Salesforce launches Einstein Copilot AI assistant into beta

US-based Customer relationship management (CRM) company Salesforce on Wednesday announced the public beta release of Einstein Copilot, a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that empowers Salesforce users to interact with their data and workflows.

The Einstein Copilot was first announced as an early prototype at the Salesforce Dreamforce conference in 2023. With the beta release on Wednesday, more users will be able to try out the technology which provides a more open, conversational and intuitive integration of AI capabilities than what Salesforce has had to date.

According to the company, Einstein Copilot is embedded into its AI CRM applications and can answer questions, summarize content, create new content, interpret complex conversations, and automate tasks for users.

Commenting on the new tool, Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce, said, “AI is the single most important moment in the history of our industry. It will deepen customer relationships, increase productivity and drive higher margins at every company.”

“Our new Einstein Copilot brings together an amazing intuitive interface for interacting with AI, world-class AI models and above all deep integration of the data and metadata needed to benefit from AI,” he added, claiming that Einstein Copilot is the only copilot with the ability to truly understand what is going on with your customer relationships.

“Einstein Copilot is the most relevant, accurate AI assistant on the market – differentiated from any other by the trusted business data that powers every AI action, plan, and response. With Einstein Copilot, we’re going from clicks and code to conversations, providing our customers with the most intuitive and impactful enterprise-grade conversational AI,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI said in a statement.

To help validate the need for Einstein Copilot, Salesforce today also released new research from its Slack business unit that claims 86% of IT executives expect gen AI to have a big impact on their enterprises. The research also found that 80% of employees who are using gen AI tools are already experiencing a boost in productivity.

While Einstein Copilot is now available in the US in the English language; soon, it will be expanded to other countries like India.

In an interaction with TechCircle in January, Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Senior Vice President & Managing Director at Salesforce said that India is a vital global hub and a key driver of innovation for Salesforce. “We're on a strong growth trajectory and remain dedicated to further investment in the country,” he added.

Parameswaran also said that the company sees AI as a transformative force in the CRM industry and actively invest in its advancement. “Our Einstein AI platform serves as the foundation for our solutions, and we constantly invest in its development. We explore new applications, such as Einstein GPT-3 for Marketing Cloud and Einstein Analytics for Sales Cloud,” he said.

The company is also taking to skilling its workforce for AI roles through its Trailhead online learning platform, collaborating with academic institutions, and invest in AI research and development, always promoting responsible AI practices. 

The new Einstein Copilot can currently be used in Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, with support being added to Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud later in 2024. Also coming in the second half of the year will be Einstein Copilot for Tableau.