Salesforce Unveils Artificial Intelligence Service

Salesforce has unveiled Einstein, a platform upgrade that adds artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities to its core products -- just two hours before Oracle's big annual OpenWorld event kicked off. As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff previously hinted, Einstein is an AI wrapper around Salesforce's existing products that collects and analyzes all the data stored in Salesforce to push out recommendations, so the user can close deals faster or build a larger group of leads. For example, sales representatives using Sales Cloud will get a list of leads on the side based on "Lead Score," a number representing who's more likely to buy your product. It also gives suggestions on when to make a follow-up call or alerts when a contact has been unresponsive for a long time. "The great thing about machine learning is you can actually measure it," Salesforce's general manager of Einstein, John Ball, said at a press briefing held last week.