Einstein for Formulas | Spring ’24

Formula creation and maintenance is an important skill to have as an Awesome Admin. You can use formulas to automate calculations, validate data, derive values, perform conditional logic, concatenate information, trigger automation, calculate date/time, and much more. You will commonly use formulas in (the most obvious) formula fields, validation rules, and default values in fields.

I don’t know about you, but I am not an expert when it comes to creating formulas and understanding or modifying existing ones. In fact, pre-GPT, I did a lot of googling to find examples to get me started or to write more complex formulas. You know the ones I’m talking about — those multiple nested IF statements or the ones that deal with date/time conversion. Umph! I’m sure you can do my formula searches more efficiently with the GPT products available now. 

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a formula assistant that would let you know whether you’re on the right path when creating a new formula or need to modify a complex formula, but you’re not entirely sure what it actually does? 

Relief is coming soon! With Einstein for Formulas, have Einstein explain formulas in formula fields, validation rules, and default values in fields when you create a new formula or edit an existing one. This new feature is slated for the February ’24 Release (to be released after the Spring ’24 Release in February 2024). #ForwardLookingStatement. Note: Contact your Account Executive (AE) to understand the pricing and license requirements for this feature.

Once Einstein is provisioned in your org by your AE, navigate to Einstein Setup and enable Einstein.

Now, when you create a new formula or modify an existing one — whether it’s in a formula field, default value in a field, or a validation rule — you’ll see this nifty Explain Formula button and the collapsed Einstein prompt.

Click Explain Formula to open the Einstein panel. This will automatically populate your formula and ask Einstein to explain it. Einstein displays a quick summary of the formula.

Click More Details for a detailed explanation of the formula; helpful information if you’re a new admin or tackling a pretty complex formula.

You can also provide feedback to Einstein using the thumbs up or thumbs down buttons. Give it a thumbs up if the explanation was helpful and accurate. Give it a thumbs down and provide feedback so Einstein can incorporate the feedback into the Large Language Model (LLM).

What’s on the Einstein for Formulas roadmap?

What we’re releasing for Spring ’24 is just the beginning and we’re excited for the enhancements to come!

Formula explanation (Spring ’24)

• Quickly understand what a complex formula written by another admin does by asking Einstein to explain it using natural language. 

Formula debugging (Summer ’24)

• Go beyond the basic formula syntax checker by asking Einstein to fix a formula for you.

Formula creation (Winter ’25)

• Increase your formula creation speed by asking Einstein to create a formula from scratch using a natural language description.

Resources

Each release brings tons of amazing new functionality and it can be a lot to digest. Over the next 2 months, we’ll publish blogs and videos to help you prepare to get the most out of this release! Bookmark Be Release Ready and check back regularly as we continue to add new Spring ’24 resources for Salesforce Admins.

• Salesforce Admins Site: Be Release Ready
• Salesforce Help: Calculate Field Values with Formulas
• Salesforce Help: Validation Rules
• Salesforce Help: Define Default Field Values
• Trailhead: Formulas and Validations
• Trailhead: Advanced Formulas