Why an exec who returned to Salesforce after 11 years to lead its largest cloud biz is so bullish on AI in customer service (CRM)

<p><img src="https://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5f288ae21918244d300e0f44-2400/gettyimages-182563624.jpg" border="0" alt="Clara Shih Hearsay Social CEO founder" data-mce-source="Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Hearsay Social, Clara Shih speaks during the 5th annual Executive Marketing Summit at the New York Stock Exchange on September 30, 2013 in New York City."></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>Salesforce just hired an executive who is rejoining the firm after more than a decade running a startup to lead its largest cloud business, and she's bullish on using AI and automation to improve customer service.&nbsp;</p><p>Clara Shih will now run Salesforce's customer service software division as the CEO of its Service Cloud business, after spending 11-plus years building a startup <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hearsay-salesforce-partnership-banks-insurance-serve-customers-digital-2020-8">that combated issues customer service reps had with Salesforce's tools</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>During her previous, three-year stint at Salesforce in the late 2000s, Shih ran product marketing for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/8-startups-founded-by-ex-salesforce-employees-2014-9">AppExchange</a>. She left in 2009 to found Hearsay Systems because she wanted to build customer service personalization tools that could integrate with the communication methods people wanted to use, like social media or online chat.</p><p>Insider spoke to Shih about how she expects the customer service industry to evolve and why she returned to Salesforce:</p><h2><strong>How the pandemic is changing customer service&nbsp;</strong></h2><p>Shih believes that AI can improve customer service, both by making it easier for customers to get answers, quickly, and by giving reps shortcuts that help them do their jobs better.&nbsp;</p><p>"My whole career, I've been very passionate about the future of work, about customer experience, and about AI and this rolemagicallyis at the intersection of those three," Shih said.</p><p>Shih sees two areas Service Cloud can help organizations modernize their customer service. One is using artificial intelligence and integrations to speed up tasks and automate some processes, which Salesforce offers via its Einstein AI software and MuleSoft. This will ultimately make reps jobs less monotonous and allow them to focus on the more high-touch aspects of the work.</p><p>"As a head of a customer service group you don't just want to be able to field calls and field text messages and chats: You want to drive transformation," Shih said. "And the way that that is happening is by harnessing intelligence and automation."</p><p>AI is also important to helping customers find answers quickly, like through personalized, automated chat bots.&nbsp;</p><p>In some ways the challenges <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/6-ways-to-achieve-wow-customer-service-create-lifelong-customers-2020-2">organizations are facing with customer service</a> are the same now as they were when Shih was at Salesforce in the late 2000s: Firms need to move customer service to the cloud and connect it to sales, marketing, and other customer touch points, she said.</p><p>"I think that the difference is that there are a lot more companies that realize this imperative now," she said, "And also the realization that customer service isn't just about phone support, but that it's digital experiences."</p><p>That means having an easy-to-find website with ways for customers to answers questions on their own or via a bot, and the ability to talk to customer service agents through chat or messaging options, she said. Many in-person experiences now also start online, like booking an appointment slot before visiting a phone store or ordering something for curbside pickup. Even field service agents who have to do their jobs at a location rely on technology to manage the process and record results.</p><p>Service Cloud offers many of these capabilities already, and Shih wants to help customers use them effectively.</p><p>As a result of those technologies, the skills customer service agents need are changing. Salesforce is helping organizations deal with those challenges: It released a new tool called Workforce Engagement in June that will help contact centers predict demand for customer service, staff accordingly, and coordinate coaching and training for agents using <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-trailhead-reskilling-tech-jobs-customers-2020-5">Salesforce's online learning platform My Trailhead</a>.</p><p>"With technology changing every year," Shih said, "It's a process of lifelong learning."</p><h2><strong>Why Shih rejoined Salesforce over a decade later&nbsp;</strong></h2><p>Shih said her <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thoughts-from-day-1-ceo-service-cloud-clara-shih/">journey back to Salesforce</a> was influenced by both personal circumstances and changes in the industry overall. Over the last decade she built Hearsay from a small startup to a thriving company that changed the way financial agents could provide customer service.&nbsp;</p><p>Last year, as the coronavirus pandemic made digital customer service more important than ever, Hearsay partnered with Salesforce to develop additional integrations. At the same time <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hearsay-salesforce-partnership-banks-insurance-serve-customers-digital-2020-8">Salesforce Ventures poured some fresh funding into the startup</a>, though the amount is unknown (the company had previously raised $51 million at a $175 million valuation, according to PitchBook).</p><p>While that was happening, the pandemic and remote work changed Shih's priorities: She wanted to spend more time with family, including her kindergarten-aged son. She and her husband were both startup CEOs, working late and on weekends and, before the coronavirus, often traveling constantly. Meanwhile, she felt that someone with different skills and strengths <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/passing-torch-hearsays-new-ceo-clara-shih/">would be a better fit to lead the firm through its next phase.</a></p><p>So <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/passing-torch-hearsays-new-ceo-clara-shih/">she stepped down as Hearsay's CEO in August</a>, promoting former COO Mike Boese to the position while she took on an executive chairwoman role, which she'll keep during her new job at Salesforce. Even though she was ready to break from startup life, she said that founding a company was one of the best experiences she's ever had and built invaluable skills.</p><p>After a month break, she started exploring different career opportunities, but, ultimately, the chance to lead Salesforce's customer service cloud at a time when processes are upended by the pandemic was the most compelling option, she said.&nbsp;</p><p>As the new leader for Service Cloud, she'll be in charge of Salesforce's biggest cloud offering. In its third quarter, Service Cloud brought in $1.3 billion of the firm's total $5.42 billion in revenue, and grew 20% on yearly basis over the last two quarters. It's now larger than Sales Cloud, which is the first product Salesforce built.&nbsp;</p><p>Shih is stepping into a role once held by exec Bill Patterson, who led Service Cloud for almost two years before being promoted in January 2020 to become executive VP and general manager for all customer relationship management tools, including Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, and she will report to him.&nbsp;</p><p><em><strong>Got a tip'</strong>&nbsp;Contact this reporter via email at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@insider.com</a>&nbsp;or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) 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