Salesforce has announced the Data Cloud Spring ‘24 Release. The release includes new innovations to make data in Data Cloud more usable across Salesforce’s CRM applications and platform services. Features like Data Cloud Related Lists and Data Cloud Triggered Flows allow customers to view customer engagement data from a website on every customer record in Salesforce and automate an alert to a salesperson.
Data Cloud allows business users to connect data from any source or data lake and use it within the applications they use every day. The Data Cloud is built on Salesforce’s foundational metadata layer, which provides a common language that integrates all Salesforce applications and low-code platform services. These include Einstein AI, Flow for automation, Lightning for UI, and Apex for deep, pro-code customisation.
What’s new in Data Cloud Spring ‘24
- Data Spaces is now GA: With Data Spaces, customers can logically segregate data, metadata, and processes for departmental, regulatory, and compliance needs.
- Model Builder is now GA: Customers can choose an LLM or build an AI model based on the job to be done. Model Builder is a no-code, low-code, and pro-code way for companies to build their own predictive AI models trained on their Data Cloud data. For generative AI, Model Builder allows customers to select from LLMs managed by Salesforce, or bring their own models. Businesses can also use predictive and generative AI models from Salesforce partners. The solution trains select models on Data Cloud data without moving or copying data.
- Data Cloud Related Lists is now GA: With Data Cloud Related Lists, Data Cloud data can be surfaced across Einstein 1 Platform in a Related List on any Salesforce Object. Now, B2B companies can immediately enrich their leads, contacts, and account records with real-time engagement data from Data Cloud.
- Data Cloud Copy Fields is now GA: With Data Cloud Copy Fields, customers can expose the insights generated in Data Cloud in core CRM, eliminating the need for complex data integrations and custom development. Now, customers can copy data from a Data Model Object or Calculated Insight Object into a field on Contact or Lead record.
Data Cloud for Industries solutions
- Customers can leverage pre-built connectors, data models, calculated insights, and data kits to power industry-specific AI, automation, and workflows. Data Cloud for Financial Services is now GA.
- Data Graphs Enhancements: With Data Graphs in Data Cloud, customers can define the relationships between data points. Eliminating the need for SQL queries or creating data joins manually. With the ability to trace the related fields and rearrange the relationships in a drag-and-drop manner, Data Graphs make it easy to ensure that the correct field data will be included in an AI application. Real-Time Data Graphs is now in pilot, empowering brands to access and update key customer data in milliseconds.
- Service Intelligence is now GA: With Service Intelligence, service teams can easily derive insights about the quality of their service with AI models. Solutions predict ‘propensity to escalate’ and ‘time to resolve’ for their cases based on Data Cloud data.
- Data Cloud Triggered Flows Enhancements: With Data Cloud Triggered Flows, customers can automate business processes based on a change in a data point from across all Data Cloud data sources. Alternatively, when calculated insight conditions have been met. Now, users can test and troubleshoot their Flows before activating.
The power of Data Cloud in Salesforce
“Salesforce Data Cloud is the first data platform that not only unifies data from across the enterprise. The solution uses this harmonized data to power the AI and applications that businesses use every day,” said David Schmaier, President and Chief Product Officer, Salesforce.
“This enables salespeople, marketers, customer service agents, and more to develop deeper customer relationships, save time, and dramatically improve productivity. Data Cloud truly unlocks trapped data to power a better customer experience.”
Before Data Cloud, Sales Cloud users acted on data that was manually entered, created via system generated activities, or via APIs with other systems. Now, with Data Cloud, customers can enrich their Sales Cloud experience with a comprehensive view of their customer across all systems and touchpoints with insights about customer behaviour. Data can sit in external sources or across Salesforce applications. All of this data can now be leveraged to power workflows and customer experiences.
Enterprise Times: What this means for businesses
Data Cloud is quickly becoming the go-to solution for unified data management. This is illustrated by the 25% of million-dollar deals in Salesforce’s fourth quarter, including Data Cloud. The company recently announced the addition of over 1,000 new customers in one quarter. Companies, irrespective of size, sector, and geography, are driving growth and productivity by connecting their enterprise data to business applications with Data Cloud and the #1 AI CRM.
Despite significant efforts, a staggering 81% of business leaders report struggling with data fragmentation and data silos. This disconnected information hinders crucial tasks like improving the customer experience. Even though 80% of customers expect better experiences based on the data companies collect.
The integration of data and CRM enables businesses to build more personalised customer experiences. Furthermore, connect all of this data in real time to Salesforce’s Einstein AI services to support generative AI. The technology is expected to fuel predictive insights with trusted company data. The ingredients businesses need to develop compelling products, services and messaging to fulfil customer needs.
