Downtown San Francisco’s escape from its COVID-19-related slump, which has been exemplified by desolate streets, abandoned office buildings, and a prominent issue with homelessness, is anticipated to receive a boost from September 12 to 14 at the largest technology conference to be held in the Bay Area in quite some time. For many, it’s hoped that this national confab will positively impact the Bay Area’s downtrodden reputation of late.

It’s expected that the Dreamforce AI + Data + CRM Conference, which is being sponsored by Salesforce Inc. and will take place at the Moscone Center, will see 40,000 in-person visitors, who together will contribute roughly $57 million to the local economy.

Cloudstreet Services Will Be a Major Dreamforce Participant

One prominent participant in the Dreamforce Conference will be Salesforce cloud technology implementation partner Cloudstreet Services. Cloudstreet is highly adept at implementing salesforce solutions for B2B companies in the manufacturing, industrial, IT services, and consumer goods sectors.

Cloudstreet Services provides Salesforce implementations, staff augmentation, managed support, mobile apps, a marketing cloud, a sales cloud, a community/experience cloud, a B2B and B2C commerce cloud, lightning migrations, custom development, and integration services.

Cloudstreet helps Salesforce customers who have difficulty customizing Salesforce to meet their needs, experience challenges in finding developers who understand the intricacies of the system and are agonized by the high costs associated with hiring skilled Salesforce developers.

Using Cloudstreet’s experienced Salesforce-certified consultants, companies can increase their sales and opportunities, reduce burdens and blockers, and optimize their Salesforce platforms.

Generative AI Will Be a Major Focus of the Conference

Simultaneously, the participation of Salesforce as the conference’s sponsor is a great honor for the company, as this event is likely to be one of the largest gatherings of people who have an interest in technology that’s ever taken place in the Bay Area. This exhibition focused on the highly topical subject of generative artificial intelligence (AI), will be the most significant one of its type that’s been staged in the U.S. thus far.

A conversation between Marc Benioff, Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce, and Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, will be a highlight of the event. These two well-regarded gentlemen will lend an air of gravitas and keen insight to the proceedings. The project that’s known as ChatGPT is managed by OpenAI, while Salesforce is the maker of the world’s best-known customer relationship management (CRM) software. Many of the attendees of the conference are looking forward to the opportunity to witness this discourse.

Colin Fleming, a senior vice president of marketing, content, and customer insights at Salesforce, noted in an interview that “AI is front-and-center for every business leader, and we’re pivoting hard to it this year at the show.” His remarks are a clue that Salesforce is investing a substantial amount of resources in AI, and Fleming confirmed that “Dreamforce as well as our own company are placing a significant amount of emphasis on it.”

In a recent study carried out by Salesforce, it was found that two-thirds of information technology executives seek to pay greater attention to the projects their businesses are working on related to generative AI over the course of the next 18 months. This finding all but confirms that generative AI is expected to become significantly more critical to businesses in the coming years.

San Francisco Is Becoming a Global Center of AI Innovation

Indeed, Fleming offered the observation that “we’re at a moment in time when San Francisco is emerging as the epicenter of AI.”

In fact, it would seem that the city is on the verge of experiencing yet another tech bubble, with this one specifically being propelled by AI. This is especially true if one considers the fact that OpenAI’s much-hyped chatbot software, ChatGPT, was only introduced to the general public in November of the previous year. It would seem from the resulting excitement that OpenAI will play a pivotal role in serving as the primary factor behind a much-anticipated expansion of the technology industry.

As it stands, San Francisco is home to the headquarters of 19 of the 55 largest AI-related companies in the world, and this next Dreamforce conference is expected to be the greatest gathering of generative AI talent in the nation. According to the AI venture Cerebral Valley, which is also located in San Francisco, there were 58 events that were related to AI that took place in the city during the month of July alone.

In addition, figures that were provided by the Brookings Institution indicated that San Francisco was the location for more than half of the generative AI jobs that were advertised over the course of the previous year.

Boston University researcher Aakash Kalyani said that it may take up to 60 years for this particular technology’s impact on employment to permeate the whole nation, citing as an example the continued concentration of smartphone research and design in Silicon Valley. Positions that rely on this technology, such as ride-hailing or delivery, tend to spread more rapidly than high-paying, high-skill positions, he added.

The Bay Area has long had a concentration of connections between academic institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the government, as well as networks of finance. As the Brookings Institution’s Mark Muro points out, for AI, it’s going to be very difficult to massively decentralize the innovation’s core technology and research activities. Currently, some AI models are made available as open source, making them more accessible and affordable for businesses of all sizes and in all industries.

Salesforce Is Expected to Make Announcements, Including Quarterly Results

At the Dreamforce conference, which Salesforce puts on annually, the company makes it a habit to present to the general public for the very first time all of the major product updates that they’ve been working on. On Wednesday, August 30, representatives from Salesforce will give a presentation reviewing the progress made by the business during the most recent fiscal quarter.

This year, it’s predicted that Salesforce will put a greater emphasis on security measures that are being integrated into a new AI-powered offering from the company. This may be a result of the fact that more than three-quarters of business customers presently feel that generative AI presents substantial security risks.

Going forward, keeping AI systems secure will be essential for their widespread use. By keeping these concerns top-of-mind, businesses can design AI-powered systems and software that are flexible, safe, and reliable.