Unlocking New Frontiers: Data Cloud Enhancements from Dreamforce 2024

Data Cloud has cemented its status as a revolutionary product in the Salesforce ecosystem, boasting an impressive 130% YoY growth in paid customers and processing over 2 quadrillion records per quarter! This tremendous growth has been possible because Data Cloud tackles critical challenges like unifying customer data, enabling seamless personalisation, and driving actionable AI insights.

So it's only natural that Data Cloud should take centre stage in Dreamforce '24 alongside Agentforce, Salesforce's “third wave of AI."

This year, Salesforce focused on three main enhancements for Data Cloud: 

• expanding support for unstructured data,
• the introduction of a sub-second real-time layer, and
• the expansion of Data Cloud's connector ecosystem.

These upgrades are designed to help businesses better manage data, personalise customer interactions, and ensure secure data handling. 

Let's dive into these enhancements and how they can impact your business.

1. Support for Unstructured Data: Analysing Audio and Video

What's new?

Data Cloud can now process unstructured formats like audio and video, allowing businesses to analyse customer calls, webinars, and voicemails. This opens up new possibilities for understanding customer preferences and behaviour.

How it helps:

The unstructured audio and video are converted into text transcripts and stored as metadata within Salesforce, making it easily searchable.

• Sales teams can transcribe and analyse recorded calls to identify common objections, refine pitches, and gauge customer sentiment.
• Support teams can review past service interactions, flag recurring issues, and proactively follow up based on insights from transcribed voicemails or video calls.

How to access it?

This feature is generally available since October 2024. Businesses can start using it by enabling support for unstructured data in their Data Cloud instance.

Sample use case:

Imagine a telecommunications company handling millions of customer calls monthly. By leveraging Data Cloud's unstructured data support, they transcribe and analyse these calls using AI. Patterns emerge from common technical issues and frequent billing questions to customer sentiment trends. The AI-powered insights enable the company to update their FAQs, adjust training programs, and even refine product features. As a result, they see a reduction in call volume due to better self-service options and an increase in customer satisfaction scores.

ROI Benefits:

• Reduced Operational Costs: Lower call volumes translate to reduced staffing needs.
• Increased Customer Satisfaction: Tailored solutions and proactive support enhance the customer experience.
• Improved Product Development: Insights drive innovation aligned with customer needs.

2. Sub-Second Real-Time Layer: Instant Data Activation

What's new?

Data Cloud now allows businesses to process and act on data in less than a second, providing real-time insights and recommendations. This is particularly useful for AI-powered personalisation and instant decision-making.

How it helps:

For instance, IoT sensors can trigger alerts in real time, helping service teams detect issues early and take action before customers even notice.

Sample Use Case:

A leading e-commerce platform wants to enhance customer engagement. With the sub-second real-time layer, as soon as a customer clicks on a product, the platform instantly analyses their browsing history and displays personalised product recommendations. This immediate personalisation increases the likelihood of a purchase. Over time, the company notices an increase in conversion rates and a significant boost in average order value.

ROI Benefits:

• Increased Revenue: Higher conversion rates directly impact sales.
• Enhanced Customer Loyalty: Personalised experiences encourage repeat business.
• Competitive Advantage: Real-time personalisation sets the business apart.

How to enable it?

The sub-second real-time layer is already available and can be activated via an add-on in Salesforce, specifically the sub-second real-time profiles SKU.

3. Expansion of Pre-Built Connectors: Seamless Data Integration

What's new?

With 50 new connectors, Data Cloud now supports over 200 pre-built connectors for platforms like Google Drive, Stripe, and Meta. This makes integrating third-party data sources faster and easier.

How it helps:

These connectors minimise manual integration by automating data flows between platforms, eliminating the need for custom coding. This enables businesses to quickly unify data, access insights faster, and focus on decision-making rather than managing integrations.

Sample Use Case:

A subscription-based streaming service uses multiple platforms: Stripe for payments, Meta for advertising, and Google Analytics for user behaviour. The new connectors integrate all data sources into Salesforce Data Cloud seamlessly. Marketing teams can now correlate ad spend directly with subscription sign-ups and user engagement metrics. This holistic view enables them to optimise campaigns in real-time, reducing customer acquisition costs.

ROI Benefits:

• Cost Savings: Eliminates expenses associated with custom integrations.
• Time Efficiency: Accelerates data availability for analysis.
• Improved Decision-Making: Unified data leads to more informed strategies.

How to use it?

Businesses can find the new connectors in the Data Cloud Connectors Directory, which will be fully updated by late September 2024.

4. Data Cloud One: Unified Data Across Salesforce Orgs

What's new?

Data Cloud One allows multiple Salesforce organisations to share a single Data Cloud instance, creating a centralised source of truth for businesses with complex organisational structures.

How it helps:

Data Cloud One provides more comprehensive datasets for AI-driven platforms like Agentforce, allowing AI to:

• Access richer data from every department and region, improving AI's ability to detect patterns and deliver more accurate predictions.
• Automate cross-org workflows, streamlining complex processes that require collaboration between departments.
• Make smarter decisions by analysing data with AI across the entire organisation, empowering leadership with actionable, data-driven insights.

Sample Use Case:

A multinational corporation operates in various countries, each with its own Salesforce org. This siloed data makes global reporting and customer insights challenging. By implementing Data Cloud One, they unify all customer data into a single view. Sales teams across regions can see a customer's global purchase history, preferences, and support interactions. This leads to a 40% increase in cross-selling opportunities and a consistent customer experience worldwide.

ROI Benefits:

• Revenue Growth: Unified data enables better upselling and cross-selling.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlined processes reduce redundancies.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Consistency boosts brand loyalty.

How to activate it?

Data Cloud One is generally available since October 2024 and is activated through Salesforce's no-code setup tools.

5. AI-Driven Governance and Security: Smarter Data Control

What's new?

While Salesforce has previously offered robust data security and governance features, the new enhancement automates these processes. With AI-driven tagging and dynamic policy enforcement, businesses can automate how sensitive data is categorised and controlled in real time, reducing manual policy management.

How it helps:

AI dynamically applies governance policies in real time, ensuring sensitive data is restricted when needed while still enabling AI models to operate securely.

Sample Use Case:

A financial institution must comply with stringent regulations regarding customer data. With AI-driven governance, the system automatically identifies and tags sensitive information like Social Security numbers or account balances. Access controls are then dynamically applied, ensuring only authorised personnel can view this data. This automation reduces the risk of non-compliance fines and data breaches, saving the company millions in potential losses.

ROI Benefits:

• Risk Mitigation: Reduces chances of costly compliance violations.
• Cost Savings: Decreases manual effort in data management.
• Trust Building: Enhances customer confidence in data security.

How to use it?

The AI-tagging feature will be in beta by November 2024. Businesses can define security policies and let AI dynamically manage the tagging and governance within Data Cloud.

6. Private Connect for Data Cloud: Secure Data Sharing

What's new?

Private Connect continues to ensure secure data sharing between Salesforce and external public clouds, with performance and security upgrades enhancing its capabilities.

How it helps:

It integrates more smoothly with Data Cloud's new real-time processing and AI-driven governance, ensuring that data can be shared securely while adhering to stricter policy controls. The enhanced governance allows for more context-aware AI workflows without risking data integrity or compliance.

Sample Use Case:

A healthcare provider needs to share patient data between Salesforce and AWS while complying with HIPAA regulations. Using the upgraded Private Connect, they establish a secure, private link that prevents data from traversing the public internet. The integration with AI-driven governance ensures that sensitive health information is appropriately encrypted and access controlled. This secure setup enables the provider to leverage cloud analytics for better patient outcomes without compromising on security.

ROI Benefits:

• Compliance Assurance: Meets regulatory requirements, avoiding penalties.
• Enhanced Security: Protects against data breaches.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlines secure data workflows.

How to use it?

This feature will be generally available in November 2024 and can be activated through Private Connect setup within Salesforce.

7. Tableau Semantics and Hybrid Search: Better Data Understanding

What's new?

Tableau Semantics creates a common way to understand data across different systems. Hybrid search, a combination of vector and keyword search, helps find the right data quicker and with greater accuracy.

How it helps:

By combining semantic models and hybrid search, businesses can quickly locate important information from multiple data sources, improving the accuracy of AI-driven recommendations.

Sample Use Case:

A marketing analyst is tasked with evaluating the success of a recent product launch. With data scattered across CRM systems, social media, and sales platforms, finding relevant information is time-consuming. Using Tableau Semantics and Hybrid Search, the analyst can search for "Product X launch feedback" and retrieve cohesive data from all sources. The semantic layer understands related terms and concepts, providing a comprehensive view. This speeds up the analysis process by 50%, allowing quicker strategic adjustments.

ROI Benefits:

• Time Savings: Accelerated data retrieval boosts productivity.
• Better Insights: Comprehensive data leads to smarter decisions.
• Competitive Edge: Faster analysis means quicker market responses.

How to access it?

Tableau Semantics will be generally available in February 2025, while hybrid search will go live in November 2024.

8. Datablazer Community: Collaboration and Learning

What's new?

Salesforce has introduced the Datablazer community, a space for IT leaders, developers, and data enthusiasts to share insights and stay updated on the latest trends and tools.

How it helps:

This community fosters collaboration, helping businesses stay ahead of industry trends and maximising the value of Data Cloud.

Sample Use Case:

An emerging tech startup joins the Datablazer community to learn best practices for implementing Data Cloud features. Through collaboration with industry peers and Salesforce experts, they adopt advanced AI-driven analytics more effectively. This knowledge-sharing accelerates their product development cycle and enhances their competitive positioning, contributing to a 35% increase in market share within a year.

ROI Benefits:

• Accelerated Learning: Quickly adopt new technologies and methodologies.
• Networking Opportunities: Build partnerships and collaborations.
• Innovation Boost: Access to cutting-edge ideas fuels growth.

How to access it?

Businesses can join the Datablazer community through Salesforce's Trailblazer platform, which offers resources, forums, and networking opportunities.

Conclusion

Dreamforce 2024 wasn't just about adding new features; it marked a shift toward a future where businesses harness AI-driven, real-time insights to thrive. With Data Cloud and its enhancements, the opportunity for hyper-personalised, proactive customer experiences is now more tangible than ever.

But in a world of endless possibilities, the real question isn't if these innovations will be adopted—it's how they will be leveraged. That's where we come in.