Salesforce Generative AI Powers New Field Service Innovations

Salesforce today announced new Salesforce Field Service innovations, powered by Einstein GPT and Data Cloud, that will empower customers with Salesforce generative AI technology and real-time data to improve their field service operations.

“Einstein GPT’s capabilities will empower customers to self-service in many new ways, especially when it comes to troubleshooting common issues. Using Einstein GPT, customers will be able to easily find highly relevant, auto-generated content complete with step-by-step instructions troubleshoot common issues, like resetting an internet router or adjusting settings on a new in-home device,” said Taksina Eammano, EVP and GM of Salesforce Field Service in an email interview.

What is New with Salesforce Field Service?

One of the key features of the new innovations is the ability to use AI to automate tasks and improve efficiency. For example, Einstein GPT can be used to generate reports and documents, as well as to answer customer questions. This can free up field service technicians to focus on more important tasks, such as repairing equipment.

Here is a quick summary of today’s announcement.

• Field Service Mobile powered by Einstein GPT will help frontline service teams onboard new employees quickly, be more efficient in the field, and enable customers to solve common issues with self-service tools.
  • In industries where customers must sign off on after-visit summaries, Einstein GPT saves frontline workers time by automatically composing reports.
  • Einstein GPT is also augmenting self-service tools by suggesting knowledge articles and generating step-by-step guides to address technical issues customers experience.
  • Field Service Mobile now allows teams to swarm customer issues and work orders in Slack and use pre-built solutions from Salesforce’s Component Library.
• Asset Service Management powered by Data Cloud will help keep complex equipment up and running by leveraging real-time data and Predictive Usage-Based Maintenance.
• Contractor Management with Flex Worker Management allows companies to scale their contractor workforce, and efficiently deploy them based on skills, distance, and available tools.

How Einstein GPT Works with Salesforce Field Service

In one slide provided by Salesforce, they show a field technician using an AI chatbot to reformat a field report. In general, when using an AI-powered tool, the user can review and approve all actions before they are recorded.

Interview Highlights

Here are some more quotes from my email interview with Taksina Eammano, EVP and GM of Field Service at Salesforce.

• Reduce costs: “By using AI and data to automate tasks and improve efficiency, companies can reduce the cost of their field service operations. This can free up resources that can be used to improve customer service or invest in new growth opportunities.”
• Increase revenue: “By improving customer satisfaction and reducing costs, companies can increase their revenue. This is because customers who have a positive experience with a company are more likely to do business with them again in the future. They are also more likely to recommend the company to their friends and family.”

Eammano also shared some of the upcoming developments or enhancements that Salesforce Field Service customers can look forward to soon:

• More self-service innovations: “We will also be leaning more into self-service innovations that our customers can use to adjust to rapidly shifting business models in the space, and work to improve multi-modal experiences for field service teams that allow them to operate efficiently while continuing to improve customer satisfaction.”
• Improved multi-modal experiences: “We are in an exciting time when it comes to generative AI and field service, and I think we are only at the very early stages of realizing what’s possible. Moving forward we will continue to take a trust-first approach to all our efforts while identifying new ways we can empower our customers with AI and real-time data capabilities that make them more productive in the field.”

Salesforce Inches Forward with Generative AI

This is a nice announcement of what Salesforce intends to do with Generative AI for the enterprise. One of the key features of the new innovations is the ability to use AI to automate tasks and improve efficiency. For example, Einstein GPT can be used to generate reports and documents, as well as to answer customer questions. This can free up field service technicians to focus on more important tasks, such as repairing equipment.

Another key feature of the new innovations is the ability to use AI to improve customer experience. For example, Einstein GPT can be used to create personalized content for customers, such as troubleshooting guides and FAQs. This can help customers to resolve their issues more quickly and easily, without having to wait for a technician to arrive.

But, even with this announcement, Salesforce continues to disappoint its users and platform owners with its schedule for shipping AI innovations. Beta programs for Salesforce generative AI innovations in Field Service won’t ship until December 2023. And since the March 7^th announcement of Einstein GPT, zero public pilot programs have been launched. And the competition is catching up with developer-oriented capabilities popping up in generalized tools like ChatGPT-4 and Google Bard.

We are now in an era where big software companies are using generative coding and other AI tools to speed up development. I truly hope that Salesforce uses these innovations to get these tools into customers’ hands fast, or people will start viewing the March announcements as nothing more than a blocking maneuver.