Blog
August 21, 2024
Evaluating the potential impact of the Salesforce-Workday partnership on AI in higher education
Salesforce and Workday recently announced[1] an agreement to deepen their partnership and enhance the integration between their platforms. Attain Partners’ Francis Quinn gives his take on the new partnership, why it matters specifically for higher education institutions, and his predictions on how it could potentially impact AI functionality. Read on to learn more.
Can we trust AI to generate correct data?
While preparing for a recent road trip, I asked ChatGPT whether Dallas, Texas, is further north or south than Augusta, Georgia. Almost immediately, ChatGPT proudly informed me that, “Dallas, Texas, is further north than Augusta, Georgia. Dallas is situated at a latitude of approximately 32.8 degrees North, while Augusta is at about 33.5 degrees North. Despite Dallas being south of Augusta on a map, its latitude is lower, indicating it’s further north.”
Curious indeed! How can Dallas be at a lower latitude than Augusta and still be further north? You might ask how it is possible for one of the world’s best known artificial intelligence (AI) platforms to make such an obvious mistake. The answer lies in the fact that ChatGPT is a language model: a type of artificial intelligence designed to understand and generate human language. Language models are trained on large datasets of text to learn patterns, grammar, and contextual meaning, allowing them to generate coherent responses. Platforms like ChatGPT are trained using vast amounts of diverse text data and advanced machine learning techniques to handle a wide range of conversational topics, enabling them to assist with questions, generate text, and engage in interactive dialogue. However, language models infer relationships between words based on patterns in text data alone, as they lack other types of data. This limitation is why ChatGPT struggles with tasks that involve, for example, understanding spatial relations, such as interpreting latitude and longitude.[2]
This limitation is even more concerning given that the use of ChatGPT to power customer service chatbots is increasingly widespread, with many businesses and organizations adopting it for various customer service applications. Indeed, according to OpenAI the consumer version of its chatbot is already in use by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies.[3] Have you ever had the impression that the chatbot simply doesn’t understand your query?
Salesforce and Workday partnership to enhance proprietary AI accuracy
Now, Salesforce Einstein® is Salesforce’s suite of AI-powered features designed to enhance its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that offers, amongst other things, advanced data analysis and visualization tools, predictions about which leads are more likely to close, analysis of customer sentiment and intent, and chatbots that can handle routine queries and provide support. The newly announced Salesforce and Workday partnership aims to improve the integration between Salesforce’s CRM and Workday’s enterprise cloud applications, such as HR, finance, and planning. In time, this will allow organizations to connect their customer and employee data more effectively, creating more comprehensive customer profiles and understanding the full picture of employee interactions.
In time, this will allow organizations to connect their customer and employee data more effectively, creating more comprehensive customer profiles and understanding the full picture of employee interactions.
As a point of reference, it’s worth noting that the Higher Education student CRM systems market size was recently valued at $2.1 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $5.0 Billion by 2030.[4] Higher education institutions are increasingly investing in CRM and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions primarily in order to modernize their business processes, streamline operations, enhance data management, analytics and reporting, and improve student and faculty experience. So why should higher education institutions be taking notice of the Salesforce-Workday partnership?
Capturing the complexities of R1 research universities
Well, if the world’s best-known AI platform struggles to recognize the difference between north and south, imagine how it could struggle with tasks involving complex business processes at an R1 research university (think hiring a new faculty member, securing an endowment, managing a research grant, identifying students at risk, or answering questions about a degree). While it can generate responses based on patterns in the text data it was trained on, it doesn’t have real-world experience or a deep understanding of specific business contexts. This limitation means it might not fully grasp intricate business workflows, nuanced operational details, or education-specific practices. It can provide general advice and information, but for detailed and context-specific business process management, its responses might lack the depth and accuracy needed.
This is where the Salesforce-Workday partnership is so interesting. Training Einstein using detailed information about how complex business processes are managed across hundreds of organizations would significantly improve its ability to perform in this area. The model would gain a richer and more diverse understanding of various business processes, including education-specific practices and nuances. With detailed examples and case studies, Einstein could better understand the context and intricacies of different business process scenarios, leading to more accurate and relevant responses. According to their recent press release, the partnership may lead to the development of new joint solutions or features that leverage the strengths of both platforms.
The human element
As exciting as all that sounds, it’s important to note that even with such training, Einstein will be limited for some time by its ability to interpret and generate responses based on patterns in the data. It will be even longer before it can replace the need for human expertise, especially in highly specialized or sensitive business situations.
Attain Partners has extensive experience in leading both Salesforce and Workday implementations at higher education institutions across the country. As mentioned above, the future looks bright and holds a lot of promise. Time will tell the pace at which AI-powered products will transform the higher education landscape, but you can be sure that Attain Partners will follow developments closely, keeping our clients appraised, and ensuring that they are ideally placed to adopt those solutions that make the most sense and are best aligned with the strategic roadmap for their institution.
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About the Author
Francis Quinn serves as Senior Principal and Enterprise Advisory Capability Lead at Attain Partners. He is a globally experienced executive with a proven track record of managing cloud-based technology product development, and client implementations. Francis joined Attain Partners to serve as the Director for the USM MD Connect Program, managing the complex enterprise transformation for the consortium of five universities. In this role, Francis leads the Attain Partners team to deliver program management, organizational change management, and staff augmentation support as the consortium implements a single instance of Workday Financial Management and Human Capital Management systems.
[1] https://investor.salesforce.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2024/Salesforce-and-Workday-Form-Strategic-Partnership-Unveil-New-AI-Employee-Service-Agent/default.aspx
[2] Caldarini, Guendalina; Jaf, Sardar; McGarry, Kenneth (2022). “A Literature Survey of Recent Advances in Chatbots”. Information 2022, 13(1), 41.
[3] https://www.reuters.com/technology/openais-altman-pitches-chatgpt-enterprise-large-firms-including-some-microsoft-2024-04-12/#:~:text=They%20noted%20the%20consumer%20version,92%25%20of%20Fortune%20500%20companies.
[4] https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/higher-education-student-crm-systems-market/#:~:text=Higher%20Education%20Student%20CRM%20Systems%20Market%20size%20was%20valued%20at,the%20forecast%20period%202024%2D2030.
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