Episodes

  • Boost Your AI Strategy with Salesforce Labs AI Library

    Boost Your AI Strategy with Salesforce Labs AI Library
    Feb 13 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Marianna Torres, Associate Salesforce Labs Evangelist at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about the Salesforce Labs AI Library and how it can get you started with implementing AI agents in your org. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Marianna Torres. What is Salesforce Labs? Growing up, Marianna was always interested in more creative pursuits and had never considered a career in tech. That all changed during the COVID-19 lockdown when she enrolled in a workforce development program called Year Up United and landed an internship with Salesforce. Today, Marianna works on the Salesforce Labs team, curating the Salesforce employee-built apps, components, and flows that are available for free on AppExchange. Now with the release of Agentforce, the team has put together the Salesforce Labs AI Library as a resource to help you get started with AI. How the Salesforce Labs AI Library helps you get started with Agentforce If you’ve been keeping up with the pod, you know that prompt engineering can be tricky business. But what if you could copy all the best, most useful prompts from Salesforce product experts? That’s what the Salesforce Labs AI Library is all about. It gives you everything you need to get AI agents up and running. When she’s going through submissions, Marianna asks three simple questions: Will this help the customer? Does this simplify something that historically takes a lot of time? Is it easy to use? If the answer is yes, it gets included in the library, ready to help you implement Agentforce AI in your org. More resources for Salesforce Labs If you don’t know where to start, Marianna recommends going through the Salesforce Labs Basics on Trailhead. You can also listen to the full episode, where she walks Josh through the process of looking something up in the Salesforce Labs AI Library. That’s it for this episode, so be sure to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast and we’ll catch you next week. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more The Salesforce Labs AI Library Trailhead: Salesforce Labs Basics AppExchange: Salesforce Labs Year Up United Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Marianna on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Josh Birk: Hey, gang, Josh Birk, your guest host here for today. Today we're going to talk to Marianna Torres about a project that I am very, very excited about. It's live now, it's called the Salesforce Labs AI Library. I'm really not sure if I'm getting that name right, but I will ask Mariana here in a second. All right. Today on the show, we welcome Marianna Torres to talk about the Salesforce AI Labs library. Do I have that title right or is there are more official one? Marianna Torres: The Salesforce Labs AI Library is the official title. But yeah, you did a good job. Yeah. Josh Birk: Okay. Welcome to the show. First, I want to talk a little bit about your early years. Was computers and software engineering, software in general something you always wanted to get into? Marianna Torres: Honestly, no. I'm actually surprised about how I ended up here at Salesforce. But yeah, so growing up and stuff, I was always more of a creative person, so I was drawing, singing, doing all that. Basically anything that's creative, I was doing. So as I got older, it kind of got to the point where it's like you kind of realize that, okay, it's like I can go to school, I could pursue this, I could potentially do something. But at the same time, I had graduated and it was shortly before COVID. Josh Birk: Oh. Marianna Torres: Yeah, so instead of going the traditional route, I had just joined a workforce development program. The program was called Year Up. Yeah, so through that I did the six-month corporate training. They had transitioned it to virtual and everything. So yeah, I actually started my internship here at Salesforce in 2020, so peak COVID. And from there one thing led to another, I was a contractor for a couple years, and then I got full time. Josh Birk: Nice, nice. What was the connection to get into the AI labs job itself? Other than the fact that we get paid a nickel every time we say the word AI. Marianna Torres: Yeah. So yeah, the team that I'm with now, it's the exact same team that I had joined five years ago as an intern, and that is the Salesforce Labs team. So primarily, our job is to provide our customers with some free employee-built apps, components, and flows on AppExchange. Then this past whole year, AI became huge, and then we had to pivot and we're like, "Okay, the customers want AI, what can we give them?" Seeing as how AI wasn't packageable yet, so- Josh Birk: Right. Marianna Torres: Yeah, we actually just launched Actions, I believe. So Agent Actions are now...
    Show more Show less
    19 mins
  • Spring '25 Salesforce Features: AI, Flows, and User Management Updates

    Spring '25 Salesforce Features: AI, Flows, and User Management Updates
    Feb 6 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Lee, Lead Admin Evangelist at Salesforce and the host of How I Solved It and Automate This! Join us as we chat about everything coming with the Spring ‘25 release and what’s new for Agentforce and AI on Salesforce. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Lee. Jen’s highlights from the Spring ‘25 release Every year, Jen’s release readiness blog post is our most popular piece of content. So I thought I’d bring her on the pod to talk about Spring ‘25 so we can hear it straight from the source. She shares [number] areas where there will be big changes: 1. Agentforce for all with Salesforce Foundations With Spring ‘25, more orgs than ever before will get access to Agentforce for free with Salesforce Foundations. This is a game changer for smaller orgs and solo admins, allowing you to use AI to harness the power of the Sales, Service, and Marketing Clouds to transform your business. One thing Jen wants to highlight is the ability to add agent quick actions right on a record page. Prompting is an art, but sometimes your users just need the AI to do the thing. Now you can give them a magic button to give the agent the correct prompt. If you have Einstein Bots, you can easily convert them into templates for agents to save some steps getting started with Agentforce. 2. Einstein AI for flows For the flownatics out there, there are a ton of new ways that AI enhancements in Spring ‘25 can help you build flows. You can describe what you want a formula or flow to do, and Einstein will build it for you. While you’ll need to go in and iron out the details, it can get you 80% of the way there. No more googling to look up how to write a specific formula. If you’re like most admins, your Salesforce org is probably full of flows that you didn’t build yourself. With Spring ‘25, you’ll be able to get Einstein to summarize what they do, which makes documentation and debugging much easier. 3. User management made easy Meanwhile, there are several user management changes coming in Spring ‘25 aimed at minimizing clicks and making permissions easier to manage. The group summary page lets you view all the sharing rules and list views in one place, so it’s much simpler to figure out why someone can see something but someone else can’t. 4. Better screen flows in Spring ‘25 Action buttons let you automatically trigger a flow when your user clicks a button, but what if you could pull up the output without any other user interaction? That’s where screen flows come in. For example, when your user selects a contact you can automatically pull up the associated cases or opportunities. How to get ready for a Salesforce release Jen’s advice for going through release notes is to start with your org. What features do you rely on? Search through the release notes for those things, specifically, and make sure you know what’s new and what’s changing. Two things that will affect every org are security updates and release updates. These security and performance enhancements will improve your org across the board, so be sure you know when they’ll be enforced and how to test them. Remember, a sandbox org is your best friend. There’s a lot more great stuff from Jen to get ready for Spring ‘25, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Blog: Jen’s Top Spring ’25 Release Features | Be Release Ready Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Can Small Teams Benefit from Salesforce Foundations and Generative AI? Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jen on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admin's podcast, we're thrilled to welcome back Jennifer Lee to talk about the Spring '25 release and all of its exciting features. Now, as you know, Jennifer is lead admin evangelist here on the admin relations team at Salesforce and host of the How I Solved It and Automate This video series on YouTube. She's also known for this blog post, which comes out with every release. I know you find it incredibly helpful. I do. Now, before we jump into the conversation with Jennifer, I want to make sure that you are following the Salesforce Admin's podcast on your favorite platform so that you never miss an episode, which could include really cool features like this one. So with that, let's get Jennifer on the podcast. So Jen, welcome back to the podcast. Jennifer Lee: Thanks for having me, Mike. Glad to be back. Mike: Well, it's almost spring. It doesn't feel like it where we're at- Jennifer Lee: No. Mike: ... but isn't that how it always is with all of our releases? ...
    Show more Show less
    26 mins
  • How Erick Mahle is Using AI to Transform Mortgage Lending

    How Erick Mahle is Using AI to Transform Mortgage Lending
    Jan 30 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Erick Mahle, VP of Revenue Operations & Digital Transformation at Lendz Financial. Join us as we chat about how he’s using AI to drive digital transformation and how he started FlowFest, the largest global Salesforce flow competition. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Erick Mahle. Solving business problems with Salesforce Erick was always interested in technology as a kid, helping his dad build computers. However, he originally started his career in marketing. Everything changed when his manager asked him to take over Salesforce for his organization and he saw what he could do with declarative solutions. “I thought it was the grownup version of Legos,” he says. In his role at Lendz Financial, he’s combining those problem-solving skills with the power of AI to spearhead digital transformation. The mortgage lending industry is full of complicated business processes that need to be checked and re-checked, so it’s the perfect place to put new AI capabilities to the test. How AI can streamline mortgage lending If you’ve ever bought a house, you’ll know that getting a mortgage is incredibly complex. With so many steps and regulatory requirements, Erick and his team are using AI to streamline these business processes and limit costly errors. They call it Project Lexi. Obviously, with mortgages involved, they’re not ready to turn everything over to AI just yet. However, they’ve already found several wins by eliminating handoffs with automation and training the AI to flag potential problems. For Erick, the key to any successful digital transformation initiative is to focus on the humans you’re supposed to be helping. FlowFest, the largest global Salesforce flow competition Erick also runs FlowFest, a competition where Flownatics can strut their stuff. It started with the idea that although Trailhead is great at teaching you how to build things, a big part of your job as a Salesforce Admin is to fix broken flows. Contests are put through several rounds of debug challenges, culminating in a livestreamed event where the finalists race to be the first to find a working solution for the final flow. It’s basically an esport, complete with live commentary and dramatic photo finishes. They just did their first in-person FlowFest at Mile High Dreamin’, and it may be coming soon to an event near you. Erick had a lot more to share about how he’s thinking about AI and some of his favorite FlowFest stories, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Video: FlowFest V6 Mile High Dreamin’ on YouTube Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Erick on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full Transcript Josh Birk: Hello, admins, your guest host Josh Birk here. Today, we welcome Erick Mahle to talk a little bit about AI, digital transformation, and a lot about one of his projects, FlowFest, and how people can learn Flow in a really fun and interactive way. So, without any further ado, let's go welcome Erick. All right. Today on the show, we welcome Erick Mahle to talk about, of course, probably a little bit of AI since that's what we have to do these days and Mile High Dreamin' and FlowFast. Erick, welcome to the show. Erick Mahle: Well, thanks for having me, Josh. Josh Birk: So, let's start with your early years. Did you always want to get into software? Erick Mahle: No, I had no idea I was going to get into software. Although, when I was a very young kid, my father used to build computers and I know I used to do a little bit of the same as well like getting all the video cards, the motherboards, getting all the components, joining them together. But that wasn't something that stuck with me throughout all these years. So, I went to school for marketing, but somehow ended up as the accidental admin and here we are 15 years later. Josh Birk: Got it. Well, that kind of segues to the next question. How did you first get introduced to Salesforce? Erick Mahle: Well, since accidental admin is the default answer for most folks... Josh Birk: Right. Erick Mahle: I will basically say, I joined a company as a marketing analyst. It was a small company. And like most small companies, you get to wear many hats and they basically said, "Hey, we have Salesforce, why don't you manage Salesforce?" And really had a great experience there. We had brought in my boss at that time who was a Silicon Valley-type global sales director, and he really challenged me a lot. He used to say, "Hey, at SuccessFactor, Salesforce used to do this, or at Zuora, Salesforce used to do that. And really, challenged me to kind of reverse engineer Salesforce and I found a lot of joy in that....
    Show more Show less
    35 mins
  • 5 Steps for Admins to Get Agentforce Ready

    5 Steps for Admins to Get Agentforce Ready
    Jan 23 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Dorian Earl, Salesforce Admin and Founder of Development Consulting Partners, LLC. Join us as we chat about the 5 steps you can take to prepare for Agentforce and AI. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Dorian Earl. Preparing for big changes with AI Dorian started his career as a medical and dental equipment sales rep. He had over 100,000 products and 300 clients to keep track of, and he was looking for something to replace his paper notebooks. That’s when he came across a new CRM platform called Salesforce and a new career in tech. Today, Dorian runs a consulting firm that helps organizations leverage their tech stack to improve their business processes. The changes that are possible with AI are just as big as switching from paper planners to a CRM, so I wanted to sit down with him to find out how Salesforce Admins can get ready for Agentforce. 1. Awareness Dorian is seeing a lot of enthusiasm and curiosity from his clients about AI, but most organizations are unsure about how best to use it. He compares it to when search engines were first coming out. The idea of being able to search the entire internet with a query was so groundbreaking that it took time for people to understand the business implications, even at Google. 2. Preparedness Since the possibilities of AI applications are so broad, the best thing we can do is to get any data that an AI agent might need into Salesforce. That can be anything from your operating hours to your company values to your brand voice. Essentially, the same sorts of things you’d go over with a new hire. That way you don’t have to start at square one every time you want to build a new agent. 3. Quick wins and usage AI implementation starts with finding quick wins for your organization. Dorian’s found the summarize record action to be particularly useful for just about everyone who works with customers. He also recommends taking advantage of AI’s ability to do quick reporting for users without the admin needing to get involved. 4. Internal process improvement The biggest changes AI will bring are to internal business processes. Essentially, this comes down to saving clicks and smoothing out workflows. Dorian brings up the example of processing a return. An agent can take care of all the little steps, like creating a case, logging information, and authorizing a refund, instead of that being a multi-person business process. 5. External tasks outsourced to AI The final thing to look at is whether or not any external-facing tasks can be outsourced to AI. Something like prospect nurturing can be handled by an agent that summarizes a record, drafts an email based on that summary and your business information, and then sends it. And then a second agent can schedule a phone call with an actual sales rep for anyone who replies. Obviously, you want to be fairly confident in the agent you’ve built before you put it directly in touch with customers. But that’s why you need to get started now. For Dorian, Salesforce Admins are uniquely positioned to transform their businesses with new AI solutions. There’s more great stuff from my conversation with Dorian, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you stay up to date. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: Keeping Processes Fresh in Salesforce with Dorian Earl Trailhead: Einstein Work Summaries for Service Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Dorian on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, I'm thrilled to welcome back Dorian Earl, founder and CEO of a thriving consultancy that has over 450 clients and just a massive wealth of Salesforce experience and knowledge. Dorian has been the Salesforce ecosystem for nearly two decades. He started as a sales rep who needed a better way to track his deals and opportunities and really turn that into a career empowering companies to embrace better CRMs and smarter systems. Now in today's episode, we dive into Dorian's five steps to prepare for Agentforce and AI. Now, from understanding the buzz around AI to implementing quick wins and long-term strategies, Dorian shares invaluable insights to help you, the Salesforce admin, and/or organizations you work for stay ahead of the curve this year in 2025. Now, of course, before we jump in, I want to make sure that you're following or subscribed to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so that you never miss a great episode like this. New episodes drop every Thursday morning. That way you've got them, boom, right on your phone before you head off for your dog walk or your commute to work. So with that...
    Show more Show less
    39 mins
  • Agentforce's Best Friend: Clean, Reliable Data

    Agentforce's Best Friend: Clean, Reliable Data
    Jan 16 2025
    Agentforce's Best Friend: Clean, Reliable Data Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Lizz Hellinga, a Consultant and Salesforce MVP. Join us as we chat about why clean data is essential for leveraging generative AI and how you can get your organization moving. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Lizz Hellinga. Generative AI thrives on clean data Lizz has a clear message: clean data isn’t optional anymore. She stresses, “If your data isn’t ready for generative AI, your business isn’t ready.” As organizations eagerly adopt generative AI tools, Lizz cautions that the insights and outputs from AI are only as reliable as the data feeding into it. Simply put, poor-quality data undermines the potential of these powerful tools. What constitutes “bad data”? Bad data comes in many forms, and Lizz highlights the usual suspects: Duplicates Inaccuracies Incomplete records Outdated information Hoarded data The concept of hoarded data stands out as particularly problematic. Many organizations have accumulated large amounts of data they no longer use but are reluctant to delete. According to Lizz, the solution starts with collaborating with stakeholders to establish a robust data governance policy that defines data quality standards and retention policies. Reporting, she adds, can be a powerful tool to illustrate the value of clean data and spotlight areas of improvement. Steps to prepare data for AI Lizz has four steps you can take to start your journey toward clean data: Document your processes: Map out key workflows to find the key points where data enters the system. How can you make it easier to get high-quality data at these moments? Engage your stakeholders: Explain why clean data is vital for AI initiatives. Use examples to illustrate how high-quality data enables AI to deliver actionable insights that can make their work easier and more efficient. Prioritize key areas: Focus on cleaning data critical to processes where AI will have the most impact, such as sales or customer engagement. Start with essential objects and gradually expand to other areas. Leverage your tools: Use reports, dashboards, and tools like Salesforce’s “Clean Your Room! Dashboard” to gamify data-cleaning efforts. Friendly competitions can motivate teams to tackle bad data without feeling overwhelmed. Proactive data management strategies Preventing bad data is just as important as cleaning up existing records. Lizz suggests: Using paths and dynamic forms to streamline data entry. Highlighting key fields on page layouts to emphasize their importance. Integrating email tools like Einstein Activity Capture to ensure accurate, up-to-date information. Customizing user interfaces to make data entry intuitive and error-free. Why data quality matters Clean data isn’t just about fixing reports; it’s about future-proofing your business. “Data is an asset,” Lizz explains. For organizations looking to adopt AI, ensuring that data is accurate, current, and relevant is a crucial first step. Without it, even the most advanced AI tools won’t deliver meaningful results. Get started today Lizz advises admins to start small but think strategically. Build baseline reports to identify problem areas, engage stakeholders to define what good data looks like, and focus on key processes that need improvement. With these steps, you’ll not only prepare your organization for AI but also elevate your role as a Salesforce Admin by demonstrating leadership in data governance. We get into a lot of specifics with Lizz on the podcast, so be sure to take a listen to learn more. And make sure to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Resources Podcast: Sarah Flamion on Generative AI McKinsey Article: The data dividend: Fueling generative AI Clean Your Room! Dashboard Social Lizz on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we are talking with Lizz Hellinga about why clean data is so important for AI. Lizz is a consultant and Salesforce MVP, and before you think, “I can skip this,” it’s probably going to be boring. Let me tell you, this is a fun conversation because you’re going to learn about different types of bad data. One of them is super fun to understand. Also, Lizz shares with us a lot of tips and tools for cleaning up your bad data, and also making things a little bit more easy for your users, so I really enjoy this conversation. But before we get in the episode, can you just be sure that you’re following the Salesforce Admins Podcast on iTunes or just wherever you get your podcast. That way, you get a new episode every Thursday right on your phone. So with that, let’s get to the ...
    Show more Show less
    29 mins
  • What Are the Top AI Use Cases for Modern Marketers with John Wall

    What Are the Top AI Use Cases for Modern Marketers with John Wall
    Jan 9 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to John Wall, co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee Podcast. Join us as we chat about how tools like generative AI are reshaping workflows, strategies, and content creation for marketing. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with John Wall. AI and the future of marketing Most Salesforce Admins need to work hand in hand with marketing to give them the tools they need to do their jobs. As we continue our conversation about Agentforce and the impact agents can have across an organization, I thought it would be great to hear from John Wall about the future of AI and marketing. He co-hosts the great Marketing Over Coffee Podcast, with guests like Simon Sinek, Seth Godin, and Debbie Millman. Most marketers are already using AI for data analysis and insights, with a little help from their admins. However, the game is changing fast with the proliferation of LLMs and the ability to build custom AI agents. How AI will revolutionize marketing personas Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot about how Agentforce can help you manage your documentation or take the load off your customer service reps. So what can admins build for marketers? John brings up the idea of marketing personas. “Right now, that’s four people in a conference room coming up with cute nicknames like Sally Shopper or Wally the Weekend Warrior,” he says. But with AI, you can use its classification and summarization abilities to pore over your customer data and generate personas based on statistics, not spitballing. Where it gets even more interesting is how you can use that information to create customers on demand. John suggests building an AI agent for each marketing persona, which can answer questions as that type of customer to give you insights or plan a new campaign. The human in the loop Just like with any new technology, some businesses will rush to adopt the new shiny tool and mistakes are bound to happen. John emphasizes the importance of “the human in the loop,” which is a key role for Salesforce Admins going forward. AI advancements are probably not going to put you out of a job, but they’ll definitely make your job easier. “The big thing is you have to be curious,” he says, “go play with something and see what you can make it do and what kind of results you can get from it.” There’s so much more great stuff in our conversation with John Wall, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss out. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more John’s Podcast: Marketing Over Coffee Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: 2025 Roadmap for Salesforce Admins: AI, Agentforce, and Emerging Trends Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Agentforce Transforms Customer Interactions at Salesforce Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Agentforce Is Changing the Career Landscape Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social John on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full Transcript Mike Gerholdt: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we're joined by John Wall, co-host of the long-running Marketing Over Coffee podcast. That's right, we're starting 2025 off on the right foot, because John shares with us insights into the ever evolving landscape of AI in marketing, including how tools like generative AI are reshaping workflows, strategies, and even content creation. I bet admins, you know about this. Now, before we jump into the fascinating discussion that we have with John, I want you to be sure to jump over and press that subscribe or follow button, depending on what kind of app you're using. It's probably on your favorite platform. And then that way you don't miss a single episode, because new ones come out every Thursday and I would hate for you to miss something like this discussion that I'm going to have with host of the ever-popular Marketing Over Coffee podcast, John Wall. Let's get John on the podcast. So, John, welcome to the podcast. John Wall: Mike, it's great to be on the mic with you again. Mike Gerholdt: I know, it's been a while. I feel the last time we recorded was in Boston, 100 years ago. John Wall: Yeah, downtown Boston. I remember we were live on Newbury Street. That was like the heart of all the action. Mike Gerholdt: Yep. We were recording the old style podcast. We had an Edison, it was putting it on a phonograph and some wax tubes. John Wall: That's right. Sitting there with my ear trumpet listening. Mike Gerholdt: Ear trumpet, I love it. For those people, like the two people in the world that don't listen to Marketing Over Coffee, can you give us a brief overview of what you do and what Marketing Over Coffee is? John Wall: Yeah, sure. So, my whole career I worked in marketing...
    Show more Show less
    29 mins
  • 2025 Roadmap for Salesforce Admins: AI, Agentforce, and Emerging Trends

    2025 Roadmap for Salesforce Admins: AI, Agentforce, and Emerging Trends
    Jan 2 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Lee, Joshua Birk, and Kate Lessard from the Admin Evangelist team at Salesforce. Join us as we ask our guests three questions about what Agentforce means for admins, content they want to highlight from 2024 to help you get started with AI in Salesforce, and what they’re looking forward to in 2025. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Lee, Joshua Birk, and Kate Lessard. What is your Agentforce content highlight of 2024? If you know anything about Jennifer Lee, it’s that she puts out a lot of great content for admins. Between “Automate This” and “How I Solved It”, she also finds time to write some pretty great blog posts. Her highlight for 2024 is her walkthrough on how you can build modular flows, breaking things down into smaller chunks that make it easier for your organization to take advantage of everything Agentforce has to offer. Kate Lessard is the newest member of our team, and she makes a strong case for why you as a Salesforce Admin might be the best-positioned person in your business to become an AI specialist. She gets into all this and more in her intro to Agentforce blog post. Finally, if you’re a regular listener to the pod, you’ve heard some of what Josh Birk has been up to. He’s been digging into the technical side of AI, including LLMs, RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), and why prompt engineering is easier than it sounds. If you want to learn more about RAG, take a listen to his recent episode with Nochum Klein about how he’s using an AI agent to help with information security documentation at Salesforce. What are you looking forward to in 2025? Moving into 2025, Kate is interested in how emerging AI technologies fit into admins’ core responsibilities. In particular, she anticipates that security and the need for AI governance will become increasingly important. Jen, meanwhile, is expanding her video empire with two new series for 2025. The first is about automation and how to build things with an eye toward what will be possible for your business with Agentforce. She’ll also be doing a series about how she’s learning Agentforce, so you can follow along. And if the idea of RAG is getting you excited, Josh has even more in store for you in 2025. It’s going to be very, very doable to build an AI agent to interface with dense documentation and make everything faster and easier for your users. “It’s the end of 2025, and I can’t believe Salesforce Admins _____!” “It’s the end of 2025, and I can’t believe Salesforce Admins found Agentforce so easy to work with,” according to Josh. He thinks you’ll be surprised how simple it is to build your own AI agents, once you get started. You can download a free version of Agentforce right now and jump in with Trailhead. For Kate, “It’s the end of 2025 and I can’t believe Salesforce Admins are creating dynamic experiences this advanced!” She compares Agentforce to what happened when dynamic forms were released. The possibilities for creating customized, dynamic user experiences are incredible with Agentforce. Finally, for Jen, “It’s the end of 2025 and I can’t believe Salesforce Admins can now do things like troubleshoot user management issues faster than ever before!” Agentforce isn’t just about helping your users—there will also be agents that help you, too. There’s so much more in this conversation with our Admin Evangelists about Agentforce and how to get the most out of Salesforce events, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And make sure to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss out. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Jen’s 2024 blog post: Embrace Modular Flows to Build Smarter Automation for Agentforce Kate’s 2024 blog post: Introduction to Agentforce for Salesforce Admins Kate’s other 2024 blog post: Advance Your Admin Career With Dev Fundamentals Josh’s 2024 Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Agentforce Transforms Customer Interactions at Salesforce Video series: Automate This! Video series: How I Solved It Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jen on LinkedIn Josh on LinkedIn Kate on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we're kicking off 2025 with an amazing lineup of guests. So today I have on the Admin Evangelist Team, Jennifer Lee, Kate Lassard, and Josh Burke. We dive into the year ahead looking at topics such as Agentforce, emerging AI technologies, and best practices for Salesforce admins navigating this transformative time. Now, before we jump in, I want to make sure that you're following the Salesforce Admins Podcast wherever you listen to, that way ...
    Show more Show less
    21 mins
  • How Agentforce Transforms Customer Interactions at Salesforce

    How Agentforce Transforms Customer Interactions at Salesforce
    Dec 19 2024
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Nochum Klein, Director of Information Security at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about how Agentforce can make customer interactions and interacting with your organization’s documentation much, much easier. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Nochum Klein. A rabbi, a mainframe programmer, and a data security expert… Nachum might have one of the most interesting paths to the Salesforce ecosystem of any guest we’ve had on the pod. Before he ended up as Director of Information Security at Salesforce, he originally trained as a rabbi. However, after he graduated, he realized that it wasn’t for him. Instead, Nochum wanted to get into computers. By day, he was a coupon broker, buying and selling frequent flyer miles. By night, he went to school to learn mainframe programming in COBOL. Eventually, he got into mainframe integration and parlayed that into a career at Salesforce. How Agentforce can help you manage your documentation Salesforce is SOC 2 compliant, which means that Nochum’s team gets audited twice a year. As a part of the process, they have to prepare pages and pages of PDF documentation about their security measures. And while this information is also handy for fielding customer questions, it’s not exactly the most user friendly way to keep track of everything. What the Security team used to do is take the information in their PDF documentation and compile a response database. Essentially, it’s a list of questions and their answers. But that means you needed someone to update the answers every time something changes, and things at Salesforce change fast. With Agentforce, they’ve been able to take their documentation PDFs and break them down into a vector database, making it legible for AI. That means they can chat with an agent to get the most complete, up-to-date answer to a customer’s question in moments. For Nochum, it means he can spend less time digging through PDFs to make sure his language is correct and more time making sure his customers have the answers they’re looking for. Building AI agents you can rely on None of this would be possible without the confidence that the agent they’ve built is only pulling from the correct information. That comes from thorough testing, and thinking about edge cases where you might be able to get it to give you the wrong answer. For Nochum, building an agent isn’t just about what you want it to do, it’s about being explicit about what don’t want it to do. There’s so much more great information in our conversation with Nochum about building agents and how to think about security with Agentforce, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss out. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Build Effective Agentforce Agents for High-Impact Automation Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Nochum on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full Transcript Josh Birk: Greetings, admins. It's your guest host, Josh Birk here today. Today, I'm gonna bring Nochum Klein to the mic. He's the director of security here at Salesforce and he has found a transformative experience with agents, shall we say. Uh, we're gonna talk about use cases, we're gonna talk about building agents, we're gonna talk about, uh, security around agents and, um, I hope you have a lot of fun listening to that. So let's go to the tape. All right, today on the show, we welcome Nochum Klein. Um, am I saying your name correctly? Nochum Klein: Yes, you are. That's perfect. Josh Birk: Alright. Uh, we are gonna be talking about agents and building agents and maybe even a little bit about security around agents, but first of all, Nochum, welcome to the show. Nochum Klein: Thank you. I'm really excited to be here. Josh Birk: Let's, uh, let's talk a little bit about your early years. Uh, what did you go to college for? Nochum Klein: I became a rabbi. Josh Birk: Ah. (laughs) Nochum Klein: So I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, and so throughout my years of school, I never went to public school, I went to the Jewish religious school system, which prepares you for one thing and one thing only. Josh Birk: (laughs) Nochum Klein: (laughs) So I finished and, uh, I did my thing and became a rabbi and I said, "No." Josh Birk: (laughs) Nochum Klein: "I don't wanna do this." Josh Birk: (laughs) So, so you're saying that, uh, you didn't have access to a lot of computer labs right out of the gate? Nochum Klein: No, uh, i- it's funny you say that, because as a child, we were really poor. Josh Birk: Yeah. Nochum Klein: Uh, so, yeah, I had no access to that. And we had, I remember as a kid, and I'm gonna age myself- Josh Birk: (laughs) ...
    Show more Show less
    44 mins