The IBM “State of Salesforce” report is back for 2024/25 and is a perfect addition to all the news coming out of San Francisco this week from Dreamforce.
This IBM report is the largest of its kind and gives us a fantastic look into not only the top trends Salesforce customers are seeing but also the impact they’re having on the most successful implementations.
For this year’s State of Salesforce report, IBM’s Institute for Business Value surveyed more than 1,100 Salesforce customers to identify which practices and perspectives are driving business value.
The State of Salesforce
Last year’s State of Salesforce report started to give us some insights into how executives were thinking about Generative AI. Overall, there was a huge amount of excitement and promise, with over 75% of CEOs believing a competitive advantage will depend on who has the most advanced Generative AI.
However, throughout 2024 it seemed every man and his dog had an opinion about AI, which in my opinion caused some level of AI content fatigue among technology professionals. There was also talk of an AI Bubble, with the hype reaching unsustainable levels compared to the results companies were reaping.
But whatever your opinion of AI, you can’t doubt some of the facts that are starting to emerge out of the ether e.g. OpenAI saying that 200 million people are using ChatGPT each week. Or Klarna, who has implemented an AI system that’s doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents. Even news to come out of our own Salesforce Developer Survey says that 72% of developers are using AI tools on a semi-regular basis.
So, this is why IBM have dedicated their 2024/25 survey to AI & Data. These are the two trends that will shape the future of the Salesforce ecosystem. These insights are from 1,191 global respondents, 17 countries, and across 13 industries.
Insight 1: Data Dominance
It would be rare to hear a conversation about AI without data being mentioned alongside it. As we should all know by now (especially with Salesforce’s renewed focus on Data Cloud), AI is nothing without context.
As amazing as ChatGPT is, it just can’t be directly implemented within a business. Security risks aside, the OpenAI LLM GPT models are an amalgamation of the entire internet, or in other words, the most generic LLM possible.
This is why Salesforce’s latest platform strategy of Einstein 1 not only includes AI products but Data Cloud sitting alongside it. As IBM puts it in their report “…customers must shift focus from ROI to reinvention”. In other words, AI can’t be bolted on – it requires looking at your technology stack and Salesforce implementation with a completely new lens.
In the report, IBM shows us the direct impact on business metrics for those that utilize the wide variety of data they collect to full effect, versus those that do not.
Insight 2: AI-Driven Differentiation
69% of customers surveyed are leveraging native AI capabilities within Salesforce. However, savvy organizations are taking AI to the next level, with 71% of customers augmenting Salesforce with additional AI capabilities. This number jumps to 83% for customers in the “Data Pioneers” category.
This kind of approach to AI has been promoted by Salesforce ever since the release of the Einstein 1 and Copilot Studio at last year’s Dreamforce.
This suite of tools enables you to launch generative-based AI workflows within Salesforce, using external AI models.
In IBM’s State of Salesforce report, we can see the actual impact on key business areas by utilizing Salesforce AI and custom AI workflows within your Org.
Insight 3: Ecosystem Orchestration
The last insight from IBM in this year’s report is an interesting one, and perhaps a topic of conversation that hasn’t seen the light of day as of yet.
Salesforce consultancies are big business within the ecosystem, with 97% of Salesforce customers relying on them and 34% of the total ecosystem professionals working for a consultancy.
But in 2024 and beyond, who’s going to be supporting these AI-enabled Salesforce Orgs?
According to the report, only 16% of Salesforce customers feel confident in using AI workflows to transform customer and employee experiences, and 45% are interested in using AI workflows but don’t know where to start.
These statistics surely point to customers utilizing external AI partners in order to help them cross the chasm.
But, are Salesforce partners ready to support AI? Customers expect guarantees on the business results they’ll see from any implementation, risk mitigation, and support, as well as the necessary experience within the business.
There’s clearly a gap in the market here, and even more so with 60% of CEOs expecting critical expertise and capabilities to be increasingly concentrated in a small cluster of partners.
But within any ecosystem, there will always be winners and losers, and with 53% of CEOs ending a partnership or supplier relationship due to a failure to meet standards, 2024 and beyond will be an important time for Salesforce partners to differentiate themselves.
Summary
The IBM State of Salesforce report is a fantastic read for anyone who wants to get to grips with current trends within the ever-evolving Salesforce ecosystem.
As Marc Benioff declared ahead of Dreamforce, Salesforce is making a “hard pivot” to their new Agentforce platform, which is the first time I can recall him making such a statement.