Dive Brief:
- Salesforce unveiled AI for All Wednesday, a plan to offer free AI training opportunities, the provider said Wednesday. The company will waive all fees on instructor-led AI courses and credential programs on its Trailhead training platform through the end of 2025.
- The software company also unveiled plans to open a physical training hub at its San Francisco headquarters centered around AI skills. The hub will include a dedicated floor for employee upskilling focused on AI tools and agents.
- The AI training efforts represent "a $50 million investment in our communities," said President and COO Brian Millham in a press conference earlier this week.
Dive Insight:
Salesforce's AI training push comes as the software provider launched Agentforce, a generative AI platform designed to autonomously handle day-to-day tasks in customer service, sales and marketing among other areas.
"This is the third wave of AI: it's agents," said Marc Benioff, CEO and chairman at Salesforce Tuesday, speaking during a keynote presentation within the company's yearly conference, Dreamforce. The Agentforce platform, generally available in October, is already automating processes for customers like Wiley, Saks Fifth Avenue and Disney, Benioff said
Vendors in the software space are locked in fierce competition over dominance in generative AI tools and services. Microsoft has expanded its Copilot offering to address tasks in various systems and functions, including ERP and finance. SAP is also embedding automated assistant Joule across its suite of solutions.
Salesforce-owned Slack unveiled an Agentforce interface earlier this week, which allows users to automate appointment creation or obtain automatic Huddle summaries.
But before most enterprises can deploy generative AI at scale, they must address ongoing talent shortages. One-third of C-suite executives flagged AI skills as a difficult category to hire for, a Skillsoft report found.
"These are incredible innovations that are underway for our customers, but we also know it's a huge transformation for our workers as well, and we need to ensure that we're bringing all workers along with us," said Millham.
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, the company introduced global quarterly learning days to give its workforce of 72,000 time to build up their AI expertise.
