Enterprise data is a crucial source of intelligence for AI models and agents to learn from. For decades, businesses have entrusted IBM Z mainframes, renowned for their reliability and security, to run their mission-critical transactions. To use it as a catalyst for agentic AI, IBM and Salesforce are providing customers access to their business data in IBM Z mainframes and Db2 databases so it can power AI use cases on the Salesforce Agentforce platform, the digital labor platform for augmenting teams with autonomous AI agents.
Also at IBM Think, we will introduce new IBM agents built with IBM watsonx Orchestrate that work with Salesforce technologies, and IBM Granite model performance.
Expected to be available in June, the new integration will enable AI agents to complete back-to-front office connections using data from IBM Z mainframes, relied upon to run 70% of the world’s transactions by value*. This leverages Salesforce Zero Copy via an integration between IBM watsonx.data and Salesforce Data Cloud, a hyperscale data engine natively integrated within the Salesforce Platform, making high speed data transfer possible without having to move or copy data.
IBM is the first to offer Salesforce customers this data flow between IBM Z and Salesforce Data Cloud for the purpose of analytics and AI, which is especially impactful for organizations in regulated industries, such as banking and financial services, enabling businesses and their agents to unlock new opportunities for innovation.
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“In today’s dynamic landscape, data fluidity is paramount. Data Cloud’s Zero Copy Partner Network helps address this need by providing highly secure and rapid connectivity to their IBM Z data,” said Rahul Auradkar, EVP & GM, Unified Data Services & Einstein, Salesforce. “This eliminates the friction of traditional data movement, enabling utility and value for previously trapped information. By unlocking this access, we’re helping customers derive real-time insights and activate the full potential of their data ¾ regardless of where it resides to drive AI-powered customer experiences with Agentforce, across applications and the broader ecosystem.”
Sales Prospecting Agent Collaborates with other Agents to Make the Sale
IBM and Salesforce are also collaborating on a series of pre-built sales agents that bring together the power of watsonx Orchestrate and Agentforce. The first of these agents is the IBM watsonx Sales Prospecting agent, which enables sellers to effectively prospect and increase sales conversion rates by helping with product targeting, fetching account contacts, or developing a sales pitch. It uses a conversational interface and interacts across Agentforce, watsonx Orchestrate and third-party agents. It is expected to be available via watsonx Orchestrate and the Salesforce Agent Exchange in coming months.
Unleashing HR Productivity in Slack with IBM watsonx Employee Support Agent
Slack is the work operating system that brings together people, apps, processes, data, and agentic AI to fuel productivity. By bringing AI agents into Slack, users can reduce workloads and focus on what truly matters. The IBM watsonx Employee Support Agent, built with watsonx Orchestrate, answers HR questions and can take action through Slack’s conversational interface.
Using IBM’s expertise with its own HR agent over the past three years, IBM employees use it to answer 94% of company-wide, lower-level HR queries, freeing up HR professionals to focus on more complex issues. The IBM watsonx Employee Support Agent is expected to be available in the Slack Marketplace in June.
IBM Granite Models in Top Salesforce CRM Benchmarks
For customers who want a choice of smaller, purpose-built LLMs, IBM Granite models, the IBM flagship family of AI models built for business, are available on the Salesforce Platform as a Bring-Your-Own-Model and can be easily accessed in Agentforce.
These smaller, specialized AI models for enterprises continue to outperform in testing. Granite 3.1 8B model yielded high marks on accuracy in the Salesforce LLM Benchmark for CRM, the world’s first LLM benchmark for CRM to assess the efficacy of generative AI models for business applications.
IBM Consulting Helps Clients Navigate Evolving Data and AI Demands
As organizations navigate complex CRM and AI landscapes, IBM Consulting can help clients unlock greater returns from their Salesforce investments. Leveraging Agentforce, watsonx and IBM Consulting’s deep expertise, we are uniquely positioned to deliver differentiated global Salesforce transformations. Our AI-powered delivery platform IBM Consulting Advantage includes Salesforce-specific AI agents, trained on specific Salesforce knowledge bases and fueled by a proprietary model, that support our consultants in delivering greater value, faster. With these capabilities, we can orchestrate the agentic ecosystem and help drive long-term platform extensibility, supportability and reduced ownership costs.
Source: IBM