As more companies look to incorporate AI-powered tools into their workflows, technology platforms are meeting the moment in many ways. One prominent and visible way generative AI has shown up at work is via user-friendly copilot experiences.
AI-powered copilots use large language models (LLMs) to help users interact with large sets of information within a platform or even an entire tech stack, using conversational language to address questions without needing to tap into a human expert.
“Many of them are nothing more than a search experience packaged differently,” said UKG Chief Product and Technology Officer Hugo Sarrazin. UKG launched its copilot, UKG Bryte, last November.
Copilot and AI assistant tools offered by tech companies directly in their platforms leverage generative AI for an enhanced chatbot experience. The models are able to understand queries through LLMs, so you don’t need to ask the chatbot a question in a precise way to find the information you’re seeking.
“[Generative AI] is not bounded by you writing a specific query and [using] keywords…It has the ability statistically to infer a range of ways and put sentences together that, on average, is reasonable,” Sarrazin said. “Most technology that has been built for [the] consumer, and certainly in the enterprise space, [involve] a set of curated workflows and templates [that a developer decided] is the way you should do this, and here are the menus, and I’m going to force everybody through these menu, and I hope they all think like I think.”
But copilots are different. You can pop in with a quick question, using natural language, and the bot can scour vast amounts of data and point you in the right direction, cutting down on time to get the information from the appropriate colleague. Imagine if employees could interact with an HR chatbot with the power to quickly respond to their question about the open enrollment deadline, the per diem amount for meals when they’re at a conference, or the company holiday schedule.
Well, employees at Salesforce can.
Looks like we’ve got ourselves an Einstein. Copilot experiences can help augment the day to day. Salesforce’s Einstein copilot, for example, is one of many AI-powered copilot experiences on the market since generative AI began to rapidly transform the way we work.
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“As you can imagine, as a high tech company, a lot of our employees want to get their hands on AI tools and deployments,” said Salesforce CPO Nathalie Scardino. “I would say the last several months has been figuring out ways to streamline how we deploy AI at scale into the flow of work for employees.”
Scardino said she has worked with the company’s CIO, Juan Perez, on those AI deployments to tailor them for “customer zero,” Salesforce employees.
Salesforce—which acquired Slack in 2020—launched its AI-powered Slack app, Einstein, in February. Within Salesforce, it helps employees with day-to-day tasks like scheduling meetings, summarizing documents, and fielding general inquiries, boosting their productivity, according to the company.
Slack research in February found that desk workers 41% of their time on tasks that are “low value, repetitive, or lack meaningful contribution to their core job functions.” The Einstein tool helps Salesforce employees chip away at those sort of redundant tasks and focus more on higher-level work.
“It’s in the flow of work…there is so much data, so much information in the workspace right now, how do you consolidate it without being overwhelmed?” Scardino said. “Our employees were very clear with us that they wanted AI to help absolve them of some of the more mundane tasks.”
The Salesforce people team has also leveraged Einstein to improve the employee experience when it comes to HR-related queries. Through an integration withBasecamp, the company’s one-stop shop for employee information, employees can ask Einstein in a single location to get HR support—from knowledge and learning, to benefits, to onboarding—information and training, geared specifically for them.
Einstein-powered Basecamp has responded to more than 88,000 queries and shrank the average resolution time from two days to 30 minutes, according to Scardino.
“The biggest shift here is you’re bringing all of these disparate systems [together]...and democratizing access to information,” she said. “You don’t have to go to six or seven disparate systems to find your healthcare benefits.”
So, in this new generative AI workplace, Einstein’s new theory might be that it’s now relatively easy to access the information you need, when you need it, with the help of AI copilots.