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Salesforce's AgentForce: The Future of 'Digital Labor' in Enterprise

2024-12-04

If we were to look at Don Draper from “Mad Men” and consider him at his core as an ad man, then Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff emerges as a true sales virtuoso. Recently, he has been passionately advocating for AI agents and Salesforce's newly launched AgentForce platform. It's no secret that Benioff is renowned for his enthusiasm about Salesforce's latest offerings. During the company's latest quarterly results presentation, he not only shared the numbers to justify his excitement but also revealed some remarkable insights.

Releasing Numbers to Back Up the Excitement

In just one quarter, Salesforce closed an astounding 200 deals for AgentForce. This significant achievement has led the company to plan the recruitment of 1,400 salespeople to handle the growing number of deals. As Benioff stated during the quarterly conference call, “AgentForce just became available on October 24th, and we're already witnessing this incredible velocity, with more than 200 Agentforce deals in Q3 alone.” The pipeline for potential transactions in future quarters is in the thousands. Notable companies like FedEx, Adecco, Accenture, ACE Hardware, IBM, and RBC Wealth Management have already embraced AgentForce.The company's expectations for its fiscal year have also seen an upward revision. It now aims to generate between $37.8 to $38 billion in revenue, representing an 8% to 9% increase over the previous year. This growth is largely attributed to the strength of its AI products.

The Vision and Potential of AI Agents

Benioff recently shared with Techcrunch his vision of Salesforce customers deploying one billion AI agents within the next year. He emphasized that these agents are not just tools but becoming collaborators, working tirelessly 24/7 to analyze data, make decisions, and take action. Salesforce has quickly become the largest supplier of digital labor, and this is just the beginning.However, we must wait and see how much of this vision materializes. LLM-based technology still faces challenges, particularly in addressing the hallucination problem that plagues it. Benioff believes that AgentForce's ability to train on up to 300 petabytes of actual company data managed by Salesforce will lead to remarkably low hallucinogenic performance.Other startups are also working on crucial LLM issues to transform AI agents into actual digital collaborators, such as memory and state.

Chasing the Killer Enterprise AI App

Salesforce is not alone in its pursuit of the killer enterprise AI app. Startups offering SDR technology have witnessed significant growth in 2024, attracting substantial venture capital investment and generating initial revenue. This area presents an opportunity for enterprises to explore and allocate their AI budgets. Incumbents like Salesforce, HubSpot, and ZoomInfo hold a distinct advantage as they possess the customer data needed to train the bots. The same holds true for customer service bots.

Equipping Sales Humans with AI

As Salesforce COO Brian Millham explained on the call, to capture the increased demand for Agentforce, the company is hiring 1,400 AEs globally in the fourth quarter. Additionally, new sales SDR agents and sales coaching agents are being used to enhance every seller's capabilities. This approach showcases Salesforce's commitment to leveraging AI to empower its sales team while also adapting to the changing landscape of enterprise AI.In conclusion, as we enter the year of AI, it is clear that enterprises have found a direction for their AI investments. AI agents for sales and customer service are emerging as key areas of focus, and companies like Salesforce are at the forefront of this transformation. While there are still challenges to overcome, the potential for AI to drive growth and innovation is undeniable.

World Labs has made a significant announcement with the introduction of a groundbreaking AI feature. This innovation allows for the conversion of 2D images into fully navigable 3D environments, marking a major step forward in the field of artificial intelligence.

Unlock the Potential of 2D to 3D Transformation with World Labs

How the AI Feature Works

World Labs' new AI tool, developed by Fei-Fei Li's highly anticipated startup, takes a simple prompt or a 2D reference image as input. It then proceeds to generate a fully functional 3D environment. This process enables creators to have precise control over camera movements within the generated space, while also ensuring consistent geometry and real-time control. By working in 3D, the tool avoids many of the control and consistency issues faced by other image and video generators. Although the boundaries of the scene are still somewhat limited, the potential for creative exploration is immense. 1: The ability to generate in 3D provides a unique advantage. Creators can now envision and interact with their creations in a way that was previously unimaginable. The persistent visual aspects of the scenes created by this GenAI tool allow for a more immersive experience, whether it's for movie production, video game development, or simulator creation. 2: The real-time control offered by the tool gives creators the flexibility to make on-the-spot adjustments and experiment with different camera angles and perspectives. This level of control is crucial in bringing a project to life and achieving the desired visual effects.

Impact on Various Industries

This quick generation capability of the AI tool is set to have a profound impact on multiple industries. Animation studios, in particular, have already started experimenting with using this technology to create consistent AI-generated backgrounds. This simplifies the process of staging characters in various scenes, saving time and effort. 1: In the movie industry, the ability to quickly generate 3D environments can revolutionize the way films are made. It allows for more complex and immersive set designs, enhancing the overall viewing experience for audiences. 2: For video game developers, the tool provides a new level of creativity and efficiency. Game designers can now create detailed and interactive worlds with ease, opening up new possibilities for gameplay and storytelling.

Exploring Examples on the Website

Although the tool is not yet available for general use, visitors can explore some examples of what will be possible to create on World Labs' website. These examples give a glimpse into the future of 3D image generation and inspire creativity. 1: By browsing through the website, users can see how the AI tool transforms 2D images into stunning 3D worlds. It showcases the potential of this technology and encourages further exploration. 2: The website serves as a platform for users to get a firsthand look at the capabilities of the AI feature and start envisioning their own creative projects.TechCrunch offers an AI-focused newsletter, and you can sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. Stay updated with the latest advancements in AI and be at the forefront of innovation.

AWS, the cloud computing powerhouse of Amazon, has taken a significant step forward by announcing the Education Equity Initiative. This initiative is dedicated to providing education organizations with the necessary technologies to create digital learning innovations for underrepresented communities. With a commitment of $100 million in cloud credits over the next five years, AWS is poised to make a substantial impact on educational opportunities.

Empowering Underrepresented Communities through Cloud-based Education

How AWS is Shifting its Approach

Tom Berry, who leads the education work within AWS's Social Impact and Responsibility team, shared that this initiative marks a departure from the company's traditional project mindset. Traditionally, programs focused on directly training teachers and kids. However, through experiences with Code.org and others, AWS has realized that the organizations already present in underserved communities are best positioned to have a lasting impact on learner development.

For instance, the plan is to support hundreds of non-profit organizations globally over the next five years. These organizations will be equipped to build tools for teaching local communities coding and other computer-related skills. AWS is also ready to provide hands-on assistance in building and scaling the applications these organizations create.

Pilot Program and Early Partners

AWS has already run a pilot with 50 organizations from 10 different countries. Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit focused on improving access to quality early-childhood education for underserved children, is using Amazon Q in AWS Quicksight to build evaluation tools. This allows them to assess the effectiveness of the content they are developing.

Code.org, a renowned nonprofit dedicated to providing computer science education to K-12 schools and a long-time Amazon partner in similar initiatives, is another early partner. As part of this program, Code.org rolled out a new AI teaching assistant tool for computer science teachers. Karim Meghji, the chief product officer at Code.org, explained that many teachers are new to computer science and lack confidence. The new tool aims to address these challenges by providing a more flexible and student-centered approach to project-based learning.

Running Parallel to Existing Programs

The Education Equity Initiative will run concurrently with Amazon's existing programs such as the Future Engineer program and the AI and ML Scholarship program. This ensures a comprehensive approach to addressing educational inequities and providing diverse opportunities for learners.