A major theme for 2023 in tech has been AI and ML. It’s no surprise that it became a major theme for Dreamforce. Advertised as “the largest AI event of the year”, they hosted more than 40,000 in-person attendees. Companies are very protective about their data and take many measures to design their Orgs to allow sharing and visibility of data only as needed per role. Salesforce does not shy away from addressing some of the concerns and fears around data and AI. They started the conference by prioritizing ethical considerations. Educating on their intentions and an explanation of the security of their innovations. After all that, then they explain the benefits and possibilities. Only time will tell if Salesforce can maintain customer trust as adoption increases.

#Key AI/ML Announcements

#Einstein 1 Platform

• AI platform that promises the ability to safely connect any data for AI-powered application building
• Integrates with Slack, Tableau, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Mulesoft, Heroku, and Canvas and leverages the Salesforce Data Cloud
• Supports thousands of metadata-enabled objects per customer
• Users can trigger Flows by any change on any object at scale
• Can interact with legacy and modern systems

#Einstein Copilot

• GenAI out-of-the-box conversational AI assistant
• Ability to ask questions in natural language and receive relevant and trustworthy answers grounded in secure proprietary company data in the Salesforce Data Cloud
• More actions beyond a query, including implementing a recommended action plan after a sales call or creating a new service knowledge article, according to the vendor

#Einstein Copilot Studio

• Allow users the ability to build their own AI-powered applications with custom prompts, skills and AI models
• Can make Einstein Copilot available across websites and other consumer-facing channels for real-time chats and messages with Slack, WhatsApp and other apps
• A prompt builder for testing and deploying GenAI prompts that match company brands and styles without deep technical expertise
• A model builder feature lets users bring their own models for business needs

#Salesforce and Google Partnership

• Salesforce is the first partner to integrate with the Google Workspace Duet AI extensions framework
• Users can bring in context from Salesforce and Google Calendar, Docs, Meet, Gmail and other productivity applications
• Joint users can also bring PaLM 2 and other Google-hosted LLMs from Vertex AI to Salesforce’s Einstein Copilot Studio to build GenAI products and services

#Democratizing Data

• Free Data Cloud and Tableau licenses to all Sales and Service Cloud, Enterprise, or Unlimited edition customers

Dynamic Forms on Mobile is now available in Beta!

Normally, I’d prefer to wait until a feature has reached GA before writing about it. In this case, I was too excited to wait.

Let’s get right to it… Dynamic Forms provides the ability to customize and simplify a single page layout by only showing the fields necessary for users. It has provided much needed improvement in UX. Previously, this was accomplished through multiple page layouts, record types, and profiles; and now it is a single page layout. Dynamic Forms has been available for a while now, but it was lacking the ability to work on mobile till now.

#Benefits of Dynamic Forms For Mobile

• Add fields anywhere on layout without having to use a page layout
• Use visibility rules to define what fields or components should be shown based off your criteria
• Improve page load performance through less data to display and lazy loading
• Reduced number of page layouts and record types
• Improved Adoption

Now, I can’t just talk about the benefits of it without letting you know about the negatives as well.

#Here are some disadvantages of Dynamic Forms for mobile designs:

• There is an added complexity to set up and customize. There is a potential to significantly change the look of the interface if desired, yet there is bit of a learning curve to learn how to use and adjust the field visibility
• As with any customization, it requires thorough planning to meet business needs. Along with customizing, user training might be needed to help adjust to the changes
• Limited Availability: Works with Accounts, Contacts, Person Accounts, Opportunities, Leads, and Cases
• Compatibility: Some third-party applications may not be fully compatible
• Limited Support: Since it’s still rather new and in Beta, there is not as much documentation, and it is harder to receive support

If you’re ready to start using it while in Beta, go Setup=>Salesforce Mobile App to enable.

If you have already been using Dynamic Forms, then make sure to remove the record detail component.