• Salesforce says its Einstein Copilot generative AI software is now in public beta.
• The AI is made to work with any company, using customisable data sets and a suite of pre-programmed actions.
• Companies that purchase the Salesforce CRM software package can access Einstein Copilot.

After being announced in 2023, Salesforce’s conversational AI platform Einstein Copilot is now available in public beta. This is according to an emailed announcement from Salesforce South Africa, sent out to the media today.

Initially called Einstein GPT, this generative AI model uses OpenAI’s software to deliver new ways to automate customer relationship management. It is used in a manner similar to ChatGPT, in that users will issue commands via a prompt box.

Unlike ChatGPT, Einstein Copilot enables Salesforce AI customers to generate responses using their own data. Salesforce says that using a company’s own data, “Einstein Copilot can answer questions, summarise content, create new content, interpret complex conversations, and dynamically automate tasks on behalf of a user.”

“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,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

“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. Einstein Copilot is the only copilot with the ability to truly understand what is going with your customer relationships.”

Companies and businesses looking to start using Einstein Copilot can access it through the Salesforce suite CRM software.

In terms of capabilities, Einstein Copilot comes with a library of pre-programmed capabilities, automated responses, or business tasks that can be accessed when prompted by the user.

“For example, a customer service agent can ask Einstein Copilot to close a case and open a sales opportunity or sell an add-on, and Einstein Copilot will understand the user’s intent and can execute the task — or tasks — in the flow of the service experience,” Salesforce explains.

Or you can use Copilot Builder to create custom actions for Einstein Copilot, Prompt Builder activates custom prompts in the flow of work, and Model Builder uses proprietary AI models to power custom Einstein Copilot functions.

Hypertext got to check out an earlier version of Einstein Copilot at the Salesforce World Tour Essentials Johannesburg in June last year. The company showed off how the AI can be adapted to work with a variety of different company branding and situations.

You can find out more about Salesforce and Eistein Copilot here.