Top 5 Developer Announcements at TrailblazerDX ‘24

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and development, staying ahead of the curve is not just an advantage; it’s a necessity. TrailblazerDX, Salesforce’s premier event for developers, once again set the stage for innovation, collaboration, and inspiration. As developers, we find ourselves in a constant learning loop, seeking out the newest trends, tools, and practices that can transform how we build, innovate, and solve complex challenges.

Whether you’re a seasoned Salesforce Developer or just embarking on your Trailblazer journey, the event highlighted key trends, tools, and practices that are shaping the future of development in the Salesforce ecosystem and beyond. From the latest in AI and machine learning to advancements in custom development and integrations, TrailblazerDX provided a comprehensive look at what’s next in technology.

1. Einstein Copilot Actions

Einstein Copilot (Beta) is Salesforce’s conversational AI assistant that understands your organization’s metadata and data permissions, enabling you to interact with it using natural language. It comes pre-equipped with a variety of standard actions, such as finding or summarizing records, drafting sales emails, and aggregating data. What distinguishes Einstein Copilot is its capacity for customization through Copilot Builder (Beta), allowing developers to extend its functionalities by creating custom actions with Apex, flows, or prompt templates.

Einstein Copilot also supports chaining multiple actions to fulfill complex requests through natural conversation, demonstrating its reasoning engine’s capability to plan and execute these tasks. For developers, this means an opportunity to create conversational AI experiences tailored to specific business processes, enhancing productivity and user engagement.

2. Prompt Templates

Einstein Prompt Templates are a boon for Salesforce Developers, offering a simplified way to integrate Einstein AI’s capabilities into Salesforce applications. These templates save developers time by providing a pre-structured starting point for AI integration, thereby eliminating the need to build from scratch. 

They are designed with Salesforce’s best practices in mind, ensuring applications are not only powerful but also scalable and reliable. Additionally, the templates allow for significant customization, letting developers adjust AI models to meet the specific needs of their projects.

By leveraging these templates, developers can enhance the user experience of Salesforce applications through more personalized and efficient services, like improved data analysis, predictive insights, and task automation. This not only leads to higher user satisfaction and productivity but also offers developers a valuable opportunity to learn about AI model integration and spur innovation within their projects. Essentially, Einstein Prompt Templates streamline the development process while enriching applications with AI’s transformative potential.

3. Quick Start: Einstein Copilot

This badge is something that caught my attention. At first glance it’s only a quick start badge, but inside it tells you that you have to activate your very own five day trial org with Einstein Generative AI included. This is perfect for any developer wanting to get their hands on the tools to see what they are really capable of.

You can sign up for your very own trial org here.

4. How to Code with Einstein for Developers

One interesting thing that has also come out this week is that the data usage policy around Einstein for Developers has been updated, with customer code no longer being used to help train the internal LLM. This marks a pivotal shift in how customer code is handled, with a new emphasis on data privacy and security. 

Under this updated policy, customer code is no longer utilized in the training of Salesforce’s internal Large Language Models (LLMs), which are essential for powering the AI capabilities of Einstein. This change ensures that the proprietary code and sensitive data of Salesforce users are safeguarded, reinforcing the platform’s commitment to protecting user data.

This policy adjustment reflects Salesforce’s response to increasing concerns over data privacy and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. By excluding customer code from LLM training processes, Salesforce not only enhances trust in its platform but also aligns with broader ethical standards in AI development.

This move is expected to bolster Salesforce’s reputation as a secure and reliable platform, prioritizing user privacy while still offering powerful AI functionalities through Einstein.

5. Lightning Web Components: What’s New and What’s Coming

There were also some very interesting announcements for Lightning Web Components. Complex Template Expressions are going into Beta in the Summer ‘24 release, with Local Dev Preview and State Management in LWCs going into Pilot in the Winter ‘25 release. In the Spring ‘25 release, Local Dev Preview in LWCs, State Management in LWCs, Overriding standard actions in LWCs, and List View custom buttons in LWCs, are all going into Beta.

Summary

TrailblazerDX showcased pivotal Salesforce developments, emphasizing AI innovations like Einstein Copilot and customizable Einstein Prompt Templates, enhancing developer productivity and application personalization. 

Key highlights include advancements in conversational AI and a significant policy update enhancing data privacy and security, underscoring Salesforce’s commitment to ethical AI development and user data protection. What was your favorite announcement? Let us know in the comments below.