Generative AI x CRM: Automating Automation

The 21st Century may well be remembered as the era of the AI celebrity. From Deep Blue toppling one of the all-time greats in chess (technically a ’90s accomplishment) to Watson making television history on Jeopardy; from Self-Driving Cars taking to the streets, to “smartphone assistants” in pockets all over the world; and of course, most recently, from the introduction of Salesforce Einstein AI, to the front-page domination of ChatGPT..

The 21st Century may well be remembered as the era of the AI celebrity. From Deep Blue toppling one of the all-time greats in chess (technically a ’90s accomplishment) to Watson making television history on Jeopardy; from Self-Driving Cars taking to the streets, to “smartphone assistants” in pockets all over the world; and of course, most recently, from the introduction of Salesforce Einstein AI, to the front-page domination of ChatGPT.

And it looks like that’s a suffix we’ll be seeing more and more in the coming months, “GPT” that is. Within the confines of Salesforce, we’ve already seen the development of SlackGPT (think ChatGPT but in the business world’s favorite quick chat app) and Einstein GPT. So what exactly is “GPT” and what impact will it have on the world of CRM?

GPT stands for “generative pre-trained transformer” and GPTs, broadly, are a family of large language models — sort of virtual neural networks that relate concepts, language, and values, based on a bunch of input data (that’s the “pre-trained” part, and why ChatGPT initially said “hey, I won’t “know anything post-2020 or whenever”). Long story short, it’s a novel and super effective way to make meaningful, new, query-kicked-off content, based on historical data.

And what does that mean for CRM? A lot. Time savings, improved customer experiences, faster response times, more effective marketing, and more. Pick a department, pick a task, and pick your least favorite part of doing it - that’s a great place to start!

For sales teams and account managers, that can mean Einstein GPT adding logos, company overviews, company historical data, etc… to accounts (so fewer blank fields on records? Yes please!), or producing rough draft intro emails, pre-populated with contacts so all you need to do is tweak the messaging, and not futz with the salutations and sign-offs. For service departments it can mean more effective chatbots or voice-routing systems, better response unification, better expectation setting and CX, etc…

For marketing departments it can mean (almost) instant wireframes and content kick-off ideas, or be used to produce “Bs” and “Cs” from your “As” to do some effectiveness testing. Essentially, it’s going to open up a world where automation doesn’t just live in the realm of developers and declaratively-talented admins, but with everybody. It won’t be able to replace people, but it will be able to take your least favorite parts of your job off your plate, so you can spend more time on the things you were hired for — the creative problem solving, the human perspective, the “unautomate-able”.

For a high-level look at Einstein GPT, there’s already a handy Trailhead module and, for some ideas about the possibilities I can recommend:

• Generative CRM — Here’s What It’ll Mean For Your Business
• 3 Ways Generative AI Will Help Small Businesses Sell Smarter
• How Can You Get More Value From AI? This Company Has Some Ideas

Until next time, keep working hard, smart, and happy. And we’ll see you in the cloud!