CRM, AI and data in focus: our highlights from the Salesforce World Tour 2024 in Munich
As a longstanding Salesforce partner, we were of course also present at the Salesforce World Tour in Munich on April 25, 2024. Around 4,000 decision-makers and MarTech experts came together in the Bavarian capital to discuss the latest innovations and possibilities of Salesforce solutions through live demos, sessions and presentations. The CRM & AI event focused primarily on the question of how companies can take their customer experience to a new level and what role AI can play in this. As a partner for Salesforce implementations, we bring companies even closer to their customers by realizing Multi-Cloud Architectures and supporting the successful management of global rollouts. Our teams offer consulting, design, implementation, and development for individual Salesforce solutions of all sizes and provide support in all phases of transformation and digitalization projects. This made it more exciting for us to dive deeper into the latest Salesforce innovations around the AI platform Einstein 1, the AI assistant Copilot and the data platform Data Cloud on the World Tour.
Salesforce evolves into an intelligent stakeholder engagement platform
One thing became rapidly clear at this all-round successful event: Salesforce is increasingly developing into a smart stakeholder engagement platform that offers companies a complete "all-round carefree package" for the real-time optimized and networked customer journey. In direct interaction, the new Salesforce solutions open great potential for further optimization of empowerment for better data-based decisions, in-depth personalization and automation, including augmentation for seamless interaction between humans and AI. Salesforce contributes directly to the further development of industrial business models, which are increasingly focused on the customer rather than the product. In addition to the latest technical solutions and their possible applications, it was also particularly important for us to see how the areas of AI and the associated Trustworthy AI, data and digital commerce are developing.
Amelie Werner, Manager Solution Engineering, Salesforce
AI continues to become the focus of companies
The experts on the Salesforce World Tour confirmed it once again: AI has established itself as a game changer in the German economy. Companies are using smart technologies to improve customer service, automate processes and optimize the supply chain. The industry-specific case studies, which gave visitors an insight into the possibilities of the current Salesforce Suite, were particularly informative in this context. A highlight was Hanna Hennig's (CIO, Siemens AG) keynote "Now everyone is an Einstein - with the #1 CRM with AI", which provided some impressive KPIs and insights into the collaboration between Siemens and Salesforce for AI-optimized customer relationships on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace. Finally, the announcement by Liesel Klokkers (Senior Director Solution Engineering, Salesforce) that Einstein Copilot is now available as a beta version in Germany and offers completely new possibilities within the Sales, Service, Marketing, and Commerce Cloud, serving as a dialog-based interface to end customer data, also attracted a lot of attention.
Pia Timmer, Senior Solution Engineer, Salesforce
The opening keynote focused on the question of what is currently preventing companies from successfully implementing AI in their workflows. Data silos and the associated data quality were identified as the main obstacles when using AI. According to a recent Gartner study, only four percent of data in companies is currently "AI-ready". However, challenges persist, with integrity issues and skillset deficiencies posing significant obstacles. Trustworthiness emerges as a pivotal hurdle, as highlighted by experts, underscoring the importance of trust in driving adoption and utilization of AI technology. After all, our willingness to rely on and engage with something hinges on the level of trust we have in it.
Trust is crucial for AI success
For our partner Salesforce, as well as for us, trust is an important key to exploiting the full potential of AI.
To develop trustworthy AI, we support our clients in areas such as
- Establishing transparency and AI governance in the company
- Standardization and the establishment of systematic processes
- Preparing for the independent TRUSTIFAI certification of TÜV SÜD Austria.
Salesforce is actively finding new ways to ensure that AI is secure and trustworthy as possible. In particular, Salesforce experts Annalena Weiberg, Angie Korkisch, and Franz Klaus, in their service keynote titled "Rethinking Service - with Trustworthy AI," along with Sandra Heinzen in her presentation on "Ethical AI: Foundation for Diversity and Enhanced Business Value," provided plenty of valuable insights. In addition to the five basic principles for trustworthy AI (responsibility, liability, transparency, empowerment and inclusion), Salesforce relies on the Einstein Trust Layer as a secure AI architecture that is natively integrated into the Salesforce platform. As it is based on Hyperforce, the requirements for data residency, compliance and the highest security standards for companies are automatically met. This gives companies a kind of "early warning system" that provides them with an additional level of control for higher data quality based on dynamic grounding, data masking and toxicity detection.
Data forms the basis for every AI success
The central basis for the successful use of AI is the data in which the algorithms are trained on. The understanding that data ultimately determines how intelligent AI solutions can be was a recurring theme throughout the entire event. Efficient data management therefore forms the central basis for any AI deployment. The Data Cloud keynote entitled "Data + AI - IT organizations as AI enablers" also focused on how companies can use their data in AI projects in a targeted manner and the role that modern technologies from IT organizations can play in this. One thing becomes clear: before developing AI, companies should put their data, IT infrastructures and systems to the test and optimize them accordingly. This will allow the new AI applications to be successful, which is why our strategy and data experts start as early as possible, supporting the development of future-proof data strategies to successfully use AI. The focus here is on how the right data can be collected and used - and how it can be harnessed in compliance with regulatory and legal requirements.
The future of digital commerce is shaped by AI
One particularly exciting highlight at the World Tour was the ongoing AI revolution in commerce, which directly impacts today's typical customer journeys and shopping behaviors. The focus lies on delivering a new and more personalized shopping experience that will significantly engage customers in the future. Concurrently, generative AI plays a role in crafting creative content such as texts and images, enriching the shopping process for customers.
The commerce keynote, "Villeroy & Boch - Tradition meets Innovation in E-commerce," presented by Dominik Felten (Head of Omnichannel, Villeroy & Boch), offered valuable insights into AI utilization at the traditional company Villeroy & Boch. The keynote spotlighted the transformation of the online store into a digital experience platform (DXP). Customers are not only provided with shopping opportunities but also with a consistent brand message, extensive service, and, most importantly, a unique customer experience. Understanding users' needs in every scenario is crucial knowing who is seeking what and when, and what problems need solving. This understanding enables skillful guidance of users in the right direction to meet their needs effectively.
The appeal: investing in your own value creation instead of your own LLMs
Overall, the essence of the Salesforce World Tour in Munich can be summarized as follows: AI has firmly established itself as a permanent fixture! Serving as a central enabler, AI stands as a vital tool for optimizing business operations across the entire value chain. However, achieving success with AI necessitates investment in data quality. Amidst the excitement surrounding this new technology, it's crucial not to overlook one's own core strengths. Vala Afshar (Chief Digital Evangelist & Author, Salesforce) underscores this by stating, "AI is just a tool. Don’t waste time with inventing your own LLMs. The key to success is taking your domain expertise, combine it with the AI tools, and offer your customers genuinely brilliant solutions people really need. “
With that, a practical and inspiring chapter of the Salesforce World Tour concludes, marked by significant highlights and numerous regional success stories from companies such as Allianz, Kuka, DB Cargo, and Endress + Hauser. For those unable to attend in person, recordings of the event are available here.
From left to right: Alexander Kirilov, Helen Orgis, Michael Wagner, Axel Wetten, Andreas Krüger
After this experience in Munich, our team will take away enriching discussions with clients, industry experts and our dedicated contacts at Salesforce. We say: Thank you and see you next year!
You can find more tips and information on the added value of using AI in your company here - or on October 16, 2024 at THE SESS10N, an event that focuses on the most important topics of digital transformation in Stuttgart.
