Salesforce World Tour 2024: Unlocking Data, Driving Revenue and Maximizing AI ✨
You and I use Consumer AI all the time, everywhere. But do we really know how the Enterprise is using it?
Let’s see how things look from the 36th floor at 110 Bishopsgate.
Bring it on, London! 💂🏽✨
At the World Tour London, Zahra Bahrololoumi CBE kicked us off with what lies at the core of every Trailblazer mission: Philanthropy.
Salesforce pledged to give back $38 billion worth of revenue to the community by the end of FY25, reflecting their cumulative contributions over the years. They extend their gratitude to clients, partners, and team members for making it all possible 🪄 What a sweet welcome :)
Speaking of making things happen… Two significant announcements caught our attention at the event:
- The UK/I CEO announced CRM Giant’s inaugural AI centre in London’s Blue Fin Building. This centre is part of Salesforce’s $4 billion investment in the U.K. and aims to foster industry collaboration while supporting AI training and upskilling. Stay tuned for more updates on this one!
- Salesforce also disclosed that its venture arm, Salesforce Ventures, has invested over $200 million in U.K. startups, including AutoGen AI and Eleven Labs. CNBC reports. Exciting growth journey ahead :)
Prologue: A Journey Through Innovation
In this article, we’ve compiled insights from over 70 sessions at the World Tour London to tell a story of transformation. We’ve carefully selected the best bits, sharing some as session rundowns and others as streamlined highlights on Salesforce+.
As Salesforce’s core values remain strong, Trailblazers in offices around the world have quickly and thoughtfully embraced AI, unlocking a realm of once unimaginable possibilities. We’ll focus on key themes — data, AI expansion, and business growth — all crucial for thriving in 2024.
To provide you with the most impactful insights, we’ve concentrated on growth-oriented topics in this summary. However, it’s essential to highlight Salesforce’s commitment to Equality and Sustainability, integral to every corporate action we take. Summarizing these sessions was challenging and sometimes diluted their essence, so we’ve included our favorite discussions on humanity towards the end. Be sure to explore them after reading this article 🌱
We hope you enjoy it and find World Tour as inspiring as we did!
1 — Enterprise AI Needs Trusted Data
The main takeaway from Salesforce last week was that “Public data won’t help you foster customer relationships,” and thus drive revenue. Unlike enterprise models, public data fuels many consumer AIs like Gemini, GPT-4 Omni, etc.
To connect meaningfully with your clients, you need to leverage YOUR trusted data. But that’s where things can get complicated, at least in our minds… Based on Salesforce’s State of Data and Analytics report (2023), upwards of 90% of enterprise data is unstructured, yet 94% of business leaders want more value from their data. 😬
If you’ve ever worked in a corporate setting, you know how complex operations can be, involving numerous teams and processes across regions despite possessing vast amounts of trusted internal data. Right here… somewhere… inside our little company laptops, right?
That data isn’t actually lost. In Salesforce jargon, it’s called Islands of Trapped Data. Trailblazers at the London Tower can help unlock the power of your data with a little AI magic.
Sounds Promising, but Is the Enterprise Ready for AI?
Yes and no. Here are some reasons to be concerned:
- Siloed Data & Systems
- Security & Privacy
- Toxicity
- Hallucinations
- Disconnected from CRM
- Lack of Trust
Well, it sounds like a corporate VP’s problem who’s got a summer house in Miami 🌴 Let’s move on, right?
Wrong!! 😄
AI problems are our collective problems because they impact the reliability, safety, inclusivity, and trustworthiness of the technologies we use every day. #askmoreofAI
So the answer, according to Salesforce, is ✨ Data Cloud ✨ among other cool stuff.
2 — Data Cloud: A Hyperscale Data Engine
Productivity. Efficiency. Optimization. These are the top concerns for CEOs and their teams today. Let’s revisit our trapped data pools and gain a better understanding of their journey.
With our current data strategy and limitations in mind, Let’s see how activating your trapped data will increase your revenue, as James Bishop, Salesforce AVP, walks us through the key analysis.
In simple terms, once you unlock your trapped data, you can achieve:
✔️ Higher Levels of Prospect Engagement
✔️ Better Conversations and Faster Sales Cycle
✔️ Identification of More Revenue Channels
Cha-ching, PEOPLE! 💰 Someone had to say it…
Considering your prospects are already well into their discovery process by the time you engage with them, it’s strategic to leverage all available information about their shopping habits, needs, and preferences!
This brings us to the ‘tech behind tech’, revealing what your Data Cloud accomplishes behind the scenes.
3 — How Does Data Cloud Work?
Data Cloud’s core mission is to function as a hyperscale platform embedded within Salesforce, revolutionizing Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and all front-office customer experiences.
To achieve this, Data Cloud performs several critical functions. Firstly, it facilitates both horizontal and vertical integrations, ensuring seamless data harmonization across all Salesforce Clouds. Additionally, it consolidates data from back-office and middle-office systems into the customer experience in real-time and batch processing modes.
Secondly, Data Cloud maps all data assets to Salesforce’s standardized object models such as Accounts and Contacts. Once mapped, the system comprehensively understands how to effectively utilize this structured data.
Within Data Cloud, matching rules are defined to consolidate disparate data points related to the same customer, thereby creating a unified profile that can be leveraged across the entire C360 platform. For a deeper dive into handling unstructured data and advanced AI capabilities, Salesforce Data Cloud Vector Database, now generally available, enables advanced AI retrieval and search across unstructured data, integrating sources like call transcripts and PDFs with structured data using Einstein AI, all on the secure Hyperforce infrastructure.
Moving forward to data utilization, organizations can derive actionable insights, generate predictive analytics, and develop detailed sales strategies. These capabilities empower sales professionals to curate highly personalized and impactful customer journeys, leveraging the power of 200 new Data Cloud connectors, including LinkedIn, Microsoft 365, Google Ads, Meta, and more.
For a deeper exploration of Data Cloud and Einstein Analytics, we encourage exploring Salesforce+ for immersive, hands-on demos and further insights.
Here’s a good place to start! And at the end, you will find more resources :)
Connecting Data to Action
Wanna know some real-life scenarios of all this new tech?
A good example can be Salesforce helping its clients’ clients grow internationally.
Say, for a retail customer, labelling your products in the local language of your target market or sorting out customs regulations for your shipments. Salesforce can provide the necessary tools and support to streamline these processes and facilitate global expansion. 💲
Santander’s Head of International Banking John Carroll says ‘You won’t be able to do that without AI!’
We are leaving other fav examples below, see if you can find your own sector! Alternatively, you can skip to the next section to hear our goodbye 😊
Must Watch: Equality, Diversity, and Sustainability Sessions on Salesforce +
Other Highlights We Thought You Might Find Interesting:
Last Words:
If you’re waiting for a conclusion paragraph, we believe Santander’s success story encapsulates it perfectly.
We delved into the solution and the AI technology behind it, and then BOOM💥 everything seamlessly linked into a successful bank. It’s all about CRM + AI + Data + Trust!
We won’t be providing a lengthy summary; it’s just not the vibe ✨
Let’s end on a meaningful note instead.
Cure Leukaemia is aiming to raise £1 million for the world’s first clinical trial network for children. You can support them below 👇
See you on the other side 🦁
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References 🔗
Streamlining Salesforce sessions and highlights from events at World Tour London. Salesforce. Retrieved June 18, 2024, from [https://www.salesforce.com/plus/experience/World_Tour/series/best_of_world_tour_london_2024]
Browne, R. (2024, June 6). Salesforce to open new AI center in London as part of $4 billion UK investment. CNBC. Retrieved June 18, 2024, from [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/06/salesforce-to-open-new-ai-center-in-london-in-uk-investment-drive.html]
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