides a graph on the
home page illustrating past opportunities and predicted
performance and compares Einstein’s predictions to sales
target forecast categories. It also allows users to drill down to
capture prediction range and contributing factors.
Here’s an example of how this product can help someone
in the manufacturing business decide which leads to pursue
first. Say there are two possibilities before your salesperson.
The first has the positive attributes of originating in the
Marketing Department, participating in the nonprofit
industry, and holding a manager-level job rank. Its Einstein
Score is 40. The second lead comes from the manufacturing
industry, is sourced as a “lead buy,” originates from the Finance
& Administration department, and has no known negative
attributes. Its Einstein Score is 95.
With this information, the sales professional knows
that the second one is a better prospect and can spend the
majority of his or her time pursuing that lead rather than
the first one. In addition, for each sales rep, an Einstein
dashboard shows a range of high-value information,
including a listing of opportunity scores and sales stage for
each lead, revenue predictions to quota, and a selection of
custom “Einstein Insights.” While Einstein provides helpful
AI attributes right from the start—including predictions,
suggestions, and automation—it is programmed to “learn” as
your sales activity and CRM information improve, providing
even greater benefits over time.
I confess that I was at first skeptical because Sales Cloud
Einstein is sold as an add-on rather than an integral part
of the Salesforce product. However, the more I use it, the
more I appreciate its enormous capabilities and the boost
in productivity and revenues it provides. One of the best
features, as of Spring ’18, is that Einstein Analytics and
Salesforce Inbox are bundled in with Sales Cloud Einstein. For
most of my customers, it is worth the price, having already
paid for itself many times over.
Several more developments for Einstein appear to be on
the horizon, including mobile capability and enhancements to
Salesforce Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Commerce
Cloud. We will continue to be on top of these, so stay tuned for
future updates!