Company: Salesforce
Title: Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce AI
Industry: Technology
Hometown:Â San Francisco, California
Notable in 2023: Led Salesforce's efforts to deliver safe and ethical artificial intelligence solutions in generative AI's breakthrough year.
Clara Shih has a mission to make work a little easier with the aid of artificial intelligence.
Under Shih's guidance as Salesforce AI CEO, the company has been able to harness the power of AI across its tools for clients and products.
AI has the potential not only to disrupt industries but to become a powerhouse force in doing business efficiently. Generative AI could increase global GDP by almost $7 trillion in the next decade, according to Goldman Sachs.
"What we can do is use automation to offload those mundane tasks, so that the agents can really focus on higher-order, more fulfilling problem solving ... kind of like how Google Maps helps us optimize our routes, we have Einstein help optimize service professionals during their work,"Â Shih said at the 2022 CNBC Work Summit.
Shih, who was named to the AI CEO role in May 2023, has helped expand Salesforce's Einstein AI platform using the company's massive data stack. It recently added generative AI capabilities to Slack, which will make it easier to search and summarize content. She's also put a special focus on ethical and safe AI, relying on Salesforce's data security practices it has used when developing its cloud systems.
Great leaders don’t rule from an ivory tower. They don’t guess at the issues, or learn about employee challenges and customer pain points through second- and third-hand sources. Quite the opposite, great leaders must literally lead. They are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get in the trenches when necessary.Clara ShihChief Executive Officer, Salesforce AI
The company has also used the technology to aid with customer service chatbots and agents, including for Gucci. Last year, Salesforce completed a test where human customer agents assisted by its generative AI were trained to become salespeople. The platform gave workers real-time knowledge to respond to changing situations.
"These service reps actually become revenue producers," Shih said to VentureBeat. "Instead of having to go through months of training to learn about every single product and how it was designed and the materials, they get AI coaching so they're able to become these brand storytellers."
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