Salesforce aims to blaze new generative AI trail for developers with Einstein 1 Studio

Salesforce is continuing its generative AI push with the availability today of the company’s Einstein 1 Studio, timed to coincide with the company’s TrailblazerDX developer conference.

Einstein 1 Studio provides a set of tools that can enable developers to customize the Salesforce Einstein Copilot gen AI assistant, which became available as a beta release last week. The Einstein 1 Studio was first announced by the company in 2023 but has not been widely available to Salesforce developers until today.

While Einstein Copilot is a user-facing tool, Einstein 1 Studio is all about the tools for building customized user experiences. Einstein 1 Studio comprises three core tools: Copilot Builder, Prompt Builder and Model Builder. Copilot Builder allows users to create custom AI actions to accomplish specific business tasks, while Prompt Builder enables the creation and activation of custom prompts in the flow of work. Model Builder provides developers with the flexibility to build or import various AI models to meet specific needs.

“We want developers to have the tools to build with AI, and to be ready for this AI-first future with no code, low code or pro code, ” Alice Steinglass, EVP and GM of the Salesforce platform said during a TrailblazerDX briefing with press.

The enterprise pressure for gen AI is building

At the TrailblazerDX event, Salesforce is also releasing new research on the AI-IT disconnect.

According to the research, 87% of IT professionals believe that gen AI has met or exceeded its hype. The hype is translating into pressure on developers from management to rapidly implement AI. The pressure, however, isn’t all handled particularly well at present, with 88% of IT professionals surveyed reporting that they cannot support all AI-related requests.

Steinglass noted that AI isn’t just changing how developers build applications, it’s also changing what they build. 

“Today without AI I need to hard code every possible action in my code, every button and every workflow,” Steinglass said. “AI is unlocking new possibilities for developers, It will let us have a conversation with the customer at runtime and take action and it will let us create dynamic hyper personalized experiences.”

Customization is at the foundation of Einstein 1 Studio

The default Einstein Copilot can now be customized by organizations thanks to the Copilot Builder in Einstein 1 Studio.

“With Copilot Builder, companies can create their own custom AI driven actions,” Steinglass said. “They can configure and customize Einstein copilot for their own businesses.”

The actions created in Copilot Builder are powered by Salesforce developer tools and capabilities, such as Apex, Flow, Heroku and MuleSoft APIs which are already familiar tools for Salesforce developers. The integration with Salesforce’s developer tools enables teams to use their existing skills to customize and extend Einstein Copilot to take action across Salesforce and external systems.

A critical element of any copilot tool is the prompt, which is where the Einstein 1 Studio Prompt Builder tool fits in. Prompt Builder is a low-code tool that simplifies the process of building and refining AI prompts. 

“There’s a prompt at the heart of every call to an LLM [large language model], it sends the data and it also sends the instructions to the model,” Steinglass explained. “Prompt builder allows our customers to play with these prompts to test and to edit them and also to connect them directly to the trusted CRM and data cloud data in their own organization.”

She added that Prompt Builder also enables developers to embed AI in any Salesforce workflow. With Prompt Builder, organizations can create prompts to fill out text fields, guide workflows, summarize meetings, and integrate generative AI where needed.

Choose your own LLM adventure

Another core component of the Einstein 1 Studio is the Model Builder.

“Unlike other solutions that might lock a business into a single LLM, our model is open,” Steinglass said. “Einstein 1 Studio’s model builder provides the flexibility to connect to a variety of different AI models.” 

While customers don’t need to bring their own model, some may want to fine-tune models to tailor them to their unique employee or customer needs. Model Builder supports a range of AI platforms, including Anthropic, Cohere, Databricks, Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, and OpenAI.

“I think this is going to open up AI development to a whole new set of trailblazers,” she said.