 of going live. Okay, so hello everyone and welcome back to Sanjay Gupta Tech School. I am Sanjay, your host and today we have a fantastic tech talk lined up for you. But before we dive into the main topic which is importance of data cloud consultant and AI associate Salesforce certification. Those are two new certification. Those are launched by Salesforce. So let's get to know our guest a bit better. So I have Dinesh Yadav with me. So welcome Dinesh on the platform. And thank you so much for being here. So before starting the interactive session I just want you to introduce yourself so that people know because you have done lots of certification and I saw like you recently cleared AI associate certification as well. So please introduce yourself so that viewers get to know about your background. Over to you Dinesh. Hello everyone. First of all, thank you Sanjay for inviting me here. And thank you everyone who is watching this broadcast. My name is Dinesh Yadav. I'm a Salesforce solution architect at IBM and I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia. I have around 12 years of experience in Salesforce ecosystem. And I have done 35 Salesforce certifications, seven accredited professionals credentials and few other certifications like Slack, Copado, Conga and all. My professional journey started in 2005 as a Java developer at Infosys. Later I worked as a subject matter expert at Amdox in Amdox Clarify CRM. So because I had CRM background I was given an opportunity to work start my Salesforce journey in 2011 when I was working at Capgemini. And later on I moved on to Cognizant where I worked as a solution architect for four years. And then since last three years I'm working as a solution architect at IBM. So during my 12 years tenure in ecosystem I have had opportunity to work on almost all major Salesforce products such as sales cloud, service cloud, experience cloud, CPQ, velocity, field service, V2B commerce, marketing cloud and even Nealsoft. And I've also had opportunity to work on several domains. Mostly I've worked on financial services but I've also worked on communications and media and few others. In my free time I like traveling and I like photography and I also like blogging. So I have a blog, denieshadder.com which is called as DYDC in short. And this blog is all about Salesforce. So I have so many certification guides interview questions, practice questions. And whenever time allows I do write on the current topics. So I request viewers to check it out. So that's brief, that's my journey. Yeah, that's quite an impressive background, Dinesh. And I am very much impressed like with your full-time job you have done so much certification and I know like without knowledge anybody cannot clear the certification. And that's why we are doing this podcast so that people get to know like how they can prepare for these two certifications, data cloud consultant and AI associate. So before we start talk about those certification can you briefly explain about Salesforce as well like how bright future Salesforce has so that because on my platform beginners and intermediate professionals are connected. So if you can guide them on that ground because they are struggling due to recession and less hiring. So if you can guide them on that ground so that will be great. Yes Sanjay. So in simple words Salesforce is a CRM. It started as a CRM. CRM is nothing but a customer relationship management software. So CRM is a system where customers that's this tour and maintain information about customers and they use CRM to sell better to serve customers better. But in recent times Salesforce has evolved right from Salesforce to a platform, a cloud platform where you can build custom applications and also recently Salesforce has acquired quite a few companies which are not CRM like MuleSort, Slack and Tableau. So now Salesforce is more than a CRM company and like we have MuleSort for integration we have Slack for business communication, Tableau for analytics and now Salesforce is investing heavily into AI. So definitely it is a very good time for beginners to start their career in Salesforce. As an option of AI grows and Salesforce is able to build in all those features in the platform, AI features in the platform. I see a lot of adoption of Salesforce and the new AI features which will create more opportunities for experienced professionals like me as well as for beginners looking to make right that they're moving IT career. Yeah, exactly. So like I know like you already explained about Salesforce now I just want to relate it with certification. So can you emphasize the importance of certification in Salesforce ecosystem? So like do we need to focus on the number or do we need to focus on the knowledge? What should be the primary aspect if we talk about the Salesforce certification? Okay, yeah, so again, there are many benefits of certification. For this session, I'll cover a few. First is that right? It's a good way to learn new products. So Salesforce has so many products. I mentioned initially sales cloud, service cloud, CPQ, industry clouds. So you may not as a professional even though you may be in the industry for five years, 10 years you may not get opportunity to work on all of these products. So how do you learn new product? Like, suppose you have never worked in CPQ, how can you learn? One of the easiest way I recommend is get a certification, right? So go to trailhead, find the trailhead or sale for CPQ, go through the trailhead, right? Create a sandbox, complete those hands on exercises and that, right? And then appear for the certification. So these certifications help you to get a decent, I will not say it's like complete knowledge. You will become an expert by doing certification but it gives you that head start where you from nothing to you have decent amount of knowledge about a product so that when you are putting a project you can apply that knowledge and you'll be able to perform with minimum assistance. So definitely certification is a good way to learn new products. Second is professional growth. So again, right? There's a lot of talent around and if you're applying for a job, right? You will have several other candidates. So definitely recruiter finds certification as one of the many criteria. There may be other criteria. It's one of the many criteria of shortlisting. So if you have, say, 10 certifications or certification if I'm looking for a CPQ architect, if you have CPQ certification, definitely you have preference over a person who does not have CPQ certification. So this definitely helps you in your professional growth. So that is one of the reasons. And the third is to be better in your day to day job, right? So while completing this certification, going through those tailored modules, completing those hand-held exercises, you learn the product, right? You know sales throughout CPQ or velocity. And then when you are actually working in a project, you'll be able to use that knowledge which you have gained to apply to your work and provide solutions which are more aligned with the platform capabilities. So you're not trying to customize too much. You are able to think of, okay, why do I need to make a lightning compter? There's already out-of-the-box feature which I can utilize, right? So it helps you in your day-to-day work. Having said that, there is no substitute to experience. So definitely, right? Certification cannot substitute experience, but at the same time, it is a good way of getting experience. Completing super badges, completing modules, completing, right? Certification is a good way to get that experience. And coming back to numbers questions, it depends, like, I would suggest that you pick your expertise. Like, suppose if you're working on, say, sales cloud, try to build expertise with that. So right now, like, there's so much emphasis on, like, T-shaped, right, consultants. So you have to pick one area where you are, like, very deep. At the same time, you cannot just say that, oh, I just know sales cloud. I don't know anything. So you have to have other, right? You need to know sales for CPQ. You need to know field service. You need to know velocity. So you pick one right product or feature or get your deep expertise that you become master for that. At the same time, it is recommended that you are aware of service cloud, other products, and not only Salesforce, AWS, Google Cloud, right? So definitely, I recommend that you get right knowledge in your core competency. And still, at the same time, keep looking for opportunity to learn more. So definitely, the numbers does not matter. Knowledge matters. But eventually, certification will help you get that expertise and eventually get you that project, which can give you that knowledge. Because if I'm looking for a sales track and sales for CPQ architect, right? If you don't know Salesforce, it will be so CPQ. It will be very difficult for me to convince my manager to hire you for the project, right? Because you don't have any knowledge of CPQ. But if you have completed certification, I know. I have seen the module. I know that you're aware of the capabilities of the product. What is the product rule, right? What is the price rule? What is the code template? Then we'll be able to train you and help you on the projects. Yeah, exactly. So like without certification also, it won't be giving any confidence like you know the things. Because through certification, you can say like, I have this much knowledge. And like with the certification, it gives confidence to the manager as well. Like my resources like certified so that if they showcase that resource to the client. So client will also get some confidence like yeah, this resource is certified. So with the knowledge, certifications make sense. But if you just pass the certification for increasing the number, so that I think we don't recommend that. So I go with your thoughts on this. To showcase knowledge, certification is mandatory. Okay, so now come up to the two most famous or popular certification nowadays. And people are seeing like lots of consultants are doing these certifications. So let's talk about data cloud consultant certification first. So what is the significance of this certification and how people can prepare about this certification? Because this is the recent certification Salesforce launched. Yes. So Sanjay, data cloud is the data platform from Salesforce. And in my opinion, again, this is my personal opinion. It does not reflect Salesforce or my advice opinion. So I think this will be the next big product from Salesforce, Salesforce service cloud, marketing cloud, right? And service sales cloud are there. So this will be the next big product from Salesforce. And it will create a lot of opportunities for experienced professional like me and newcomers. It will open a lot of, right? A lot of openings for data analysts, data architects. And again, this product is all about, right? Integrating, like a typical company will have several hundred systems. Like you will not just be using Salesforce. You'll have AWS, you'll have your ERP, you'll have fulfillment systems. And the data resides in multiple places. So data cloud gives you a way to harmonize your data, like bring data from all the different sources stored at one centralized location and get that 360 degree views, right? So this is becoming more important as, right? As amount of data companies gather about their customers in praising. It's becoming even more important to use that data, right, to help them better. So suppose I am your customer. You already know everything about me. Then why are you asking, what is your name? You should know by my number. You should know Dinesh is calling. This is the product I own from you, right? You should not, now in today's world, you cannot ask customer, which product have you bought from me, right? What is your date of birth? All the information is there in your system. So companies need to use that data to know better about the customers, to help them serve better, recommend more products which are tailored to their needs. So data cloud is gonna be next big product and it will create a lot of opportunities. Coming back to the certification, what I recommend is that again, this is relatively difficult certification because the nature of the certification is that it's difficult. So I recommend that you complete the official trail mix, including the, any hands-on exercises. I know if you're not a Salesforce partner, it may be challenged to get a data cloud environment with marketing cloud connection. So I understand that is an impetition. I was fortunate that I was able to get that big environment for practice, but still this exam does not get into too much detail into technical details. So even if you do not get access to environment, it may not be a handicap, but I highly recommend if you have access to environment, go ahead and complete the hands-on exercises. If you don't have, still create data cloud sandbox and try to do whatever possible, because you'll not be able to get all the use cases as there's no integration with marketing cloud or other products, but try to do as many hands-on exercises as you can complete and spend time, try to understand. This is one example where you can just, it test your understanding of the product, so you cannot just memorize and go and pass the exam. So definitely completing trail mixes and understanding the product, trying to get into the product, get to hands dirty, use the screens, try to do some, create some of the records and see how it works, try to create integrations if possible. So this is how I recommend them to prepare for this. Yeah, exactly. Without preparation, I think it would be difficult to pass this certification. So trail mix will be the proper resource for that. Other than trail mix, like lots of blocks are available on internet. And I think you also released one blog around this. So like viewers, if you want to go through that blog, so it would also help you because that, I also went through that blog, it has a summary like what topics you need to prepare, what is the percentage. So you can also go through that. Okay, so it was about data cloud consultant certification. Now let's shift our focus to the AI associate certification. So in today's tech driven world, why is this certification particularly relevant and what doors can it unlock for individuals? Yes, so Sanjay, so as the name suggests, it is associate level certification, right? So associate is something at entry level. So don't expect that it is very challenging. So if you're looking for a challenging certification, this is not, this is really really easy to pass certification because it is designed like that. It is associate, but Salesforce, not only Salesforce, other everywhere else, you are seeing a lot of emphasis on AI and Salesforce is including a lot of AI features inbuilt into the products. So this is a good stepping stone to understand what is AI, what is generative AI, what is predictive AI, and understand why it is important to use AI ethically so that we don't harm certain communities or certain section of society. So this AI, this certification will help you if you have a new beginner, you don't know what is AI, that it is a good place to start learning about what is AI, what are the capabilities, where AI can go wrong, how can we mitigate that risk, and how Salesforce is using its own core principles to make sure that AI is used for good and it does not cause any unintended harm. And for this also, again, this is literally easy. So probably just going through the trail mix should be sufficient once. I mean, there's nothing hands on here, so it's more theoretical. And a lot of questions, if you are experienced professional, like you or somebody with five or eight experience, experience or you have only done deaf or admin certification, this should be relatively easy to pass. You just need to go through a trail mix and understand some of the AI related terms, which maybe you may be asked in the exam. So helping, going through the trail mix should help. And most of the other questions, based on your experience, if you're experienced person, definitely you should be able to answer those questions from the CRM perspective or IT industry perspective. So it is a good certification to make yourself familiar with AI, the trends in AI, how, again, right? Salesforce is using AI and coming to opportunities, right? As Salesforce emits AI into systems, like suppose it gives a lot of opportunities for everyone. Now business users can become admins because they can use AI to do things which was not possible two years ago. Now admins can become pseudo-developers, right? I can, admins can use AI to generate code or generate flow, right? You can prompt, create a flow. So now you don't have to be an expert to create a flow. You can use AI, which will give you the first version of the flow and you can customize based on needs. So definitely AI is going to open a lot more opportunities for everyone and I'm really excited. And as you're aware today is the Dreamforce Day, right? So there'll be a lot of new announcement about AI. I'm excited about that. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed where AI and Salesforce are headed. So looking forward to that. Yeah. So very well insight you have shared. So like related to this certification or the AI, which is the new thing in the market. So I just want to know your opinion, like will this replace the jobs or it will open the new dimension for the jobs? I think AI will make everybody's life easier. And I don't think AI will replace like developers admins. As somebody said, AI will replace admins who use AI with those who don't use. So probably it becomes very important for adding developers to start using AI. Otherwise, those developers admins who are using AI to do jobs faster will replace you. So probably AI will definitely repair some of the repetitive task kind of thing, which is good. Now you can free write quality resources into something which is more challenging. So definitely AI may replace some of the repetitive or low level works, but still we need developers, we need good admins, PAs, and AI will help them. So AI along with these good quality resources will give better results for everyone. Yeah, exactly. So like one should have quality, like whatever roles they are playing and plus knowledge of AI. So I think people needs to upgrade themselves than only like in future market they can survive. Not all, but specific to particular roles. And like we also need to wait what gonna comes in future. So yeah, nice opinion, Dinesh. So moving on to the next thing. So I think this thing you already covered earlier as well, but I just want to focus on it again. So like other than Trailhead, do we have any other resources available for these two certifications or people just need to rely on the trail mixes as of now? So for AI associate, I would think Trailhead should be sufficient. As I mentioned, it is associate level certification. So if you are, you have fewer experience in IT, you'll be able to understand, relate to most of the topics asked in the exam. Plus going through the Trailhead will make you familiar with the key terms which you are expected to know if you appear for the exam. So for AI associate, it is sufficient. I don't think people need to look elsewhere, but in case you need, I have also released notes for that. That AI associate exam as well on my blog will put the link in the description. But for data, like cloud consultant, it is literally difficult. So definitely, I mean the, you will see going forward, I will see more community events where people will be taking sessions. I will recommend people to attend those sessions. Again, as it is very new, there is nothing much available right now, but I'm sure, right? But then creators will be putting in more content. So as we come across, we can put the links in future. But right now, Trailhead is the way to go. And also if you are a Salesforce partner, there are a lot of material on partner learning cam which you can utilize. And lastly, hands on, because it checks strategy. It checks the data cloud consultant takes your understanding of the concepts. So probably hands on is something which you'll have to rely on. Exactly. Okay. So I think we have covered all the aspects related to both the certification. So anything else other than the certification you want to highlight. And I just want to ask you, like Salesforce is now saying AI plus data plus CRM, right? So if we go with the tagline, so how important these certifications are if we see the CRM as AI plus data plus CRM. So if you can- Yes, definitely. Yeah, as you mentioned earlier, right now, companies have a lot of information about customers. Now it's all about getting that information, putting the use, right? So definitely AI is where it has like, it can do better job than as humans, right? So if you ask me to analyze data, it'll take hours and hours, but AI can analyze the data, find patterns, and take action. So definitely AI and CRM, like Salesforce being a CRM company, right? It was always good. Now you put AI into that CRM, it becomes even better, right? So definitely AI and CRM, even I'm more excited about, right? How, where it goes. So there'll be a lot of benefits for everyone, for customers, they'll be able to go to market sooner. For developers, right? I'll be able to do my job fast using AI, right? I'm able to create a flow by just prompting rather than, right? Spending hours, creating them, and also analyzing data so that we can target more customers in a better way. So definitely these are going to be used in coming days. Yeah, exactly. So I think now we can conclude the session. So thank you, Dinesh, for sharing your expertise on data cloud consultant and AI associate Salesforce certifications. So we appreciate your time and I know it is early for you and this is a weekday, but like as we discussed offline, we wanted to have it as early as possible so that we can guide the viewers and audience. And it is the day where Dreamforce is also starting. So I'm happy like I got an opportunity to connect with you and people are like having your expert insight so that they can plan about these two certifications. So once again, thank you so much for sharing all your valuable insights. And I also want to thank all the viewers and like those who joined live and those who will be watching the recording, thanks to everybody. And Dinesh LinkedIn profile link is available in the video's description. So anytime if you want to reach out to him for any type of career guidance, so you can. And I will put the blog links as well so that you can explore what all content you need to prepare for data cloud and AI associate certification. Okay, so this is it for today's tech talk. So once again, thank you, Dinesh. Thank you so much, Santay. Thank you for having me here. Thank you everyone for joining and all the best for your cert preparation. Yeah. Thank you guys. See you in the next session. Bye.