SAN FRANCISCO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce
[NYSE: CRM], the global leader in CRM, today announced new research
from IDC detailing the economic impact of artificial intelligence
(AI) on CRM. AI-powered CRM activities will drive new efficiencies
in how companies sell, service, and market, ultimately expected to
create more than $1.1 trillion in new
GDP impact worldwide and 800,000 net-new jobs by
2021—surpassing those lost to automation.
AI has impacted nearly every aspect of our consumer lives,
redefining how we engage with technology and each other. With the
convergence of increased computing power, big data and
breakthroughs in machine learning, AI is also poised to transform
how people work. While some researchers predict automation driven
by AI could impact 49 percent of job activities and eliminate
around 5 percent of jobs,1 new data from IDC suggests AI
could also augment and increase the productivity of employees,
specifically in CRM-related fields. From predictive sales lead
scoring to service chatbots to personalized marketing campaigns, AI
could provide every employee with tools to be more productive and
provide smarter, more personalized customer experiences.
According to the new IDC White Paper, commissioned by
Salesforce,2 2018 will be a landmark year for AI
adoption. More than 40 percent of companies said they will adopt AI
within the next two years. In fact, by 2018, IDC forecasts that 75
percent of enterprise and ISV development will include AI or
machine-learning functionality in at least one application.
AI-powered CRM activities will cover a large spectrum of use cases
and touch almost all facets of an enterprise, including
accelerating sales cycles, improving lead generation and
qualification, personalizing marketing campaigns and lowering costs
of support calls.
"AI is impacting all sectors of the economy and every business.
For the CRM market—the fastest-growing category in
enterprise software—the impact of AI will be profound,
ushering in new levels of productivity for employees and empowering
companies to drive even better experiences for their customers,"
said Keith Block, vice chairman,
president and COO, Salesforce. "For companies embracing AI, it's
critical that they create new workforce development programs to
ensure employees are prepared for this next wave of
innovation."
Beyond the Hype: Companies Turn to AI to Work
Smarter
Key findings from the IDC White Paper on the
economic impact of AI on CRM include:
- AI associated with CRM could boost global business revenues by
$1.1 trillion from the beginning of
2017 to the end of 2021.
- This global business revenue boost is predicted to be led
primarily by increased productivity ($121
billion) and lowered expenses due to automation
($265 billion).
- The types of AI companies are planning to use, or exploring,
range from machine learning (25%) and voice/speech recognition
(30%), to text analysis (27%) and advanced numerical analysis
(31%).
- New jobs associated with the boost in global business revenues
could reach more than 800,000 by 2021, surpassing those jobs lost
to automation from AI.
- Underpinning the adoption of AI, 46 percent of AI adopters
report that more than 50 percent of their CRM activities are
executed using the public cloud.
- The United States is predicted
to lead the way in new business revenue growth due to the economic
impact of AI ($596 billion), followed
by Japan ($91 billion), Germany ($62
billion), the U.K. ($55
billion) and France
($50 billion).
Salesforce Leads the Way in Delivering AI to CRM
With
Einstein, Salesforce is removing the complexity of AI and
empowering every Salesforce customer and business user with AI
embedded across the company's leading apps for sales, service,
marketing, commerce and more. Salesforce is leading the
democratization of AI for CRM, and its customers are among the
early adopters who are driving this economic impact. In fact,
Salesforce customers are expected to account for $293 billion of the $1.1
trillion GDP impact and more than 150,000 of those direct
jobs by the year 2021.
Salesforce Trailhead Empowers Everyone to Skill-Up on
AI
As with past technology revolutions, the rise of AI will
change the employment landscape as more tasks are automated and new
opportunities are created. AI for CRM will soon become a global
economic engine for new innovation, business models and jobs. With
more than 800,000 net-new jobs expected by 2021 as a result of new
global business revenues, it is imperative that job seekers
skill-up on AI. Trailhead is Salesforce's free, interactive, guided
and gamified learning platform, where anyone can develop skills
that empower them to land a job in the workplace of the future.
With the AI Basics trail, as well as Einstein trails, anyone can
learn the AI and advance their skillsets. Since launching in 2014,
Trailblazers have earned 2.5 million badges, which directly relate
to in-demand job skills.
Additional Resources
- Download a full copy of the IDC White Paper, Economic Impact of
AI on CRM study at: https://sfdc.co/AI_IDCReport
- Learn more about Salesforce Einstein AI at einstein.com
- Like Salesforce on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/salesforce
- Salesforce Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/
- Follow @salesforce on Twitter.
IDC Methodology
Findings from the report are based on
IDC's Economic Impact Model (EIM), which has been maintained since
2002 and takes inputs from IDC's market research on IT spending,
exchange rates, and vendor market share, along with public inputs
such as GDP, tax rates, and overall labor force from other sources.
The output of the EIM is IT company and employee counts by
geographic region. In 2009, IDC added inputs for spending on cloud
computing, percentage of IT resources available for innovation (the
rest used on legacy system support and upgrades), and business
revenue as a multiplier of GDP per country.
To develop an estimate of the economic impact AI will have on
CRM activities, IDC analyzed business revenues from 2016 forecasted
to 2021, third-party GDP, gross outputs and employment estimates
from enterprises in 54 countries. IDC also surveyed more than one
thousand enterprises from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United
Kingdom and United States
on how much AI could improve CRM activities in the first year of AI
implementation, the timeline for adoption and what this improvement
could mean in terms of efficiencies for a company in cost savings
and new potential revenues.
For more information on the methodology of the study, please
download the full study at: https://sfdc.co/AI_IDCReport
About Salesforce
Salesforce, the Customer Success
Platform and world's #1 CRM, empowers companies to connect with
their customers in a whole new way. For more information about
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other
press releases or public statements are not currently available and
may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase
Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based
upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has
headquarters in San Francisco,
with offices in Europe and
Asia, and trades on the New York
Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information
please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call
1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.
1 Source: McKinsey, "A Future That Works: Automation,
Employment and Productivity," January
2017
2 Source: IDC White Paper, "A Trillion-Dollar Boost:
The Economic Impact of AI on Customer Relationship Management,"
commissioned by Salesforce, May
2017
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SOURCE Salesforce