Salesforce unveils AI Cloud with new Einstein GPT Trust Layer
AI Cloud houses the Einstein GPT Trust Layer with generative AI safety features, including data masking to remove personal information from data sent to large language models.
NEW YORK -- Salesforce on Monday unveiled AI Cloud to bring generative AI tools to all the CRM and CX vendor's applications.
AI Cloud will be generally available later this year, according to Salesforce.
AI Cloud is similar to Salesforce's existing Data Cloud, Gartner analyst Kyle Davis said. Both support various AI models and are built on top of Hyperforce, Salesforce's infrastructure for the public cloud, and both are foundational products for other platforms, he said.
AI Cloud provides generative AI across Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud. Likewise, Data Cloud provides data across those systems, Davis noted.
AI Cloud and Data Cloud work together to provide the data to the LLMs used to generate content and responses.
Kyle DavisAnalyst, Gartner
"AI Cloud and Data Cloud work together to provide the data to the LLMs [large language models] used to generate content and responses," he said.
Salesforce joins the AI Cloud ranks
Salesforce is not the first big tech vendor to implement an AI Cloud. Tech giants Microsoft -- with the GPT service based on LLM technology developed by its partner OpenAI -- AWS and Google all are AI cloud vendors, in essence, because they provide a range of AI services on their public clouds.
But since Salesforce's AI Cloud is focused on CRM, the new cloud will be competing with a host of other vendors, according to Predrag Jakovljevic, analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers.
"I don't think it will compete with AWS and Google yet," but it will with Microsoft and its Dynamics 365 platform, SAP, Oracle and Adobe, as well as independents such as Pegasystems, Zoho, Freshworks, SugarCRM, Creatio, Zendesk, and other CRM and CX vendors, he said.
Putting privacy at the forefront
AI Cloud houses the new Einstein GPT Trust Layer, which assists companies with data privacy and compliance goals as they use generative AI for numerous tasks in Salesforce applications.
The Einstein GPT Trust Layer will be generally available this month, according to Salesforce.
"What catches my eye is the focus on trusted AI," Jakovljevic said. "I haven't seen much talk about that topic by the others, but I'm pretty sure they will catch up down the track."
Salesforce unveiled AI Cloud and the Einstein GPT Trust Layer at AI Day, a one-day event in New York City at which the vendor also previewed a host of other generative AI-backed services and products, and introduced a new CEO of Salesforce AI, Clara Shih.
Salesforce under the Einstein AI banner has been providing AI-supported tools with security and safety features for many years, Valoir analyst Rebecca Wettemann noted.
"Generative isn't as big a leap for them as it is for some other vendors," she said.
The Einstein GPT Trust Layer supports Salesforce AI models, customer AI models, utilities for generative AI prompts, security, and toxicity detection to flag inaccurate or offensive generative AI outputs.
"The AI Cloud trust layer aims to provide a central control plane for generative AI to Salesforce customers," Davis said.
Adam Caplan, senior vice president at Salesforce AI, said the data masking feature within the Einstein GPT Trust Layer removes all personal information from data before it is sent to an LLM. After it returns from the LLM, the personal information is restored to the data, he said.
"That's an important feature, especially for large companies or companies in regulated industries," Caplan said.
Mary Reines is a news writer covering customer experience and unified communications for TechTarget Editorial. Before TechTarget, Reines was arts editor at the Marblehead Reporter.
