Salesforce quietly kills off Einstein Voice Assistant and Voice Skills

Salesforce has quietly shuttered Einstein Voice Assistant and Einstein Voice Skills as it shifts focus towards its newly released Salesforce Anywhere app.

The Einstein Voice Assistant first launched in beta last year. It's an extension of the company's Einstein Voice platform and allowed users to interact with the Salesforce platform via a mobile app or smart speaker device.

Salesforce claimed the AI helper was more advanced than other digital assistants on the market, such as Alexa and Cortana, as it could be taught to recognise a company's specific jargon and acronyms.

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Einstein Voice Skills, which debuted in beta last November, enabled developers and admins can build custom voice-powered apps for employees to replace any type of manual data entry or manual Salesforce navigation.

As spotted by Voicebot.ai, Salesforce has killed off both products less than two years after they first debuted. A notice on the Salesforce website confirms that “Einstein Voice Assistant is scheduled to be retired on July 10, 2020,” and that it applies to the online Salesforce system and both the iOS and Android Salesforce mobile apps.

However, the greater Einstein AI platform is not going away and Salesforce will continue to release updates and add new features.

“Voice is a priority for us at Salesforce, and voice capabilities are built into various product and Platform services,” a Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement.

“For example, Service Cloud Voice and Einstein Call Coaching are both based on voice technology, and the new Salesforce Anywhere app will also contain voice capabilities. At this time we’re discontinuing our betas of Einstein Voice Assistant and Einstein Voice Skills.

"Our learnings will continue to inform our new product, the Salesforce Anywhere App. The app will include voice functionality in a new reimagined way to increase remote productivity, ease of use and collaboration.”

Salesforce Anywhere is expected to arrive in beta form later this month, with the full product set to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Carly Page is a freelance technology journalist, editor and copywriter specialising in cyber security, B2B, and consumer technology. She has more than a decade of experience in the industry and has written for a range of publications including Forbes, IT Pro, the Metro, TechRadar, TechCrunch, TES, and WIRED, as well as offering copywriting and consultancy services.

Prior to entering the weird and wonderful world of freelance journalism, Carly served as editor of tech tabloid The INQUIRER from 2012 and 2019. She is also a graduate of the University of Lincoln, where she earned a degree in journalism.

You can check out Carly's ramblings (and her dog) on Twitter, or email her at hello@carlypagewrites.co.uk.