Einstein GPT—No need for developers to worry about it

Now that they have the skeleton code, developers will need new skills to work on, assures a Cloud and developer-ecosystem expert

Salesforce big splash of the year- Trailblazers DX 23 in San Francisco, had a lot of rabbits coming out of Salesforce’s hat. We got to meet Gaurav Kheterpal, Founder and CEO, Vanshiv Technologies and a seasoned trailblazer himself – to help us in translating all the hype for developers- and what all of this buzz exactly means for the ecosystem in India.

What did you pick at this year’s gathering? What should developers be excited for?

I have built my career on the Salesforce platform. I have worked with many big partners and set up operations for them. It is a growing ecosystem unlike Oracle and SAP which are now, a tad, stagnant.Specially for India where the Salesforce partner ecosystem is growing well. A lot of people are cross-skilling and moving into Salesforce.

No-Code, Pro-Code, Low-Code – where is this world finally moving to?

In Salesforce, these have co-existed for quite some time. They believe that you do not need to write a code for everything. That’s why there were point-and-click development tools already. Generative AI is the next new tool, and the prospects are quite fascinating. It would be interesting to see code-on-the-fly now. But developers need not be worried. They will get a starter template with Einstein GPT that they can refine from there on. There is no need to be worried about their jobs. It is all about a chance and capability to write better quality code.

What’s your take on directions like open source and APIs? Do they help developers?

With Salesforce, components are built on both proprietary and API set-ups. It is a mixed bag vis a vis other ecosystems. GitHub repositories come to my mind when I think of open source. Yes, Open source surely helps with reference code, documentation and repositories for collaboration.

So a lot will change after APIs from Chat GPT, Whisper APIs and this announcement of Einstein from Salesforce?

Definitely. Developers can build apps any way they want. It opens up the ecosystem to a new level. There are lots of possibilities now.

When do you think Einstein GPT will hit the ground running – beyond the pilots?

They usually follow a three-six-month cycle. The pilots are followed by a closed beta and then a GA release. I guess Salesforce follows a 3-release cycle format. So let’s see.

Do you think developers will have to work on new skills now – like prompt-engineering – after AI takes over a lot of the grunt-work?

AI will definitely reduce the amount of work for developers. They will have to work on optimization of code – an area which is an after-thought right now. But it will get focus and time after AI comes in. With a skeleton built for a developer, one will have to look into code optimization, performance benchmarking etc. Good quality code will become the priority. And it will be easy to do it.

Is Citizen Code a real thing—much beyond the on-paper hype? How much will change after AI?

It is still early days, but the science looks promising. AI is a catalyst and it will jumpstart it. With Google’s Bard, and Einstein and other such engines, it would be a keenly-contested space. No one will want to be left out of this race.

What caught your fancy? Did you see something exciting at this year’s Trailblazers DX?

Apart from the big GPT announcement, of course, Data centralization was the new theme. Being able to identify the Golden Record has been a classic challenge. So this Data Cloud announcement is a big step. The platform is maturing well every year – and a lot of enhancements, with Tableau, Mulesoft, and Slack are praiseworthy.

All big enterprise players have a conscious effort in building the developer edge. Who is doing it right? What’s still missing?

That’s true. And developers matter. The way I see it is that Salesforce has India as the strongest developer community, followed by the US. A lot of capacity building is happening here. As to what’s missing, proprietary technology is still perceived with a risk mindset. May be there can be a better messaging effort to change that mindset.

Why is Salesforce different?

They have done a phenomenal job in tapping net-new talent. Salesforce Talent Workforce Development program is a great effort. They undertake trainings in collaboration with colleges and universities – for fresh students. There is a lot of work happening in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Rajasthan. It helps in growing the overall talent pool. This is a strategy which is very distinct from other companies.

What do you think of IDEs – like the Code Builder from Salesforce?

That’s the number one trait which a developer needs. Salesforce has eliminated local machines although it is not a hundred percent close there. But if you are on Cloud, you can still do a lot with this capability. It allows for end-to-end and CI, CD work too. All this can be done ‘on the fly’. In the next few years, the classical development cycle would change a lot.

Gaurav Kheterpal, Founder and CEO, Vanshiv Technologies

By Pratima H

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in