Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the business landscape at an unprecedented pace. One standout player in this transformative arena is Salesforce Einstein AI, a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities designed to streamline operations, enhance decision-making processes, and elevate customer experiences through automation. In parallel, generative AI, another intriguing facet of AI, possesses the remarkable ability to craft fresh content, spanning text, code, and images.
While both Salesforce Einstein AI and generative AI hold the promise of revolutionizing businesses, they diverge in their core objectives and applications. In this post, I’ll look into the similarities and differences between the two, focusing on how businesses can utilize each of these technologies.
Generative AI
First things first, we need to understand what exactly generative AI is. Both Salesforce Einstein GPT and tools like ChatGPT are examples of this groundbreaking technology (the clue is in the names), so we shouldn’t go any further until we answer this question.
Generative AI acts as a digital artist, demonstrating astonishing capabilities that are worth exploring. It can do some incredible things, such as image generation, music composition, drug discovery, data augmentation, video generation, simulation, style transfer, and even text-to-image. Here we will be focusing on text generation, as this is the specific part of generative AI that Einstein AI focuses on.
These tools use something called an “LLM”, or “large language model”. These models are like computer programs trained to understand and talk like humans. They can take in text or speech and give sensible responses. People use them in things like chatbots, virtual assistants, and language translators to make it easier for us to talk to computers in a natural way. These models have gotten a lot smarter in recent years and can do many different language-related jobs.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT was probably the first mainstream application that utilized the GPT technology. It was first introduced by OpenAI in June 2020, and since then it has gone through several iterations and improvements to enhance its capabilities and make it more useful for various applications. It’s important to note that the knowledge is based on information available up to September 2021, and there may have been further developments or versions of ChatGPT since then.
In simple terms, ChatGPT is like a smart computer program that talks with you in plain language. It can answer questions, have conversations, and help with all sorts of things by understanding what you say and giving responses. It’s designed to be easy to chat with, like talking to a helpful friend on your phone or computer.
There are currently two versions of ChatGPT: a free version utilizing the GPT-3.5 LLM, and a paid version using GPT-4. The GPT-4 version is touted as more reliable, creative, and collaborative, and capable of handling nuanced instructions with greater precision than Chat GPT-3.5.
How is Einstein GPT Different?
Announced at TrailblazerDX 2023, Einstein GPT will deliver auto-generated AI content, right within the Salesforce platform. There are many use cases for Einstein GPT, including Slack, sales, service, marketing, commerce, and app builders. This is the world’s most powerful, intelligent, generative CRM – making every employee more productive and every customer experience better.
Einstein GPT combines public and private AI models with CRM data so that users can ask natural-language prompts (i.e. conversational questions) directly within Salesforce CRM. The result is AI-generated content delivered that continuously adapts to changing customer information and needs – hugely time-saving for users.
What do we mean by public and private AI models? Einstein GPT infuses:
- Salesforce’s private AI models: In other words, those developed by Salesforce, which is leveraged by customers using features from the Einstein technology layer.
- Combining OpenAI’s ChatGPT: Thanks to the Salesforce and OpenAI partnership, providing out-of-the-box generative AI capabilities to companies through direct access to OpenAI’s enterprise-grade ChatGPT technology.
- Bring your own model: As Einstein GPT is open and extensible, you can opt to use it alongside your own external model/s.
To understand this more clearly, let’s take the following example: a salesperson at a software company wants to generate a personalized email to a potential customer. The salesperson could use Einstein GPT to generate an email that is tailored to the specific needs of the customer, such as their interests and their company’s needs. Einstein GPT would use the public AI models to generate a general email template, and then it would use the private AI models to personalize the email with information about the customer and their company.
Einstein GPT Trust Layer
Trust is a very big concern in the generative AI space. How can you really trust the outcome you are getting is factually accurate, or doesn’t have any biases? How can you trust sensitive data isn’t being taken by these LLMs?
With trust being Salesforce’s number 1 value, they have created the Einstein GPT Trust Layer, which is a new industry standard for trusted enterprise AI. With this, organizations can benefit from generative AI while also being reassured about data privacy and security, ensuring LLMs do not retain sensitive customer data.
This separation of sensitive data from the LLM will help customers maintain data governance controls while still leveraging the immense potential of generative AI. This is something that Salesforce customers are more willing to pilot when they become aware of the ‘safety net’ that Salesforce has incorporated (as opposed to remaining hesitant if it were an open API call out to other providers).
Summary
The key difference between Salesforce Einstein GPT and other generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard is undoubtedly trust. With 59% of IT leaders thinking generative AI outputs are inaccurate, Einstein GPT is perfectly poised to fill the void that other generative AI tools are unable to fill. Tools like ChatGPT and Bard simply don’t have the trust factor that Salesforce does, and with 67% of IT leaders prioritizing generative AI for their businesses in the next 18 months, now is the perfect time for Einstein GPT to launch.
The fact that Einstein GPT also combines public and private AI models makes it all the more appealing. Currently, professionals are needing to choose between the various generative AI tools on the market. With Einstein GPT, there’s no need for this and you simply choose whichever LLMs you wish to use. All this makes Einstein GPT the perfect generative AI tool!