Marc Benioff and the Salesforce AI Fourth Generation Industrial Revolution
Salesforce founder and CEO, Marc Benioff, recently gave the keynote address at Dreamforce 2017. Mr. Benioff provided some key insights on business in the 21st century. Mr. Benioff believes we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, “The fourth industrial revolution is reshaping every business, industry, and economy, and the customer is at the center of it all. Salesforce is delivering breakthrough technologies like artificial intelligence to empower Trailblazers to deliver customer success, develop their careers and contribute to society in meaningful ways.”
The concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Salesforce AI) can be traced back to Industrie 4.0, a term coined by a German government workgroup in 2011. The previous 3 industrial revolutions were Steam, Electric, and Computing respectively. The fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the emergence and prevalence of AI (Artificial intelligence), IOT (Internet of Things), cloud computing, autonomous vehicles and breakthroughs in biotech such as CRISPR.
Salesforce Einstein AI
As was the case with previous industrial revolutions, present-day firms must adapt and lead the change or become casualties of it. Mr. Benioff cites Salesforce client, Adidas, as an example of a company that is embracing the fourth industrial revolution fully. Adidas has recognized that their recent and future growth has and will come by and large from their dot-com store. As a result, they have invested heavily in a myriad of Salesforce tools and components to assist them in providing their customers with an exceptional sales and service experience. These tools are not separate but rather fully integrated. Salesforce refers to this integration as “bi-directional synchronization”. Consider the following example provided at Dreamforce.
A customer is browsing the Adidas online store for some new shoes. She is interrupted by a social media post from a friend inviting her to a concert. In the past, Adidas may have lost that customer to the competing distraction. Instead, Adidas is able to utilize bi-directional synchronization of Salesforce’s Einstein (AI), Heroku (Customer Service), and Analytics (Now powered by Google) to provide a unique personalized offering. Behind the scenes, Google Analytics discovers via social media that the customer is a fan of Pharrell. As a result, upon re-initiating her Adidas session the customer is immediately directed to an offering of the new Pharrell branded Adidas. She makes the purchase with her fingerprint via the Salesforce-integrated Apple Pay but then realizes she would like the shoes in a different color in order to match her friend. In addition, she needs the shoes shipped not to her home but to the hotel where she is staying and attending an event the following day. Instead of having to call customer service the customer can simply interface with Adidas the way she would prefer, via text. But instead of waiting for a response from a person, she will be texting with Adibot, the Adidas AI powered by Salesforce Einstein, Heroku, and Analytics. The customer simply texts Adibot that she wants a different color and she receives an immediate reply with the available options which she confirms with a text. Then she texts where she wants her new shoes shipped and Adibot confirms. Done and done in seconds no variable cost for a CSR.
It’s a brave new world and those who embrace the fourth industrial revolution will be poised to lead. But how does a firm adapt to this complex new chapter in the history of the industry? With over 250 years of combined software development experience, Cirrius Solutions is uniquely equipped to tailor these Salesforce AI fourth industrial revolution tools to your business. We live and breath Salesforce so you don’t have to. To get started, contact a Cirrius Salesforce expert now.
