Salesforce Marketing Cloud in 2024: Projections And Insights

Every year, businesses, small and large, make a virtual beeline to Salesforce, watching for the CRM’s latest features and capabilities. As certified Salesforce experts ourselves, we are always keeping close tabs on the shiftings and stirrings within the Salesforce ecosystem. 

Like every year, there is a lot of noise around what the leading CRM is expected to roll out (a.k.a the future of Salesforce.) In this post, we will cut through the noise and set forth the most probable trajectory of Salesforce in 2024. 

Remember that these projections are not set in stone. With that in mind, let’s begin.

Projection #1: Salesforce’s Foray into Project Management

Salesforce has a rich history of making strategic acquisitions to expand its portfolio—from the acquisition of Buddy Media in 2012 to that of Velocity in 2020. 

Every acquisition has played a significant role in reinforcing the platform. For instance, with the acquisition of ExactTarget in 2013, Salesforce forayed into marketing automation. Again, the platform raised the bar in data analytics by acquiring Tableau in 2019. In 2024, we might witness Salesforce’s foray into the project management space.

Our reasons? First, the global market size for project management software is expected to grow at a rate of 15.7% from 2023-2030. Second, Salesforce being a CRM, should not find it difficult to incorporate project management applications into its portfolio. Finally, Salesforce’s technological prowess in adapting to innovation is well-demonstrated. 

Projection #2: Expansion of Salesforce Hyperforce 

Hyperforce, formerly known as Salesforce Unified Cloud, was the outcome of the CRM’s data residency aspirations. Hyperforce is the brand’s answer to those customers who want greater flexibility over data location. 

The company launched Hyperforce in December 2020. In 2021, Salesforce committed to investing a colossal US $5 billion in the flagship architecture over the succeeding five years. Our prediction for this year points toward an expansion of Hyperforce into untapped markets. 

With more countries beefing up data localization laws, it is to the great advantage of Hyperforce that it allows users to determine their data location. This will allow Salesforce to gain a stronger foothold in the Asian market, which has witnessed significant growth in the number of data establishment centers in this decade. 

Projection #3: A Greater Focus on AI-enabled Data Access

Unfortunately, the market lingo often tends to treat data and AI in silos. If one remarks, This is the AI age, the market perceives it as a standalone reality. Suddenly, no one is interested in talking about data as such. 

However, data and AI depend on each other, which Salesforce understands very well. In integrating Data Cloud with the Salesforce Einstein 1 Platform, and in joining forces with MuleSoft, Salesforce has signaled its ambitions in the AI niche. 

If the past is any indication, we foresee a greater focus on facilitating such integrations with other cloud platforms, with a view to offering industry-specific solutions. 

For instance, Salesforce already employs Data Cloud for Health Cloud, which is a dedicated Salesforce instance for healthcare and life sciences. The CRM brand is also working with Snowflake Data Cloud. Salesforce announced the availability of Bring Your Own Lake (BYOL) Data Sharing in September last year.  

Projection #4: More Investment in Salesforce DevOps

Salesforce has shown a marked interest in adopting DevOps tools in recent years. In December 2022, the company launched the DevOps center “to help teams release technology solutions faster, where organizations can reduce IT costs by as much as 25%.”

Salesforce’s objective is threefold: one, facilitating quicker software solutions; two, dismantling the brickish divide between operations and development teams; and three, enabling organizations to quickly adapt to market changes. 

This threefold agenda depends on collaboration between team members—the main purpose of a DevOps culture. Large organizations will benefit from operational transparency whereby every team member will be able to keep track of any changes and stay updated. 

Keeping these goals in mind, we anticipate more strategic partnerships with DevOps tools in 2024. You may want your team members to upskill through DevOps resources so that they are acquainted with how the Salesforce DevOps engine runs. 

Projection #5: Enhancements in Salesforce Audio CRM

Salesforce introduced voice-powered CRM solutions in 2019. “Voice is a huge shift for the industry and will be as impactful in businesses as it’s been in our homes,” says Bret Taylor, President and Chief Product Officer, Salesforce. “With Einstein, Salesforce is bringing the power of voice to every business, giving everyone an intelligent, trusted guide at work.”

The future of Salesforce seems marked with significant advancements in this domain. For instance, we might see more context-aware voice solutions for more accurate interpretations of voice commands. We also expect better integration of voice-powered CRM with other Salesforce features. 

Salesforce’s voice CRM may be personalized to the extent that it can recognize individual voice commands and give preference-based results. Equally, users who are not adequately conversant with voice technology may see more user-friendly solutions. 

Can we expect voice assistants in multiple languages this year? What if Einstein could be trained to generate reports and create custom dashboards? Since Salesforce is investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, could we expect its voice CRM to adopt these technologies to deliver more insightful experiences? We will soon find out!

Projection #6: Greater Adoption of Salesforce Blockchain 

Salesforce introduced Salesforce Blockchain in 2019 to “create, secure, and share data from applications with a network of partners.” 

That same year, Salesforce also joined the Blockchain Research Institute. (The 12-member Institute boasts the likes of IBM, Microsoft, PepsiCo, the Bank of Canada, and Raiffeisen Bank as its members.)  

Against the upward trajectory of Salesforce Blockchain over the last five years, not to mention the multibillion-dollar expansion of the blockchain industry itself, we foresee:

• a greater adoption of the technology in 2024, leading to more varied use cases;
  
• integration with more of Salesforce’s products and services (currently, it is integrated with Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Salesforce CRM);
  
• and finally, an emphasis on greater scalability and security. 

Projection #7: Multi-Pronged Upgrades in Analytics Solutions

Here as elsewhere, Salesforce has, over the years, continued to expand its portfolio in analytics, starting from the acquisition of Jigsaw, a data enrichment company, in 2010, to its most recent partnership with Snowflake.

Salesforce has already consolidated Lightning Dashboard and Reports, CRM Analytics, Analytics Cloud (formerly Tableau CRM), and Einstein Discovery to deliver a unified analytics experience for users. Salesforce has also enabled live predictions by combining its predictive analytics capabilities with data from Snowflake. CRM Analytics has undergone a major rejig, resulting in more streamlined access to analytics resources. 

In 2024, we expect more such upgrades in the analytics department, spearheaded by AI-driven integrations with external data sources. 

Salesforce will sharpen its focus on data privacy by reinforcing the Einstein Trust Layer, which will allow users, among other things, to “ground their [generative AI] prompts in customer data and mask that data when the prompt is shared with Large Language Models.” 

Salesforce may also turn to advanced AI and machine learning models to bolster its predictive analytics capabilities. Lastly, what is virtually certain in the near future, if not in 2024, is the integration of AR/immersive interfaces into Salesforce’s data visualization tools. 

Wrapping up

Salesforce is expected to introduce more such developments this year by virtue of a growing interest on the part of Salesforce customers to use the platform for more agile, flexible, and customer-conscious business processes. 

Our trained Salesforce hawks are always on the lookout for new possibilities, constantly diversifying their expertise. If you want to use the latest in Salesforce to grow your business, touch base with our Salesforce Marketing Cloud specialists today!