THE PROMISE OF EINSTEIN AI
Dreamforce event last year was almost all about Salesforce AI "Einstein" and its promise. The promise of AI solution that will:
• Will Reside inside the SFDC platform
• Will be able to analyze the huge quantities of data generated like, sales, emails, activity data, e-commerce, calendars, social strings, and connected devices (IoT) and
• Will Implement logics through machine learning and predictive analytics algorithms and
• Will offer crisp insights after analyzing huge data and provide recommendations and perform business functions across the SFDC platform.
For example Sales Cloud Einstein's feature of "Predictive Lead Scoring" will help sales folks to focus on the most promising leads. "Opportunity Insights" feature will suggest sales folks to set next priorities. This will also take into account the inputs of another Einstein feature "Automated Activity Capture".
Service Cloud Einstein will help optimize how calls are routed through the new feature called "Einstein Case Management". Machine Learning will enable cases to be automatically assigned, escalated and classified once they are raised, and also automatically recommend the resolution based on historic data. It will also ensure that high priority cases are serviced quicker and assigned to the best equipped and available agent. The platform will automate much of the initial information gathering, mostly via chatbots, so that service agents are equipped with background information before the eventual customer interaction. Another value add feature of Service Cloud Einstein will be Case Closure Date Prediction.
Similarly, Commerce Cloud Einstein promises Product Recommendations and Commerce Insights and Predicitive Sort for the best and next best product to be offered . Marketing Cloud Einstein will provide Predictive Scores and Audience Predictions to enable marketers for campaigns to be focussed and successful and deliver the best content available. Other Einstein features are summarily depicted below:
(From www.salesforce.com)
Though, the promise of Einstein is immense but Salesforce has taken a tactical and faster time to market approach for releasing features. The focus is right now is on using the existing capabilities built through acquisitions like BeyondCore and existing Wave Analytics. The intent is to start building Apps using the existing capabilities and then add on later. By the end of year Salesforce will be releasing around 45 AI features across clouds.
And the results are showing. Last week Transamerica (insurance firm) announced its plans to adopt Einstein AI for transforming the way it manages the relationships with clients and households by:
• Providing Insights through sentiment analysis, competitor references by clients etc. Einstein will provide notifications to reach the customers at the best time for conversion
• Provide Relationship tools to consolidate clients and their households in one structure. It will provide functionality to Group multiple related businesses, households, trusts etc.
• Once consolidated it will map relationships and provide insights and correlations of their financial ecosystems
Further, this week Salesforce announced Service Cloud Einstein and Amazon connect integration.
Oracle also announced launch of "Adaptive Intelligent Apps" last year and due for release later this year. The key Apps and associated SaaS clouds are as follows:
• CX Cloud: Adaptive Intelligent Offers and Adaptive Intelligent Actions
• HCM Cloud: Adaptive Intelligent Candidate Experience
• SCM Cloud: Adaptive Intelligent Planning &Bidding
• ERP Cloud: Adaptive Intelligent Discounts
It will be very Interesting to see how much Oracle and Salesforce capture the promising AI space (Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicts AI market to be $153 billion by 2020). Pricing may be feature based and it will not be surprising if its priced per use (per prediction or data analysis). In my opinion quicker release, target segment focus and pricing will eventually determine who captures larger market share in this space.