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Salesforce launches Einstein Analytics, Discovery, aims to bring AI to business users

Salesforce Einstein Analytics and Discovery are designed to bolster AI, predictive models, and storytelling for the business user.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Salesforce launched Einstein Analytics, a suite of tools that embeds predictive tools for its sales, service, and marketing clouds, as well as Einstein Discovery, which provides actionable data and "stories" from the recently acquired Beyondcore.

Arijit Sengupta, head of Einstein Discovery, said the tools are designed to bring artificial intelligence to business executives while providing the underlying data models to data scientists if needed.

Einstein Discovery in many ways is the latest iteration of what Sengupta's BeyondCore initially set out to do. At the time, Sengupta noted that business executives could become too comfortable with magic formulas and boxes pitched by vendors. Salesforce acquired BeyondCore nearly year ago.

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"We have more customer data than every before and we need AI to turn data into something actionable for the business user," said Sengupta. "The business user wants to understand why something happened and an explanation with storytelling."

Part of that storytelling is ready-made charts, predictions, and recommendations that can be exported into a PowerPoint presentation. Einstein Discovery allows business executives to create their own models based on only the variables changing enough to make a difference. "Einstein Discovery is the next step in how to take AI and data science and bring it to the business user," said Sengupta.

Among the key points:

  • Einstein Analytics will be a portfolio of contextual self-service apps throughout the Salesforce platform.
  • Salesforce will enable customers to build and customize their own analytics apps on the platform with an app designer, visual data prep, and external data connectors.
  • Einstein Discovery will have guided recommendations.
  • Trailhead, Salesforce's learning platform, will feature 12 online learning modules for Einstein analytics. ZDNet Academy training: Complete Data Science Certification Training Bundle | The Complete Machine Learning Bundle | The Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence Introductory Bundle
  • Sales Analytics and Service Analytics are generally available starting at $75 per user per month. B2B Marketing Analytics are available at $300 per month for up to five users.
  • Einstein Discovery will be generally available at $75 per user per month.
  • Custom Einstein Analytics Apps are available at $150 per user per month.
  • Einstein Analytics applications will be rolled out in the months to cover Salesforce's clouds as well as specific industries. Einstein Analytics applications will be add-ons to Salesforce's core clouds.

Here are a few screen shots of Einstein Discovery and its graphics and narrative tools:

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