When Sharma talks to prospects, he helps them assess knowledge readiness by sharing this guidelines of questions:
1. Is your knowledge unified and harmonized?
Put merely, is there one place the place your agent can discover all of your knowledge? Or is the info siloed and scattered throughout the corporate? “In case your knowledge is fragmented, the agent will ship fragmented and inconsistent experiences,” Sharma stated.
Your first order of enterprise is to unify your knowledge. Knowledge Cloud, the Salesforce platform that offers brokers instantaneous entry to all the info throughout your group, may help. Knowledge Cloud unifies knowledge — whether or not it’s saved in Gross sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Advertising Cloud, Commerce Cloud, or exterior programs like knowledge warehouses and knowledge lakes — right into a single, coherent profile.
However your knowledge additionally must be “harmonized.” In different phrases, it must be in a standardized format. The USA, for instance, may be known as “USA” in a single place, however because the “U.S.” or “United States” in others. If you standardize codecs throughout all of your knowledge, it turns into simpler to your agent to know and use.
2. Have you ever resolved identities and is the knowledge updated?
Even after all of your knowledge is unified, you should still have a number of entries for every particular person buyer. Maria Gonzalez, for instance, might have a number of completely different profiles: one with the identify of M. Gonzalez, one other underneath her full identify, and a 3rd during which she’s recognized by her e mail deal with solely.
If you would like knowledge to be prepared for an agent, these duplicate information should be merged to create a single profile for every buyer. Salesforce has a device known as Identification Decision that may carry out this job.
You additionally need to be certain that every little thing’s updated. Is Maria Gonzalez’s e mail right? Have you learnt which merchandise she’s utilizing now? Your knowledge group could have to verify this manually. However clear, up to date knowledge helps your agent carry out properly. Previous, incorrect knowledge can result in irritating experiences for patrons and unreliable outcomes like hallucinations.
3. Do you will have clear knowledge governance insurance policies in place and is your knowledge safe?
Buyer belief is vital to deploying an AI agent efficiently. And to create belief, your agent wants clear guidelines. You ought to be in compliance with native rules, such because the CCPA (California’s knowledge safety regulation) or the GDPR (the European Union’s rules). You additionally want a knowledge governance framework, or a transparent coverage for knowledge high quality, safety, and entry.
An necessary a part of this framework is ensuring your knowledge is safe. That’s one of many benefits of Knowledge Cloud, which is secured by Salesforce’s Einstein Belief Layer; it robotically masks delicate knowledge and blocks info from being saved by exterior LLMs.
You additionally need your agent to solely have entry to the info it must do its job. An agent that’s scheduling appointments in a medical setting, for instance, shouldn’t have entry to personal or delicate details about a affected person’s well being.
4. Are you able to activate your knowledge in actual time?
That is in all probability probably the most action-based of all Sharma’s questions. In easiest phrases, it means, is your knowledge prepared for quick use in workflows? Can you utilize it to energy real-time motion?
The one technique to reply is to experiment. After you’ve arrange your agent, feed it some knowledge and see if it could possibly take the motion you need. For instance, in case you have a customer support agent, see if it could possibly entry your knowledge about returns and problem a transport label.
You might also need your agent to proactively make suggestions to prospects. Sharma pointed to some massive, profitable firms that do that properly. “After I order a matcha latte at Starbucks on my telephone, I instantly get a message, ‘Have you ever tried the matcha cookie as properly?’’’ he stated. “Or while you order footwear on Amazon, they often comply with up with a ‘You forgot socks, dude.’” If you would like your agent to do the identical, load it with the info it wants and see if it prompts prospects with suggestions.
5. Have you ever established a suggestions loop?
As a lot as you may need to “set and overlook” your agent, properly… you possibly can’t. Brokers want people within the loop to verify they’re doing their job. Ask your self: What programs do you will have in place to check your agent? How will you monitor your agent’s efficiency and make modifications if needed?
Salesforce’s Agentforce Command Heart may help with this. It’s a first-of-its form observability device designed to guage AI agent exercise and assist you determine the place it’s worthwhile to make enhancements. However irrespective of which device you utilize, you want some sort of system in place to verify in case your agent has the info it wants and is accessing it accurately.
Salesforce’s AI Readiness Evaluation device may also offer you a good suggestion of whether or not you’re prepared for an agent.
Obtain our Important Knowledge Sources worksheet
For every knowledge supply your brokers will want, rating its readiness from 1 (wants vital enchancment) to three (properly established). Establish an motion to organize this knowledge for implementing AI brokers, and assign an accountability proprietor.
