Preparing Your Data for AI: Unlocking the Power of Einstein AI

Jenna Trott | JANUARY 05, 2024 | 5 Minute Read

Salesforce’s recent advancements with Einstein AI are revolutionizing the way businesses operate. It’s a force that’s propelling smarter decision-making, automating tedious tasks, and crafting personalized experiences that maintain customer loyalty. But here’s the catch: to truly unlock the power of Einstein AI, you must prepare your data effectively. What does this mean exactly?

The beating heart behind any AI system is data, meaning that the quality and quantity of data input directly correlate with the AI system’s ability to be effective. In this article, we’ll explore key strategies to ensure your data is well-prepared for leveraging Einstein AI. From data quality to integration, we’ll offer you actionable insights to unlock the true potential of Einstein AI in your organization.

The Importance of Data Quality for Einstein AI

Data quality is the foundation of any successful AI initiative. Without accurate and reliable data, AI can produce unreliable outcomes and hallucinations, negatively impacting your business and hindering your progress. This is why assessing and improving data quality is the first step in preparing your data for AI. Yet, 82% of companies report using outdated information, with 85% acknowledging that relying on this bad data results in incorrect decisions and lost revenue. So, how can you assess and improve data quality? Let’s take a look:

Assessing Data Quality

There’s a saying: garbage in, garbage out – and the same applies to AI. Not only can bad data create bad AI responses, but it also leads to inefficiencies, strains organizational resources, and can cause detrimental costs as a result of poor decision-making. To mitigate this, it’s imperative that the data you’re inputting to your Salesforce ecosystem is valid and up to date. Users can assess Salesforce data quality in several key ways:

Completeness: Ensuring that all required fields are filled out correctly, leaving no gaps in the data.
Accuracy: Verifying that the data entered is correct and up-to-date, ensuring reliability for decision-making.
Reliability: Identifying and eliminating duplicate or inconsistent records to maintain data consistency and trustworthiness.
Validity: Checking that the data adheres to predefined formats and standards, ensuring uniformity and ease of use.
Timeliness: Keeping the data current and relevant by updating it regularly to reflect the latest information.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement: Implementing regular checks, automated tools, and periodic audits to maintain and enhance data quality over time.

Graphic provided by snapLogic, The State of Data Management – The Impact of Data Distrust

Improving Data Quality

So you’ve assessed your data but fear that it may not be up to standards – don’t worry, here’s what you can do to improve data quality:

Data Validation Rules: Establish validation rules within Salesforce to ensure that entered data meets specific criteria, such as format, range, or consistency. This helps prevent incorrect or incomplete data from being inputted.
Regular Data Cleansing: Periodically clean your data by identifying and eliminating duplicates, inaccuracies, and outdated information. Utilize Salesforce’s built-in tools or third-party applications to streamline this process.
Standardization: Enforce standardized naming conventions, formats, and picklists to maintain consistency across data entries. This ensures uniformity and makes data more manageable and insightful.
Automated Processes: Implement automated processes and workflows to validate, update, and enrich data. Use triggers, workflows, or third-party integrations to automate data validation and enrichment tasks.
Training and User Adoption: Provide comprehensive training to Salesforce users on best practices for data entry and maintenance. Encourage adherence to established data quality standards to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Data Enrichment Tools: Leverage data enrichment tools and services to augment existing data within Salesforce. These tools can update and enhance records with additional information, such as contact details or firmographics.
Regular Audits and Monitoring: Conduct routine audits to review data quality metrics, identify issues, and track improvements over time. Establish monitoring mechanisms to address any data quality issues that arise promptly.

Difficulties with Data

Arguably the best way to ensure data quality is to start with a solid foundation. However, organizations who have recently integrated or implemented Salesforce often find themselves struggling to merge their data due to a myriad of reasons:

Diverse Data Sources: From legacy systems and third-party applications to spreadsheets and cloud platforms, diverse data sources introduce significant complexities. Bridging these distinct sources with Salesforce can cause hurdles due to differing data formats, structures, and quality levels.
Data Complexity and Volume: Managing vast volumes of intricate data can exacerbate the integration journey and necessitates meticulous merging, transformation, and mapping efforts to align with Salesforce’s schema.
Lack of Integration Strategy: The absence of a cohesive roadmap leads to disjointed approaches, hindering seamless data integration.
Data Quality Issues: Duplicates, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies all present significant roadblocks. Addressing these issues by data cleaning and standardization pre-integration is often a critical step that’s overlooked.

These are just a few of the many challenges that can arise while undergoing a Salesforce integration or implementation that can negatively impact the quality of your data.

Preparing Your Data for AI

Elevating your data for AI isn’t just about a one-time setup—from seamless integration to precise implementation, it requires laying a solid foundation. And it doesn’t end there. Maintaining data quality is an ongoing process that requires continual evaluation. Having strong data validation rules, and engaging in regular data cleansing, regular audits, and standardization practices are critical for data upkeep.

However, this can become quite demanding on internal resources and while AI is meant to streamline your workflows, battling against bad data can really set your team behind in the race for digital transformation. To navigate this challenge, a Salesforce Consultant proves invaluable. With specialized expertise, they provide guidance, enabling your organization to overcome data complexities and ensure that AI thrives on a bedrock of reliable, high-quality data.

Leveraging a Salesforce Consultant

Salesforce consultants possess in-depth knowledge, skills, and certifications in various Salesforce products, modules, and functionalities, and provide a number of services useful for those working within financial services. This can include everything from implementation and integration expertise to customizations and optimizations, strategy, training, and beyond.

As more and more companies begin to leverage AI, a Salesforce consultant becomes particularly useful in aiding companies in gearing up their data for AI use. Here’s how:

Expert Guidance and Strategy: Consultants bring in-depth knowledge and experience to strategize data preparation tailored to the company’s unique needs. They assess current data quality, identify gaps, and develop a roadmap to align data with AI objectives.
Data Assessment and Cleansing: By performing thorough data assessments, consultants can identify inconsistencies, duplicates, and inaccuracies. They lead data cleansing efforts, ensuring that the information fed into AI models is accurate and reliable.
Customization and Integration: Collaborating with companies, Salesforce consultants customize solutions to integrate seamlessly with AI platforms or tools. This involves mapping data fields, ensuring compatibility, and establishing efficient data flows between systems.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement: Consultants establish monitoring mechanisms and frameworks for ongoing data quality evaluation. They continually refine strategies based on evolving business needs and technological advancements.

A recent study conducted by Forrester, reveals the transformative nature of employing a Salesforce consultant. Numerous clients have revealed the ways in which consultants have improved data quality and migration and overhauled their instance’s foundation. The result was not only accelerated time to value but also reduced implementation costs and long-term success with using Salesforce.

Graphic provided by Salesforce, The Total Economic Impact™ Of Salesforce Professional Services

Why AGG?

Access Global Group is a Salesforce Summit (Platinum) level partner with nearly two decades of experience in Salesforce implementation, support, maintenance, and management services. Our team of certified experts knows Salesforce inside and out, meaning that when they come to you, no stone is left unturned and any conflicts are quickly addressed with agility and accuracy. With 5-star ratings on the Salesforce AppExchange and G2, our team offers a unique blend of global deployment expertise coupled with the agility of a boutique firm and a one-of-a-kind project methodology that places our clients at the forefront of every decision. Your successes are our successes, so we’re dedicated to providing solutions that align with your evolving requirements and aspirations.

What are you waiting for? Supercharge your data for AI today!

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