The IT Nerd

As we lead up to Cyber Week 2023, Salesforce has released its latest digital commerce data and predictions for the period.

Here are some of the headlines:

• According to Salesforce ecommerce data, early (Oct. 1–Nov.14) online holiday sales are up 2% year over year (YoY) in Canada. After a couple of years of experiencing inflation and other trends, consumers are shopping cautiously and making their own price comparisons.
• Canadian online traffic declines ahead of Cyber Week: Traffic dipped 3%, potentially due to shoppers waiting to maximize discounts or feeling the pinch of inflation, compared to the 5% growth seen globally YoY..
• Holiday shoppers walk before they run: Consumers browsed but held off on buying in the early holiday season. Product views grew by 1% in Canada compared to last year, but the low increase in sales growth (2%) indicates that consumers are waiting for the biggest and best deals of the season.

As a result, Salesforce predicts that:

• A slow start to holiday shopping will drive a high-volume Cyber Week: Similar to 2022, Cyber Week is anticipated to account for over 25% of all holiday purchases this year. While holiday shopping was spread out through all of November in 2020 and 2021, this year’s more price-conscious consumers are waiting to see what deals come their way on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
• Discount rates are expected to be attractive: As consumers wait for the biggest and best deals of the season, global discounts are likely to reach 29% globally. This is on par with pre-pandemic discount levels.
• Returns are likely to be low during Cyber Week and pick up in December: Only 7% of purchases are expected to be returned during Cyber Week, with thepeak of returns falling during Christmas and the days following (15%) as consumers race to return gifts they did not like before the return windows close.

For more data and predictions have a look at the holiday hub, which will be updated daily over Cyber Week.

As we look ahead to what 2024 will have in store, Salesforce’s top executives have just shared their predictions and insights for the year based on market analysis, customer conversations, and more in the company’s new Future of Tech and AI Predictions & Trends report. 

As a global leader in AI CRM software, Salesforce leaders are on the front lines of the latest trends, technologies, and challenges impacting businesses. Some of the trends and predictions that they have for 2024 include:

• Data will continue to get democratized — and smarter. This means 2024 will see a strong focus on data privacy and compliance.
• AI will transform enterprise, so businesses that don’t embrace AI will be left in the dust.
• AI brings a new era of cyber security, meaning cyber defense will take shape to address new threats.
• AI will hypercharge efficiency and we will all get familiar with the term “semantic query.” As AI grows smarter and more businesses embrace it, we will inch closer to autonomy.
• There are possibilities to use AI for good but only with equitable access.
• AI will modernize work and transform the office into a smarter workplace, plus change how we think about (and measure) human productivity.

The report with all of Salesforce’s 2024 predictions, is available here. 

Appendix

These 2024 predictions follow recent Canadian-specific survey data from Salesforce earlier this fall, which found that:

• On average, employees believe generative AI will save them 4 hours per week. However, 55% agree that they don’t have the skills to use generative AI effectively and safely.
• While 62% of employees use or plan to use generative AI at work, 79% believe generative AI introduces new security risks.

Salesforce today released its State of Data and Analytics report with key trends from over 10,000 analytics, IT, and business leaders across 18 countries, including 600 from Canada. 

The report highlights trends impacting data leaders including strategies used to navigate rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), challenges organizations face in realizing the full potential of their data, and tactics analytics and IT leaders employ to manage increasingly extensive and complex data.

Key insights of this year’s State of Data and Analytics report include:     

• AI advancements intensify demand for trusted, secure data. Advances in AI are fast-moving, and companies are eager to profit from new iterations like generative AI. 84% of Canadian  business leaders are worried about missing out on its benefits. This puts pressure on data management teams to power algorithms with high-quality data. 89% of Canadian analytics and IT leaders say advances in AI make data management a high priority. 
• Security threats and lack of trust hinder data potential. The path to unlocking data’s potential is winding. Only 49% of Canadian business leaders are completely confident in their data accuracy. Both Canadian business leaders and IT and analytics leaders cite security threats as their number one data challenge. 
• Leaders leverage data culture and data governance to reach goals. To maximize data value and trust, analytics and IT leaders lean on data governance. Eighty-six per cent (86%) of Canadian analytics and IT leaders use data governance to ensure and certify baseline data quality. Seventy-nine per cent (79%) of Canadian analytics and IT leaders are investing more in data training in the next year to strengthen internal data culture. 

Methodology

Data in this report are from two double-anonymous surveys conducted from June 16 through July 31, 2023. The first survey generated 5,540 responses from analytics and IT decision makers from 18 different countries across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The second survey generated 5,540 responses from line-of-business leaders from the same countries. More details can be found in the report. Cultural bias impacts country-level survey results.

For more information:

• Read the newsroom post for more detail and analysis.
• Download the full report for all insights.

Earlier this week Salesforce announced the general availability of Mulesoft’s Anypoint Code Builder. The product pilots generative AI to help developers reduce costs and speed up software development cycles.

With businesses racing to develop software that can power their business applications, still, Salesforce’s recent State of IT Report shows that 80% of global IT leaders say integration challenges slow their digital transformation. And, 84% of Canadian IT leaders (compared to 86% globally) expect generative AI to soon play a prominent role at their organizations. 

Anypoint Code Builder is an integrated development environment (IDE) that lets developers build APIs and integrations with modern tooling through Visual Studio Code, use natural language prompts to generate code, and access a variety of deployment environment options available for desktop and cloud IDEs.

Anypoint Code Builder is generally available now.

Salesforce had a ton of news announced at Dreamforce this week. Here’s a list of the announcements:

• Einstein Copilot Assistant
  • Salesforce’s next generation of Einstein brings conversational AI assistants to every customer relationship manager (CRM) application.
  • Einstein Copilot allows people to talk to the platform in natural language to generate trusted and accurate recommendations and guidance.
    • It can work alongside employees to do critical tasks such as tips for reducing average customer service call time or calculating the best discounts to move merchandise fast.
  • In addition, Copilot Studio & Skills Builder lets any organization customize the tool with prompts, skills and models, while the Einstein Trust Layer provides configurability for managing sensitive data and a compliance-ready audit trial to keep companies in control.
• Einstein 1 Platform
  • Building custom AI is different from building apps. The Salesforce Platform will now empower anyone to build their own autonomous agents with custom skills, models, prompts, and branding with clicks, not code.
• Einstein for Net Zero Cloud ESG reporting
  • With ESG reporting standards constantly evolving, businesses are having a hard time keeping up. Mandatory ESG reporting comes into effect for Canadian financial institutions in 2024, leaving businesses less than a year to adjust their operations. 
  • These new AI features will automate reporting, save time, and ultimately allow for a smarter and more holistic ESG strategy.
• Expanded AI partnership news with Amazon Web Services and Google Workspace
  • Salesforce is excited to announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help fuel business transformation for customers. New integrated solutions between the platforms are designed to help customers access enterprise data while enabling AI-powered personalization with trust and efficiently scaling business applications.
  • Salesforce and Google have announced a partnership to provide new trusted integrations that enable shared users to leverage both Salesforce and Google Workspace contextual data to inform generative AI experience across platforms. The seamless experience for shared users across platforms enables integrated use of Salesforce in Workspace Duet AI and Google Workspace in Einstein Assistant.
• AI-focused Slack innovations
  • Salesforce and Slack announced new product innovations that bring AI, automation and knowledge sharing to the platform, ultimately boosting productivity and transforming how teams work.
  • New built-in AI features to help automate work, allowing Slack users work smarter and save time.
    • Users can review conversations in one click, add connectors from partners like Asana, Google, and Jira, and manage work with Slack lists – from triaging IT requests to reviewing legal approvals.

AI innovation was the heart of Dreamforce – one of the world’s biggest AI events – this year in San Francisco. To round out the week of AI-related announcements, and to better understand this transformation, Salesforce surveyed Canadian professionals about how generative AI is affecting their roles, productivity, and trust. 

Highlights include:

• Over half (58%) of professionals believe that generative AI will increase their productivity, on average saving them 4 hours per week.

• Almost half of marketers (49%) are already leveraging generative AI, with an additional 15% planning imminent adoption (bringing the total to 63%) and many are already using it for copywriting, content creation and to inspire creative thinking. 
• 78% of employees agree that generative AI lacks human contextual knowledge, and 66% believe there is bias in generative AI output.

The full Canadian survey findings, including data on how professionals feel about the safe use of AI, are available HERE. 

Salesforce today released the third edition of its State of IT Report, based on insights from 4,325 global IT leaders (including 200 from Canada).  The report finds that demand for services is continuing to increase, with 66% of Canadian IT leaders struggling to keep up with demand, and 75% projecting increased demand over the next 18 months alongside increased security threats and ongoing developments in AI, leading IT leaders to rethink their strategies and tactics for the business. Global highlights of the report include:

• The role of artificial intelligence in IT is rapidly evolving, 87% of IT leaders expect more investment in automation at their organizations over the next 18 months, and 86% of IT leaders now expect generative AI to play a prominent role at their organizations in the near future, with the vast majority saying they, their staff, and their business stakeholders have a firm grasp on how it can be effectively leveraged. 
• Security threats continue to cast a shadow on trust as AI matures, 67% of IT leaders report having trouble balancing business and security objectives. 
• As a result of increased sustainability reporting requirements, carbon accounting is increasingly coming under IT’s purview. 79% of IT organizations have set greenhouse gas emission reductions, and 87% of those organizations’ leaders feel they can effectively track and report on those emissions.

 Trends for Canada:

• 69% of IT leaders in Canada say the role of AI in their organizations is well-defined, a figure poised to grow as 84% believe generative AI, specifically, will soon have a prominent role in their organizations. 
• However, leaders are proceeding with caution, with 74% concerned about generative AI’s ethics. 
• 88% of Canadian IT leaders say they’re increasingly focused on operational efficiencies, and only 27% of Canadian IT organizations can support all app development requests they receive. 
• To scale their capacity, 79% have adopted low or no-code tools and 46% use composability.

You can find the full report here.

According to new Salesforce research released this week at Connections 2023, 51% of marketers are already tapping into the power of generative AI, and an additional 22% are actively planning to adopt this technology in the very near future. By embracing generative AI, companies are accelerating their productivity and achieving remarkable efficiencies, all while delivering exceptional value to their customers.

Key highlights from the global research:

• 60% of marketers say generative AI will transform their role, while
• 71% believe it will enable them to focus on more strategic work.
• However, “accuracy and quality” is the number one concern for those surveyed, and 63% say trusted customer data is critical in successfully using generative AI.

This underpins the business value of Salesforce’s latest AI and automation innovation updates for the marketing and commerce industry announced during Connections:

• Marketing GPT & Commerce GPT: Salesforce’s new Einstein-powered generative AI offerings that combine trusted, real-time data and generative AI to transform how companies connect with their customers.
• WhatsApp for Service: Powered by AI and data, organizations are empowered to efficiently connect with customers through personalized and proactive experiences across marketing, commerce, and service touch points.
• Google Cloud Expanded Partnership: Includes new integrations between Data Cloud, Google Vertex AI, and Google BigQuery that provide secure, real-time data sharing with improved AI capabilities, and enhancements to Salesforce’s integration with Google Ads and Google Analytics 4.

 Salesforce has released its global Q1 Shopping Index revealing that digital online sales are down 8% year over year in Canada, compared to a global 2% decline, amidst continued economic turbulence around the world.

Here’s some Canadian highlights:

• Digital commerce was down 8% in Q1 2023 similar to 2022 Q4, where it was down 9%
• The per-visit average shopper spend sat at $1.99, down from $2.71 in Q4
• The overall conversion rate in Canada was 1.9% compared to 2.5% in the previous quarter

Global Highlights:

• After a Q4 comeback, global online sales fell 2% YoY, largely driven by decreased demand in the US
• Globally, shopping spend is at its lowest in two years at an average of $2.30 compared to $3.02 in 2021 Q4 and $2.85 in 2022 Q4
• Digital traffic via desktops dropped significantly at -11%, while mobile maintained at 0% growth
  • Desktop reigned in follow through, with cart abandonment lowest at 68% compared to 79% on mobile 

The full report, including global data, can be found in the full Q1 Shopping Index.

Salesforce today released its Media & Entertainment Industry Insights Report that shares key trends from industry decision-makers across seven counties, on how organizations in the streaming/studio, brand advertiser, advertising agency, gaming, and other media and entertainment sectors are evolving amid digital-first customer expectations and economic headwinds. 

Key Canadian insights of this year’s Media & Entertainment Industry Insights Report include:

Despite Economic Headwinds, Customer Experience Remains Paramount. Today’s media and entertainment market is saturated, and many customers are re-evaluating their subscriptions, upping the ante for media and entertainment companies to prove their value. But hurdles make this an onerous task. The top two industry priorities in Canada are ‘improving operational efficiency’ and ‘experience innovations’, while ‘increased costs’ are the top industry challenge.

New Realities Spark Revenue Diversification. Diversified revenue streams are key for media and entertainment companies moving forward as they seek to increase average revenue per user. Sixty-four per cent of media and industry companies in Canada partner with influencers, and 52% have a fully defined Web3 strategy.

A Pursuit of Efficiency Hinges on Automation, Data, and Budgets. With advertising spend forecasted to decrease in the near term, efficiency is paramount to media and entertainment company strategies. Automation, AI, and data integration are seen as key to this pursuit. Employee productivity, closely followed by employee experience, are the top reported automation benefits among media and entertainment companies in Canada.

Methodology

Data in this report is from a double-anonymous survey of industry decision-makers conducted from December 14–29, 2022. The survey generated 350 responses from a range of media and entertainment professionals with a title of director or higher across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Cultural bias impacts survey results.

For more information:

• Read the global press release for more detail and analysis.
• Download the full report for all insights.