Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Asia Pacific Edition of Dreamforce. I'm Leandro Perez, Vice President and CMO of Asia Pacific at Salesforce, so excited to be here with you again on day 1 of this amazing event. I am right here in the Dreamforest on Howard Street, the open-air heart of the Dreamforce campus. To give you an idea of the scale of Dreamforce. There are 42,000 people attending in person and over 150,000 people tuning in from across the globe on Salesforce+. In the lead-up to the main keynote, we're going behind the scenes; meeting up with inspiring thought leaders; and exploring a subject that's top of mind for us all, artificial intelligence. Of course, you can't talk about AI without talking about trust, a core Salesforce value now more than ever. We know that trust is the foundation for this technology and for harnessing the power of data. It's also essential for connecting with your customers and empowering your success. I've been here in San Francisco for a few days already; and managed to catch up with some of our most senior Salesforce executives like Amy Weaver, our President and Chief Financial Officer; and Paula Goldman, Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer. We're going to bring you those interviews as we count down to the main keynote featuring our Chair, CEO and Co-founder of Salesforce, Marc Benioff; and all of our latest innovation. You'll also get some important insights specific to Asia Pacific when our regional leaders interview customers, including Endeavour Energy from Australia; Kotak Mahindra Bank from India; and our ASEAN customer, Philippine Airlines. Not to mention we've enlisted 3 trailblazers to help us showcase some of the best parts of Dreamforce. Say hello to Emily McCowan, Joey Chan and Neetu Bansal. We have a fun challenge in store for them, among many other highlights in this Dreamforce Asia Pacific edition, so stay tuned. We're here in the Salesforce Tower. And I've managed to grab a few moments with Salesforce President and CFO, Amy Weaver. Welcome, Amy.

Leandro, it's so great to be here. And can you believe what a beautiful, beautiful week we have for Dreamforce?

It's come again so quickly.

Now Amy, the market has been moving very quickly and business leaders have been trying to adapt and get ahead of the changes. What are you hearing from the business leaders you're talking to?

One of the trends I'm seeing with the economy is actually that it's not changing very fast. The economy seems to be doing fine, but people aren't really sure where it's going. You keep hearing, 2 quarters from now, 3 quarters from now, there's going to be an uptick. Or 2 quarters from now, 3 quarters from now, it's going to go the other way, but it constantly seems to be 2 to 3 quarters out. And that causes uncertainty. It makes it harder for people to make decisions about longer-term projects.

Super interesting. So obviously we're here at Dreamforce. We're going to talk a lot about innovation, technology. So how are businesses leveraging technology to increase their top line and maybe control their bottom line?

Well, I think that's what it's really all about right now. Everyone is excited. They want to make decisions for now, and that means they need fast time to value. They need efficiency and they still want that growth, and I think it's where Salesforce really shines. We've got the same products that have always been there to help companies grow. They're also efficiency plays. They're also helping with productivity. And especially, if you get into our industry's products, we have time to value like no one else, so I'm really excited for Salesforce.

Now Amy, I know you spend a lot of time in the Asia Pacific region. You've also worked in the region. What are you most excited about the Asia Pacific at the moment?

Well, I am so excited. First, I can't think about the region without thinking about Sydney tower.

Very exciting.

I have seen beautiful towers all around the globe. I have not yet visited in person, but I think the Sydney tower is going to be pretty hard to beat. It looks spectacular.

I think we're locking in a date here, Amy, [ is what I'm hearing ]...

I know. We have to do that, but it looks absolutely gorgeous. Thrilled about that; thrilled about Hyperforce; and marketing cloud coming on to that, which was recently announced; and then of course, India, which is really a story of our employees and our ecosystem. India is now our biggest country for employees outside of the United States, and it's growing fast. And it's the same with the ecosystem. We have more trailblazers and more people on Trailhead in India, again, than any other country outside of the U.S. And then if we jump over to Singapore, one of my favorite cities in the world -- and it's our new -- our latest AI sensor, the first one outside of Palo Alto. So I think there's incredible things happening at APAC Salesforce and I can't wait to see what's next.

Music to my ears, love talking about the region. Thank you so much, Amy, for what's going to be an incredible week and for sharing a few moments with our audience here today.

Thrilled to be here.

Today, I'm speaking with Milind Nagnur, the Chief Technology Officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of the largest private sector banks in India and a very important customer of ours. So Milind, first of all, welcome to San Francisco and welcome to Dreamforce. I know that you may have attended Dreamforce before, but considering the fact that, many in your team, for them, it will be the first time, what is the expectation that you all have of this trip of yours to Dreamforce?

Arundhati, yes, I have been here to Dreamforce before. And Salesforce is a really important part of our ecosystem at Kotak Mahindra Bank, and what I'm looking forward to is to learn and to share. So in terms of learning, I am eager to know the new product announcements that will come from Salesforce team. I also look forward to learning from my other banking peers on important projects and programs and initiatives on their side. And in terms of sharing, I am part of a few panels, where I look forward to work with my peers and co-panelists and exchange ideas.

So Milind, you are aware that Salesforce has been the topmost CRM provider for a very large number of years now. How is CRM transforming banking for your customers?

CRM is a very important part of how we manage our relationships with our customers both on the consumer banking side and on the wholesale and corporate banking side. And with the new advancements in data and analytics, what we aim is to anticipate our customers' needs when they call us or even before they call us or reach out to us or whether they interact with us in a branch or through a call center or through our chatbot type of channels. We want CRM powered by data and analytics to help us be more intelligent in anticipating our customers' needs, and that's what we look forward to.

So you talked about data and analytics and you know that AI is the hot topic of the day, so how do you believe -- what is your vision of AI and data and what it will do for the banking industry?

Yes. I think, Arundhati, the potential is tremendous. India also, both houses of parliament in India recently passed the data privacy bill.

True.

So in addition to AI, responsible AI is becoming a very important topic in India. And therefore, all the data-driven analytics and AI that we use in order to enhance customer experience and customer service through CRM also now has to comply with the new data privacy bills in India. So I think it's an exciting confluence of consumer protection, customer experience and all of that coming together with data analytics and technology to provide newer and better and faster experiences for our customers.

So we are looking at a really vibrant future where there's a lot of opportunity, but with opportunity comes responsibilities. So a lot of responsibility as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Arundhati.

Thank you, Arundhati and Milind, for taking the time to share your insights. And perfect timing, I have Ryan Aytay, President and CEO of Tableau at Salesforce. Great to see you again, Ryan.

Good to see you, Leandro.

Thank you for joining us for this special edition just for APAC. Look, to kick right in: We're talking a lot about AI at the moment at Dreamforce and in general, but we don't get great AI without great data, so can you share some tips on how folks can do that?

Yes, absolutely. So I think one of the things we look at across the board -- and you just said this, which is you don't get great AI without data, but let's go back a little bit further. We're all getting so much data every single day. Over 1 billion gigabytes of data are coming out the world every day. It's processed. It's collected. It's stored, but it's stored in very disconnected places, and I think that's the thing that we really need to focus on. I would say that there's a dependency in AI, dependency on the data, all right? And we have to think about that. And so as customers and we go out and we think about pulling all of our data together, it's about unifying and harmonizing that data. And that's, of course, what we can help with, with the Salesforce Data Cloud.

Incredible. And very excited about that one too. Now look. I know you talk to customers all around the world and many in Asia Pacific. What are the Asia Pacific customers telling you right now?

Yes. I think maybe an example would be a really fantastic customer of ours that I think I'm continually blown away by with their AI and data strategy is Woolworths, all right? Great customer; and I think, also changing some of the face of how things are working, specifically in Australia and other areas, but in that case, right, very much focused on being a data-driven organization, which it's funny because we just did this big study for the data -- state of data and analytics report: 10,000 IT professionals, majority of them saying, "We're not getting the full value of our data." And that's because it's disconnected. So the opportunity is like -- I look at Woolworths as a great example of a company leading in this space because they are trying to harness their data. They are pulling it together. And of course, that will power what we talk about here at Salesforce, which is connecting with our customers in a whole new way. They're visualizing it with Tableau. They're taking action on their data. And of course, this just gets supercharged when we look at Data Cloud, so pretty exciting times.

So a lot of announcements happening here at Dreamforce and just in general with Tableau. What would be your recommendation for folks who want to catch up and understand everything that's happening with the product?

Well, there's a lot to see, number one, so I would say don't get overwhelmed. I would start with Marc's keynote, obviously, seeing that lots of...

It's coming up...

It's coming up. And it's very focused on AI but also how to put the AI and the data into action, which I think is critical. So we oftentimes want to jump into something new. It's very important to think about trust right now in this new revolution so that we don't get caught up kind of going too far too fast. We also don't want to sit on the sidelines. And so I think, going through that keynote, I'm going to have to make a callout for the Tableau keynote, which is always something you should watch, but I think in the world of data right now it's you need to be focused on the Data Cloud, MuleSoft, Tableau, in terms of bringing these things together. And of course, we're partnering with some really great companies that will also have some announcements, right, that are coming, ones you already may know about, companies like Snowflake and Google, but other things coming this week which I'll just kind of tease out there.

A little bit of excitement. I love that. Well, look. Thank you so much, Ryan. I know it's a crazy week here at Dreamforce. You're meeting with customers and meeting with the community and announcing cool things, but thanks again on behalf of the whole community at Asia Pacific.

Thank you. It's great to be here. [Presentation]

Mel, you're the Chief Data, People and Sustainability Officer with Endeavour Energy. Now I understand this is your first Dreamforce.

It is.

It's got to be exciting, maybe a little overwhelming. So this week, you're doing a session on tackling climate change, which everyone across APAC can stream. In the meantime, tell us a little bit about the net zero hero initiative; and any results that you're seeing, so far.

Yes. So we implemented Net Zero Cloud a few months back. And as part of launching that, what we did was put a program in place called net zero hero, which is all about engaging our employees to get excited to understand the why behind our sustainability strategy. So it's been a really great challenge. People have to take on individual challenges. They have to take on group challenges. And they have to ultimately help us solve our sustainability goals over the next 10-plus years.

Now we think about -- this week, we think about AI. It's everywhere. It's all over Dreamforce. It's everywhere in the industry. Tell us a bit more about -- in your industry in energy, what does it mean? And how are you thinking about it?

Well, we're in the middle of energy transformation, so the world is changing really quickly for us. And so AI is going to actually help us enable some of that and do it at a much faster speed, so we're really excited about it. It's been news for a little bit for a while. It's not that new in reality, but it's become a bit of a fad across the world, but yes, no, we're starting to use it. We're putting it into the hands of our people. So what we're trying to do is get our people using AI; getting them excited about it, excited to understand what it can do. And then we could actually really start to see that pick up and make a difference in the organization.

I'm curious. As you think about Salesforce beyond our technology requirements, how can we really show up and support you all from a value standpoint?

Yes. And I think that's one of the reasons we work with Salesforce. It's that value alignment across the organizations. So when you find a partner that understands what you're trying to do for your customers and communities because they are doing it for their customers and communities, there's a really lovely alignment there. So it's not about just the technology and the innovation, which is obviously great, but it's about how you partner to help us make a success, not just short term but the real long term as well. I think there's a beautiful synergy in the way we see the world, and I think that's -- comes through in how our people work together as one team.

So excited for this week. I hope you have an amazing first Dreamforce. And thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much. It's going to be great.

Joining me now is Paula Goldman, who has a fascinating and important role at Salesforce, Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer. Thanks for joining us, Paula.

My pleasure.

Now tell me a little bit about this role, for the folks online. What does it mean?

Really what it means is, if you think about AI, we're thinking not only how do we build it today, but how do we make sure we're on top of what comes next? How do we build it with trust? How do -- we get these common questions about AI, how to make sure we have solid answers and our customers can trust it.

A fascinating role, so tell us, like, how do you think about, every day, the things that you do to help our customers?

Well, if you're tuning in to Dreamforce or you're here, you're hearing a lot about AI. And you're hearing a lot about our trust layer and our trust commitments, but really it looks like our customers will come and say, "I really care to make sure that my data is private, that I control who sees it, that I control -- that it's not being used to train outside models," that kind of stuff. And we're building in a whole bunch of safeguards around that to make sure that the products are free from bias, to make sure that toxic content doesn't end up in responses, all of that kind of stuff that is just so fundamental to trust.

Wow. It's a whole new space, and I'm glad we have someone thinking about that 24 hours a day. Now Paula, tell me. You talk to folks around the Asia Pacific region. What's top of mind for them? And how are you thinking about this space?

Well, obviously the Asia Pacific region is comprised of a number of countries, diverse regulatory landscape. I will say an overriding theme around data privacy and making sure that we are creating solutions that talk to these diverse audiences. And so that is very top of mind as we're developing AI.

Fascinating. And thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it given the wildness of Dreamforce and you're in hot demand. So we really appreciate the time today.

Really my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

I mentioned earlier that we have a fun challenge for our trailblazers. Well, it's actually a quiz show. We're calling it, "Who wants to be an Einstein?" Let's check it out. [Presentation]

Aren't our trailblazers incredible? It just goes to show everyone can be an Einstein with Salesforce.

Mac, it's really exciting to see you here at Dreamforce. Thank you for coming.

It's great to be here, Sujith.

Now I want to ask you. What are you looking to get out of this week?

We want to engage in meaningful conversations with industry experts. Philippine Airlines is in its early stage of digital transformation. And we want to take advantage of all the solutions available and understand how those solutions can fit in our customer experience architecture that can help us elevate the level of experience we provide our passengers.

Your vision for collaboration with Salesforce touches personalized experiences, increased B2B revenue, data-driven insights and strategic agility. What are you most excited about?

The personalized experiences. We want to have deep understanding of the behavior, the profile of our passengers so we can provide a -- customized and tailored-fit services that can help us meet the requirements.

And we know the employee experience is particularly key for you. You've spoken about your employees being your ambassadors. How do you make sure that your employees are providing excellent customer experiences?

We ensure that they're given the proper training so they can provide assistance to passengers and having the data available right in front of them for them to make informed and quick decisions that can help them resolve the issues of our customers.

So Mac, you're hearing a lot about AI and data at Dreamforce. What kind of a shift do you think AI and data-driven decisions will drive your industry? And what role does tech play in that?

Deep insights are now available for us to be able to make informed decisions. It can also help us better understand the needs of our passengers, be able to come up with products that actually meets their needs. And that can allow us to make quick decisions, be agile about our strategies and ensure that we maintain that competitive advantage.

It's amazing to hear about Philippine Airlines and to have you here at Dreamforce with us, Mac.

Thank you for inviting us. We're happy to be here.

At Salesforce, we love to help our customers anticipate what's next. The team that's responsible for looking out into the future is led by Mick Costigan, VP of Salesforce Futures. What a cool job. Mick, thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much, Leandro.

Now look. You've spent time. I think we had about 70 CXOs in a workshop today. What are some of the themes you were talking to them about?

Yes. So the 2 big themes we wanted to work through with the senior leaders today relate to AI. It's all about AI at Dreamforce this year. And so the 2 big questions are: Number one, what are the effects that AI is going to have on customer relationships? And what do companies need to do to reimagine the way they manage those relationships? Second question is thinking more broadly about the societal impacts of AI. There's a lot of fear and anxiety out there, so what should business leaders be doing to step up and provide leadership in this moment?

So Mick, tell us a little of the highlights from these workshops that you had.

Yes. So on the question of customer relationships, we were really digging into the fact that generative AI has flipped the script, right? Customers are now super empowered. These tools are working on your behalf, not for the big companies, so what is that going to mean? We think it means that companies will need to elevate the way that they manage relationships. Instead of just targeting customers with transactional messages and requests, they're going to have to think about the long duration of relationships. They're going to have to think about how they can build trust, personalize and adapt over time. And if they don't, they'll find themselves outside the trust boundary.

Now given that you were speaking to an Asia Pacific audience today, anything unique to the region? Or is it broadly universal?

Yes. Look. There's 2 answers to that question. On the one hand, we see in generative AI kind of the final step of a 3 part. We've pushed the Internet out to everyone. We all have now a smartphone device in their hand, and through that device, they're getting access to generative AI, so there's kind of a universal trend there. Our friends at Salesforce research recently completed some research on the generational differences in the use of generative AI across North America, Canada and U.S. but also Australia and India. And what was fascinating is that these younger generations in all of these countries are just way ahead of their elders in terms of using these tools which might start off as toys but very quickly we're going to see become really powerful tools in their hands. So that's kind of one part of the story. There is a universal aspect, but clearly, right, every country, every culture has a different kind of set of norms and approaches and also has a very different competitive situation, right? The tech, the companies, the apps that you have on your phone in Asia are very different to the apps that you might have on your phone in North America, so that initial condition is going to change the way that ultimately this technology gets used in those places.

Well, thank you so much, Mick, for sharing a little bit about the future and how we can all step there in the right way. Appreciate the time today.

Thanks, Leandro.

I'm here in the Dreamforce main keynote room. The energy is electric. I'm seeing familiar faces. The community is buzzing. I'm seeing Golden Hoodie. It's incredible. We are moments away from the main keynote featuring Chair, CEO and Co-founder Marc Benioff and special guests, where a raft of new innovations will be coming. These innovations are led by our engineering team. And that is led by none other than Srini Tallapragada, President and Chief Engineering Officer, Srini, the other CEO at Salesforce.

How are you? I'm very excited for the Dreamforce...

Asia Pacific edition.

Asia Pacific edition. [ And we had yesterday with a lot of ] great customers.

Thank you for joining that. The executive experience was amazing.

Amazing, great service to customers. I think there are 3 things [ which I caught ]. One is the people itself. We've got world-class engineers and product managers and designers and all. Number two is focus on customer success. All of us really want to ensure that the customers are successful using our products. Number three, of course, we want to use AI for our own internal development and productivity. Some of those innovations are built in Singapore. We have great research labs in Singapore and in India, and that's what we've been using. I think a combination of these 3 is what I think is the magic.

Srini, I don't know how you deliver year after year. Truly incredible. Now Srini, we've got Asia Pacific folks on the line. What are you most excited about for the region?

I think, number one, I'm excited for the Einstein 1 platform. Einstein 1 is an integrated platform, which is what you'll see today. And number two, we are going to bring all these innovations all across Asia Pac. We already have Hyperforce in India, Singapore, Australia. And we are going to release in Indonesia too, so very soon, all these innovations you are seeing today will show up in your regions with data residency compliance and all. And then we'll be focused on customer success.

Thank you, Srini. I know you give so much love to the region. We appreciate it. And we hope to see you in the region again.

Very soon.

Thank you, Srini.

Take care.

I'm in the keynote room; and I found Shibu Abraham, all the way from Malaysia, Golden Hoodie winner from last year. Shibu, how are you doing?

Excited.

Now tell me. What's been happening? You arrived a little early, I believe.

Yes. I flew in on Friday. And on the weekend, we had the -- actually, on Monday, yesterday, we had the MVP and conference.

What's happening in there?

So we had a little sneak peek into what's coming, yes. And it's very, very exciting...

Hold on. You already know what's happening? Do not say anything. They haven't seen anything...

No, not yet, yes. I'm just waiting for it. Like -- and once it's announced, we're going to go all the way.

Well, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate you representing the APAC region [ for us today ].

Glad to be here too.

Thank you. I have found the trailblazer community and I'm seeing Golden Hoodies everywhere. They're multiplying. Golden Hoodies, where are we? Are we excited? It's incredible. We're counting down to the Dreamforce keynote moments away, innovations coming. And the community [ is here today ]. We'll see you next year. Thank you, everybody.