Our Inside Perspective on Mission-Ready AI

The biggest tasks facing most organizations in, in the, uh, agentic era is modernizing legacy systems and preparing the workforce for an AI-powered, mission-ready future. So how can AgentForce and the Salesforce Military Platform help? Who better than the, uh, 78th US Secretary of the Navy to tell us? I'm Carey Chow, joined by Dr. Michael Parker, Salesforce VP of Strategy and Business Development, and former Secretary of the US Navy and CEO of Del Toro Global Associates, the Honorable Carlos Del Toro. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us here.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah. Secretary, you've led the Navy. You're a leader in the corporate space. Based off of your experiences, why is it so important to modernize legacy systems with AI and modern technology?

Absolutely. Thanks for the question, Gary. Thanks for having me. And it was a great honor. And I thank the American people for allowing me to serve as the 78th Secretary of the Navy. But one of my charges actually was to modernize the Navy. And, you know, 17 years in the private sector as well, too. And I always say that the company that's constantly modernizing and restructuring itself is dying on the grapevine. And it's no different than the Navy, with one exception. It's the American taxpayer dollars. And we actually are very thankful to the American taxpayer for the investment that they make in our Navy and Marine Corps so that we have the resources that we can actually provide these courageous sailors and Marines with the best technology using AI that can transform how they actually accomplish their missions in time of peace and in time of war.

Secretary, listen, your impact in the military space is unquantifiable. We at Salesforce though, we love numbers, and with our Salesforce Military Program, we've helped over 80,000 Trailblazers since 2014. Dr. Parker, tell us though, what is the Salesforce Military Platform and what makes it so impactful for military families?

Absolutely. As the Secretary mentioned, the experience is extremely important for the service member, the veteran, and their family. There's several million individuals that we support that are on active, reserve, guard duty, as well as civilians, and providing them the best service we can is our mission. And that's part of our, what we consider a Family 360 approach, which is delivering improved, modernized experiences for the member and their family. And the work that we're doing across the entire department supporting those individuals has really been a game changer for the organizations that deliver the service and the individual service member. And then everything that happens during your career, the entire lifecycle from recruitment to separation or retirement, there's friction points, there's moments that matter in your career, and we're transforming those with these better delivered digital experiences. And then our Salesforce Military program specifically that has upskilled this talent, the veterans and spouses, has then been brought into really key positions across the Ageniq ecosystem.

I love you, Dr. Parker. You mentioned like how our programs try to eliminate that friction, right? That fragmented experience for so many military families. That, that is part of also the mission of Blue Star Families, Secretary, where you serve on the board. What kind of impact do you envision AgentForce Public Sector can have on Blue Star families and other agencies to truly maximize support across all services, like from recruitment all the way to retirement.

Well, that's right. And we're grateful to Salesforce actually for the continuum of services that Salesforce provides from the time that a young man or woman actually comes into military service, the training that it helps them with, the human capital support that it gives them throughout their entire military services. And then their families as well, too, through the support that Salesforce gives Blue Star Families to make sure that the families are also being taken care of by this extraordinary 501(c)(3) organization that provides so much to military families across the spectrum, across the country, across the globe, actually. So we're very thankful for that continuum of service and support to our military service members and their families provided by Salesforce.

Dr. Parker, I'd love to kind of double down over on, on this AgentForce Impact because We can hear all the stats and data, but is there like an anecdote or a story which truly indicates like the power of what we're doing that comes to mind?

Absolutely. So statistically, case deflection is a huge benefit for us. It's a performance improvement measure that many of our services track and manage too. And it's that service that they're providing. But anecdotally, if you think about that whole lived experience and reducing friction, reducing friction in the home for the family, reducing friction in the experience that the service member have ultimately increases morality, increases retention, resiliency, but more important, the lethality of the military force.

Yeah, you know, it's fascinating to me. You talk about this friction and the military experience, right? Because when service members get a PCS, permanent change of station, they're hit with so much of that administrative friction burden, for lack of a better term. We're talking about housing issues, healthcare issues, the list goes on. AI, specifically AgentForce, can be a game changer. But Secretary, I'm also curious about like, how are you already leveraging AI or AI initiatives to remove your own administrative tax?

No, absolutely. So look, I'm very proud of the work that our Navy and Marine Corps is doing in the Middle East today, for example. And that's the Navy and Marine Corps that we trained over the 4 years that I was secretary to be able to do that job. We had over 1,000 AI projects in place that we were funding already and working with Salesforce on many, many initiatives to help improve the effectiveness of our service members to be able to perform their mission, both from a warfighting perspective as well as the administrative perspective, reducing, you know, the bureaucratic burdens that are are placed on our system to be able to get them the things that they need logistically, for example, to perform their mission overseas. So these things make a difference. Sometimes they take time to make a difference, but they eventually do make a stark difference in how they perform our mission.

I think that's a great point because sometimes it does take time.

It does.

And Salesforce Military, we, you guys have mentioned, we try to upskill vets, spouses, land a tech career at no cost, especially at a time when unemployment is huge. This is truly impactful. So, excuse me, Secretary, how do you see partnerships with Salesforce, the DOW, nonprofits like Blue Star Families, and how is that all going to impact talent and retention?

Well, I think what's most important is the teamwork that exists actually between our military services, the private sector in the way of Salesforce, and our 501(c)(3) programs and NGOs out there around the globe, actually. Experience matters, right? You can't be a good secretary without the experience to be able to perform the mission. Working in the private sector matters, and the experience that Salesforce brings to the table makes a difference. And experience in the 501(c)(3) community matters as well in order to be able to help military families, children, and other things. So this community of stakeholders all working together as one makes a huge difference in how we perform our mission.

Secretary Rooker, one last question here, because I'm curious. We talked about the importance of this, but the importance of the digital transformation. But what would you say is at risk if agencies don't modernize their systems?

Sure. Well, we'll continue to do business as we do today while our adversaries do make that investment. Right. So let's not kid ourselves that our adversaries around the globe are investing in AI. They are investing in space. They're investing in cybersecurity. And we here in the United States are the leaders in all those technologies. We have to have a commitment to continue to invest in those new technologies that take us to the, you know, the day after so that we can actually stay ahead of our adversaries around the globe.

Absolutely. Secretary, Dr. Parker, thank you all so much for joining us here on Salesforce+. And thank you for your, for your insights. Excellent.

Thank you very much.

But I'm very sad that you didn't ask who's going to win the next Army-Navy game.

I know. If we only had more time.

There's only one answer. Navy.

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