Einstein took center stage at this week’s Dreamforce event in San Francisco. The recently unveiled AI platform was touted as a critical integration into future applications of the current suite of Salesforce CRM products.

Through keynotes, hands-on sessions and an Einstein Discovery Center, Dreamforce 16 was intended as a coming-out party to showcase how Einstein’s broad set of AI capabilities make businesses smarter and customers happier.

To further prove the point, skywriters even spelled out “#Einstein” in the clouds above San Francisco on Wednesday.

Einstein is indeed loaded with possibilities. As a fully embedded integration layer with machine learning and predictive analytics, Einstein is used to “discover insights, predict outcomes, deliver next best steps, and automate business processes,” said John Ball, SVP and GM with Salesforce Einstein.

In a keynote presentation, Ball outlined how the acquisition of various AI companies lead to the development of Einstein. Salesforce customers can become data scientists and technology developers without having deep learning expertise, said Ball. “The goal is to democratize AI.”

Payment processor and financial services firm Square demonstrated how it uses Einstein in the keynote presentation. The company has applied natural language processing for email analysis, streamlining the application process for Square customers. Thanks to machine learning and lead scoring, the company is able to approve new customers in a matter of minutes as opposed to up to five weeks in the previously laborious customer approval process.

Richard Socher, who joined Salesforce as chief scientist after his company MetaMind was acquired earlier this year, says the company is focused on cutting edge AI research. Socher demonstrated how a dynamic memory network and predictive vision service can be taught to understand and classify images. For example, by analyzing a handful of images between two different categories (“beach vs. mountain”) the application is taught to deliver a probability score in recognizing which-is-which on subsequent analysis of similar images.

As a “personal data scientist” within Salesforce CRM products, Einstein is mainstreaming artificial intelligence as a viable business tool in developing and maintaining customer relationships. What Einstein means to the future of intelligent assistance is still to be determined. But by understanding customer preferences and predicting outcomes, Einstein is well positioned to deliver personalized, automated customer care.

Categories: Conversational Intelligence, Intelligent Assistants, Articles

Tags: customer care, Artificial Intelligence, dreamforce, AI, CX, Salesforce, Einstein