An enterprise’s data is a key source of information for training AI models and agents. For decades, enterprises have run mission-critical transactions on IBM Z mainframes, known for their reliability and security. Now, IBM and Salesforce are empowering enterprises to use data as a catalyst for agent-based AI by giving them access to business data in IBM Z mainframes and Db2 databases. This will enable an expansion of AI use cases on Salesforce’s Agentforce platform , a digital labor platform that empowers teams with autonomous AI agents .
At IBM’s annual Think event, the company also unveiled a new IBM agent built on IBM Watson Orchestrate in conjunction with Salesforce technology , and IBM Granite model performance.
The new integration, expected to be available in June, will enable AI agents to complete back-office and front-office connections using data from IBM Z mainframes, which account for 70%* of the world’s transactions by value. It will leverage zero-copy through the integration of IBM watsonx.data with Salesforce’s Data Cloud , a hyper-scale data engine natively integrated into the Salesforce Platform, enabling high-speed data transfer without moving or copying data.
Also Read: Excelsoft launch MadCap Flare Online document platform
IBM will be the first company to offer Salesforce users data flow between IBM Z and Data Cloud for analytics and AI applications, with significant implications especially for highly regulated industries such as banking and financial services, creating new opportunities for innovation for enterprises and their agents.
Prospect agents collaborate with other sales agents
IBM and Salesforce are also collaborating to develop a set of pre-built sales agents that integrate the capabilities of Watsonx Orchestrate and Agentforce. The first of these sales agents is the IBM Watsonx Sales Prospecting agent, which helps sales reps target products, capture customer contacts and create sales pitches to effectively generate leads and increase sales conversions. It uses a conversational interface to autonomously interact with Agentforce, Watsonx Orchestrate and third-party agents. The service will be available in the coming months through Watsonx Orchestrate and Salesforce’s AgentExchange.
IBM introduces Watsonx Employee Support Agent to Slack to improve HR productivity
Slack is a business operating system that brings together people, apps, processes, data and agent-based AI to drive productivity. By bringing AI agents to Slack, users can reduce their workload and focus on the work that really matters. Built with watsonx Orchestrate, IBM watsonx Employee Support Agent can answer and take action on HR inquiries through a conversational interface in Slack.
IBM is leveraging the know-how it has gained from its HR agent over the past three years, which has enabled IBM employees to get answers to 94% of common HR questions across the company, freeing up HR staff to focus on more complex inquiries. IBM Watsonx Employee Support Agent will be available on the Slack Marketplace in June.
IBM Granite model scores highly in Salesforce CRM benchmark
For clients looking for a smaller, more purpose-built LLM option, IBM Granite Models, IBM’s flagship family of AI models built for business, are available on the Salesforce Platform as Bring Your Own Models (a capability that enables businesses to create different types of AI to use in Salesforce) and can be easily accessed through Agentforce.
These small, enterprise-focused AI models have performed well in testing: the Granite 3.1 8B model was recognized for its high accuracy in the Salesforce LLM Benchmark for CRM, the world’s first LLM benchmark for CRM that evaluates the effectiveness of generative AI models for business applications.
IBM Consulting helps companies meet evolving data and AI demands
IBM Consulting helps companies get more value from their Salesforce investments to address complex CRM and AI environments. Leveraging Agentforce, watsonx and IBM Consulting’s deep expertise, we drive Salesforce-enabled transformation on a global scale. IBM Consulting Advantage, our AI-powered delivery platform, includes Salesforce-specific AI agents that learn from a Salesforce-specific knowledge base and are powered by our proprietary models, helping IBM consultants deliver more value faster. These capabilities enable us to orchestrate our agent ecosystem, driving long-term platform scalability, supportability and lower cost of ownership.
SOURCE: PRTimes
