Dreamforce 2023

The past year has been a rollercoaster, but I'm back with regular content!

First up - the number 1 topic at the moment - post Dreamforce takeaways and AI thoughts. As regular readers of "Adventures in Salesforcing" well know, I never focus on the most technical of content, but I feel as though there are a lot of non-technical takeaways that come into play with AI that aren't getting enough love. So without further a do, here are my key takeaways!

Like it or not, Generative AI is here to stay

While yes, we go through waves of being excited about new features in this digital age, generative AI is not going anywhere. I'm not saying you need to start plugging everything into Chat GPT, in fact, I suggest that you don't do that, but that you start thinking about use cases for you and other members of your team, even if you are not ready to start acting on them. 

But what if I don't want to?

Even if you're not acutely aware of it, you are likely using some form of AI/algorithm every day, you are just on the receiving end. And while legislation is working on catching up to technology, as is usually the case, you should be starting to have conversations around it as your competitors will be doing the same, and you don't want to be left behind.

OK, so what can I do now?

My number 1 takeaway from Dreamforce - Now is the time to be having internal conversations about Company AI policies in the same way that conversations around Social Media policies took place a decade ago. The dos and don'ts, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Talk about employee expectations, and client facing expectations as well.

Final Thoughts

As a passionate arts advocate, I am very anti-AI stealing of work, be it written, musical, artwork etc, which is why I'm advocating for implementing strong Ethical AI guidelines for employees to work from. It is absolutely ok to use Generative AI to help you beef up your original ideas, but just remember that you should't use it to completely replace your processes and to always check for toxicity. The human factor is crucial here - you don't want to end up like this guy.

A lot of my key takeaways are from a the session "Understanding AI for Admins", which really resonated with me. This session was from Josh Birk, Senior Director, Admin Evangelist at Salesforce, Godfather of Trailhead and all around top notch human. 

Now Josh was formerly on the Developer team, but recently made the move to the Admin relations to help #AwesomeAdmins with the "increasingly technical content we are facing, like AI".

Josh was kind enough to share some thoughts with me on his session since it really stuck with me!

On how the session came together

"The content itself was very in line with similar talks I have done on IoT, blockchain, etc.  It's really easy to jump into a product assuming people know the underlying tech, but with a lot of these fast moving trends its better to start there and put it in a relatable way."

 

On how to get started

"Try one of the free tiers - it doesn't have to be work related.  Dad jokes are a fun way to start and image generation can also be illuminating just due to the ease of getting impressive results.  Try making a self portrait, it's a fun starter exercise."

 

Key Takeaways 

"This stuff is new and moving fast, but you don't have to become an expert overnight.  Get acquainted and familiar with the tools and think about what kind of useful relationship you can have with them.  You don't have to be a data scientist to make this work."

Thank you to Josh for sharing his thoughts, and keep an eye out for more content soon!

I've also decided to share my collection of Salesforce tshirts with my posts, as I bring my authentic self to my blog and share my love of fashion!