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• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has ditched ChatGPT for Google Gemini three
• He made the transfer after attempting Gemini three for simply hours
• Benioff praised Gemini 3’s pace, reasoning, and multimodal capabilities as a major step forward

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has fallen head over heels for Gemini three and has publicly dumped ChatGPT in the process. His statement left a whole lot of the AI global reeling. After just hours of playing with Gemini three, a top enterprise software program chief disavowed the maximum famous AI chatbot in favor of its rapidly ascending rival.

Holy shit. I’ve used ChatGPT each day for three years. Simply spent 2 hours on Gemini three. I’m no longer going lower back. The bounce is insane — reasoning, speed, photos, video… the whole lot is sharper and quicker. It feels like the international simply changed, again. 

The post wasn’t subtle. It wasn’t hedged with well-mannered comparisons or impartial optimism. no longer the most effective has one of the maximum visible enterprise figures in Silicon Valley crossed from OpenAI to Google, but he's additionally made a factor of telling the world.

Gemini 3 has attracted plenty of different accolades for its mixing of Google DeepMind’s modern-day advances right into a unmarried unified architecture. Gemini three helps text, images, code, audio, and video in a single interface. Gemini 3 is properly positioned to take ChatGPT's crown for cross-to AI chatbot in many ways.

Though ChatGPT's ubiquity made it sense inevitable, Benioff’s post indicates that inevitability has an expiration date. In a depend of hours, one of its maximum prominent evangelists defected. that announces more about the tempo of AI evolution than any leaderboard or benchmark can.

AI rivalry heating up

Benioff isn’t only a few casual early adopters. Salesforce has deeply incorporated AI into its merchandise and enterprise strategy. It turned into among the first company giants to companion with OpenAI for productivity tools embedded in consumer courting software. When Benioff makes a non-public bounce like this, it carries the load of corporate alignment. And if Gemini 3 is now the version he's defaulting to, the software stacks around him can also follow suit.

Gemini 3’s strengths seem to match what high-frequency customers like Benioff search for in terms of speed, reasoning, and flexibility. Google has been clear that Gemini three was constructed to feature as a flexible engine for both purchasers and builders, able to energy the entirety from helpdesk bots to video editing suggestions. That breadth may be what tipped the scales for Benioff, whose day possibly includes toggling between datasets, dashboards, and vision decks at Silicon Valley warp speed.

It's a terrific reminder that the AI panorama is getting more aggressive. There’s a growing refrain of contenders scrambling to make your AI assistant. For folks who casually take a look at it with ChatGPT once in a while, nothing has to change in a single day. However, Benioff’s public conversion gives a peek into how quickly even entrenched possibilities can pave the way to the promise of sharper gear.

Microsoft, Adobe and SAP aren't yet revealing technical details of the Open Data Initiative they announced this week. But Azure Data Lake and the Microsoft CDM seem to figure prominently.

With Microsoft's Ignite and Salesforce's Dreamforce conferences happening the same week, it's not too surprising the two were gunning to unveil the biggest and best partnership line-ups. Microsoft called on Adobe and SAP, and Salesforce on Apple and SAP during their respective keynote kickoffs.

Microsoft took the wraps off something called the "Open Data Initiative" (ODI), which it founded with Adobe and SAP, on Sept. 24. The high-level mission of the ODI is to "reimagine customer experience management" (aka CRM) by being able to integrate CRM, ERP, commerce, sales, product usage and other data into a single data view that works across devices.

I've spent the last few days trying to glean any kind of technical details about the planned deliverables, to no avail. (It looks like some analysts did get NDA briefings about what ODI actually is, but it seems Microsoft isn't willing to talk about this yet.)

Microsoft did provide the high-level architectural diagram describing ODI, which I've embedded above. The platforms which the original founders of ODI are looking to integrate are the Adobe Customer Experience Platform, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM/ERP platforms and SAP C/4HANA CRM and SAP S/4HANA database. The goal of integrating these, as well as other CRM, ERP and database platforms is to create a single view of customer data, but one which customers -- not the vendors -- will control.

What's not labeled in the diagram, but which I've heard from a few different sources, is the low-level Azure data layer is a reference to Azure Data Lake storage. And the "one data model" in the diagram is Microsoft's Common Data Model (CDM).

The race to single view of the customer: Salesforce launches Customer 360, aims to integrate all your data, applications | SAP unveils C/4HANA, aims to revamp CRM, leverage its ERP base | SAP pivots as the customer turns 2018

Azure Data Lake is Microsoft's repository for big-data analytic workloads in the cloud. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 unifies the core capabilities of the first-generation Azure Data Lake with a Hadoop-compatible file system endpoint that has been directly integrated into Azure Blob Storage.

The Microsoft Common Data Model, which Redmond has used extensively in its own Dynamics offerings, is an open-source definition of standard entities that represent commonly used concepts and activities across a variety of business and application domains. In the October 2018 update to Dynamics 365, the Microsoft Data Integration platform will be updated with more connectors and gateways "that make it possible to bring any external data into the Common Data Service and store the data in Common Data Model (CDM) form."

Because both Adobe and SAP previously committed to making their software/services available on Azure, it's not surprising that Microsoft's cloud is the common thread in this partnership. All three of these vendors already committed to running their CRM, ERP and database products on Azure. From there, I'd imagine it's not a huge step for them all to commit to using Azure Data Lake and CDM.

The part of the diagram I'm most curious about is the common AI piece of the base layer. Adobe is going its own way with AI, as is an SAP, as is Microsoft. On the ERP/CRM front, Microsoft recently announced it will be rolling out more new AI-infused Dynamics apps (for Sales, Customer Service, and Insights). Maybe Microsoft will offer up some lower-level pieces of its Azure AI infrastructure, such as its Machine Learning and Cognitive Services to be incorporated as part of the ODI specs, moving forward. Or perhaps Microsoft's "Power platform," which centers around Power BI business-intelligence/analytics, will become a key component of ODI.

There's another potentially interesting piece of the ODI which no one discussed publicly at Ignite this week. If you look at the URL of the ODI -- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum/open-data-initiative -- it's somehow related to Microsoft's quantum-computing efforts, apparently. Quantum originally was supposed to be a big topic at Ignite, but barely got a mention. Data-intensive problems are ideally suited to quantum processing so the connection between the two may not be tenuous.


SOURCE:

Salesforce's idea to provide a 360-degree view of the customer isn't exactly new, but the company maintains its execution will be different. Here's the master plan.

Salesforce's big idea is one that you've heard of before from other enterprise software vendors--a 360-degree view of the customer--with a different lens. The big question will come down to executing Salesforce's effort, dubbed Customer 360.

At Dreamforce, Salesforce's developer and customer powwow, the company will outline Customer 360, which includes the following:

• An admin interface that connects and manages customer data across Salesforce apps.
• Customer 360 ID, which gives customers one ID that will have up-to-date contextually relevant profiles across apps and experiences.
• Packages for Customer 360 focused on service, marketing, and commerce to scale up cross-channel customer experiences.

Co-CEO Marc Benioff and CTO Parker Harris in their Dreamforce keynote outlined Customer 360. Benioff reiterated his customer-first mantra and talked about how companies have to be about their values. In a talk where you half expected Benioff to announce he was running for public office, he said:

For each company, we have to listen. We're watching for companies not listening. For them we watch the executives walk out, the employees walk out and the customers walk out.
Parker Harris, CTO of Salesforce, put some more technology meat on the Customer 360 platform. In a demo, Harris showed how data is connected via Customer 360 in multiple systems.


The problem Salesforce is hoping to solve is a big one even if it's not terribly original. Customers are typically in experience silos and data from various parts of a company may not be shared. These disjointed customer experiences have plagued interactions for years.

However, there are other players that have hopped on this one-view of the customer bandwagon. SAP CEO Bill McDermott outlined how his company was going to take on Salesforce in CRM with the one unified customer experience takes. SAP's argument is that the customer experience starts with its ERP and HANA analytics platform and then expands to CRM. "We have moved from a 360-degree view of sales automation where some companies focus to a 360-degree view of the actual customer," said McDermott.

Microsoft, which is touting its Dynamics ERP and CRM platform at its Ignite conference, has talked about a 360-degree view of the customer before. Using ActiveDirectory and its hook into Azure, Microsoft already has a customer ID system. Microsoft starts with Office and Dynamics and now extends its reach with artificial intelligence and connections on LinkedIn.

Oracle has also talked the 360-degree view of the customer with the talking points picking up in 2015. In 2013, Oracle Siebel CRM was talking 360-degree views of the customer and being customer-centric.

Simply put, there's a lot of marketing speak invested in this 360-degree view of the customer thing.

HOW SALESFORCE PLANS TO BE DIFFERENT

Patrick Stokes, SVP Integration Cloud, said that the issue is that previous effort to provide a 360-degree view of the customer have been made on the assumption that a company can control the journey a customer would take.

"Our point of view is simple. What we need is a single identifier. Not a single version of the truth, but a unified ID that can connect systems," said Stokes.

Salesforce's biggest argument is that traditional master data management tools--the technology that keeps customer records updated and current between apps-- require a lot of IT work and lack real-time updating.

Customer 360 is designed to sit in the middle of all of Salesforce's ecosystem.


Via it Mulesoft acquisition, Salesforce is planning to integrate this customer data, leave the information in place and keep it integrated for personalized experiences whether in the cloud or on-premises. Salesforce tipped its plans when it announced updates to its Financial Services Cloud. This slide, which highlights, the moving parts in a customer, system and data bowl of spaghetti is designed for banks and insurers but represents most enterprises.


Salesforce does intend to integrate various applications in an enterprise, but much of Customer 360 revolves around connecting Salesforce apps and data.

Customer 360 will include a click-based user experience so admins can manage apps and data. The idea is that admins will make connections between apps. This dashboard would be one place to view customer data, applications, and various connections.

The 360 ID is Salesforce's way of giving one identifier for every customer that would include name, email, phone number as well as the social handle. Salesforce's tools would match, reconcile and update customer data across clouds. Salesforce noted that 360 ID leaves data in place and the system where it originated. Salesforce would retrieve data only when needed and refrain from a data lake and data warehouse architecture. The concept rhymes more with Pure Storage's Data Hub concept as an architecture.

Pre-built packages for service, marketing, and commerce. Experiences for customers would be tailored on use cases on Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and Marketing Cloud. The packages are designed to deliver connected experiences and be attached to Customer 360.

Perhaps the most notable idea Salesforce has is that Customer 360 isn't replicating data, but pulling it from where it resides. The general idea is that Customer 360 would enable a company to know when a shopping cart was abandoned in Commerce Cloud and then activate a campaign in Marketing Cloud for discounts.

These connections between Salesforce clouds are called Commerce Journeys and Service for Commerce. The packages are designed to provide immediate returns on moving to one customer ID.

According to Stokes, these integrated packages would put experiences and engagement first.

Stokes acknowledged that Salesforce isn't the center of the universe. However, it is worth noting that the company does house much of an enterprise's customer data. To connect various systems, MuleSoft will use APIs to connect applications across a company.

MuleSoft Anypoint is designed to connect Salesforce Customer 360 with other applications. These connections are designed to create what the company says a "truly complete customer view."

THE DETAILS

Customer 360 will be built into the platform and Stokes noted that the intention is to include much of the functionality under existing licenses.

Salesforce doesn't have all the details on pricing as Customer 360 is slated for general availability in the second half of 2019. There will be net new services with Customer 360 and they may revolve around prepackaged journeys as well as MuleSoft connections via APIs. The integration space is one of Salesforce's big growth areas.

In the end, the Customer 360 effort provides a stronger layer integration between Salesforce clouds. But Salesforce won't represent most of your systems. As a result, Salesforce's up sell may revolve around MuleSoft.

Here are some screens of what Customer 360 will look like.





WHAT'S MULESOFT'S ROLE?

If Customer 360 is the secret sauce to integrate all of the data on Salesforce's clouds, MuleSoft is the integration layer to connect the rest of the information silos in an enterprise.

Mark Dao, chief product officer at MuleSoft, said the unit's Anypoint platform will be the "data platform for external systems" and connect to Customer 360. Dao said MuleSoft aims to provide an "application network" that can integrate various systems. For instance, MuleSoft will demo how Salesforce Commerce Cloud can integrate with Oracle's NetSuite and use machine learning to recommend data mapping choices.

At Dreamforce, MuleSoft will outline updates to the Anypoint platform that will add up to "an application network graph" so services across a company can be integrated via the cloud on on-premises.

MuleSoft's October 2018 release of the Anypoint Platform includes:

• Machine earning for data mapping and a flow designer that creates an application network graph.
• A visualization engine that provides a view of a company's APIs and integration points. Monitoring via Anypoint also troubleshoots issues.
• An expanded API management toolset. These additional controls apply security at the API level and add tokens to data at rest and in transit.
• Add it up and MuleSoft is the hub of Salesforce's integration efforts but is designed to ride shotgun with Customer 360.

Salesforce's mobile app for CRM will be revamped with native features for Apple's iOS platform.

Salesforce and Apple have formed a partnership that will bring exclusive features from CRM apps to iOS devices.

Under the partnership, Salesforce said it will redesign its app to run native on Apple's iOS and add exclusive features. Salesforce will also launch a Salesforce Mobile SDK for iOS and optimized for Apple's Swift as well as developer courses on Trailhead.

The Salesforce Mobile SDK for iOS will be available by the end of 2018 with the rebuilt Salesforce Mobile App available in early 2019. A Trailhead Mobile App will launch later in 2019.

Apple under CEO Tim Cook has formed a bevy of partnerships with enterprise technology players including Cisco, Accenture, SAP and IBM. These partnerships revolve around bringing enterprise apps native features to iOS, which is the dominant mobile platform in the enterprise.

According to Cook and Marc Benioff, co-CEO of Salesforce the new features on iOS and more native tools for Salesforce CRM will bolster customer experiences.

The companies said the initial focus of the partnership will revolve around Salesforce iOS apps that will offer Siri Shortcuts, Face ID integration and Business Chat. Salesforce's Lightning Platform will also be integrated with the Salesforce Mobile SDK.


SOURCE ZDNet:

Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud aims to bridge various integration points and technology and business silos to give customers a unified experience.

The CRM giant delivered non-GAAP earnings of 71 cents per share on revenue of $3.28 billion, up 27 percent year over year.

With Einstein Bots, the aim is to help companies automate routine customer service requests and improve customer experiences.

Salesforce has created a multi-task model for natural language processing that takes an architecture approach.

The overall aim for Salesforce is to create custom customer experiences between its various clouds and functions.

1. B2B Commerce in Commerce Cloud. Built on Salesforce's platform, B2B Commerce aims to provide consumer-like e-commerce for business buyers. The B2B effort combined with its consumer e-commerce allows customers to offer a coherent experience across units and channels.
2. LiveMessage expanded SMS support. LiveMessage, part of Service Cloud, will add 21 additional countries with SMS support.
3. Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio goes generally available. The studio enables experiences and coordination for promotions, discounts and offers across a brand's channels.
4. Marketing Cloud gets Einstein audience segmentations via its data management platform as well as Einstein Splits, which create AI-driven paths for each customer.
5. Integrations between Commerce, Marketing and Service Clouds. For instance, Service Cloud and Commerce Cloud integrations will allow service reps to see order history and use customer service interactions for cross-selling. Commerce Journeys combines Marketing Cloud and Commerce cloud so companies can tailor shopping experiences.

And the real shocker--at least based on Rimini Street's history battling Oracle--is that the support provider and Salesforce are partners in the effort.

When it comes to cloud services and software-as-a-service (SaaS), we're all familiar with the usual players. But there's a huge world of opportunity and available resources beyond Google, Dropbox, Salesforce, Amazon, and Microsoft.