Salesforce isn’t waiting for Dreamforce to begin the drumbeat for its artificial intelligence offering, which is—or will be—called “Einstein.” There is so much to discuss about this turn of events that it’s hard to begin, so rather than starting at a conventional jumping-off point, I’ll start with the name.
You couldn’t have lived at any point in the 20th century without some idea of who Albert Einstein was. For most of that time, he was regarded as special — a savant, one who could see things that no one else could.
I prefer to think of him as one of the first to build models of reality against which he could test his ideas. History is full of such people, most of whom did a one-off. Einstein systematized the approach—he had to, as a theoretical physicist.
Hard Thinking
Einstein may have developed the “thought experiment” concept because his work centered on the very small and the very large—phenomena that occur in nanoseconds, as well as events that span the universe’s 13 or so billion years and will continue for billions more. They’re not things we can easily see or handle.
Theoretical physicists don’t set up experiments in a lab. They look for evidence in nature that they or others discover because the alternative is to build an impossibly expensive collider to smash nuclei together to simulate the Big Bang. They also think a lot because imagination is the best modeling tool.
Perhaps Einstein’s greatest modeling effort was to imagine what it would be like to ride a beam of light. That simple idea led to the understanding that the speed of light is the ultimate speed limit in the universe — and that if nothing can go faster, then all communication is ultimately limited by the speed of light. That includes time, or the perception of time.
Traveling at or near the speed of light causes time to slow. Einstein figured out all of that using a few equations and his intellect. He was quite a modeler.
The End of Business as Usual
In this context, I think “Einstein” makes perfect sense as an AI product name because it enables a business to model the salient points of its reality in customer interactions and helps us make logical deductions we might have missed with prior brute-force methods.
Salesforce’s Einstein brings together several types of AI/business intelligence/machine learning/deep learning/machine intelligence and whatever from prior acquisitions, including RelateIQ, Implisit, PredictionIO, Tempo, and more.
Here is why I think this is significant: AI of this caliber significantly signals the end of transaction-oriented business and the conventional CRM that supported it. The better the model of your business, the more you can see into the processes you’re involved in — and, importantly, the less you’ll focus on any transaction, because transactions will be a foregone conclusion. You’ll focus on the process that leads to a transaction to help ensure it occurs.
As a practical matter, this doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly have superstar salespeople who nail every deal. However, having good AI might tell you when you’re wasting your time — when a deal isn’t going to be yours. Knowing that, you’ll redeploy resources with the confidence that you’ve made the right decision.
Customers Aren’t Forever
Don’t worry — this isn’t only about selling. It’s equally important for every aspect of your business. AI in service can tell you not only the next best action or offer, but also the likelihood the customer will be satisfied with the engagement, and therefore what else you need to do.
There are many opportunities for AI in marketing, but one that is often overlooked is the installed customer base.
Too many businesses assume that customers will come back for more. Many do, but others continue to seek better opportunities. Worse, businesses that make large deals with multiple purchase tranches, as spelled out in agreements, too often forget where they are in the life cycle, leaving money on the table.
There’s no easier way to grow your numbers than by selling to existing customers, yet we often neglect the low-hanging fruit. AI could be an effective agent for changing that situation.
I don’t know all of Salesforce’s plans for Einstein. Although the company is a client and briefs me from time to time, it’s a big kimono. With this early signal, I expect that Dreamforce 16 will have a distinctly AI flavor. The company has been signaling in that direction for a while, but it hasn’t made an announcement like this before. What will be surprising is the many applications of AI Salesforce will find and their timeline for release.
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Indeed a good thought to give a proper shape. Though we may have heard about many scientist, but have never known innovation. Thanks to dreamforce to take the challenge of a new era.