Rudolph Fraser

Most opinions about nonprofit work are formed from a distance. Distance creates simplicity. Proximity creates nuance. When you’re close to the work, you see trade-offs instead of talking points. You see families making hard decisions long before crisis becomes visible. That proximity changes how you lead. It changes what you prioritize. It changes what you’re willing to tolerate. It’s easy to critique what you’ve never had to carry. What perspective shifted for you once you were closer to the reality?

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The #1 question I keep getting from customers right now: "How do we actually connect all our tools?" Salesforce's Headless 360 is here to help and this expert demo from Dylan Andersen shows it better than I ever could. In just a few minutes, you'll see how teams can: ✅ Unify disconnected tools into a single, seamless experience ✅ Give reps and service teams a complete customer view ✅ Drive real results faster Stop managing 10 different platforms. All of your tools are finally in one toolbox. #Salesforce #HeadlessCommerce #CustomerSuccess #CRM #DigitalTransformation #SalesEnablement

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What's inside Salesforce's Spring ’26 release, available to customers on Feb. 23? #SalesforceWorkspace, a solution for unifying sellers and agents described as "an intelligent hub," and more. Kieron Allen dives into Salesforce’s push toward the agentic #AI enterprise in today's Cloud Wars Minute → https://lnkd.in/e7HeFRfH

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The latest release of iDialogue for Salesforce now supports on-demand agent installation. Install agents in 1 minute. No lengthy AI pilot projects. No need for Agent builders. First 1,000 credits per month are free. Intelligent document processing, deal desk intelligence, generate Account-based QBR briefs, and more. #salesforce #ai #agents

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I’m really excited to see this series live! I had a great time recording it at the Salesforce Ben studio, and hopefully it will be a helpful series for people wanting to learn more about integrations with Salesforce starting off with the first video on the basics of Salesforce integrations. In episode 1 we cover 🧭 inbound, outbound and bidirectional integrations 🔌 different protocols such as SOAP 🧼, REST 💤 and Pub/Sub 🛠️ Tooling such as Apex, Heroku, Flow and more Please give it a watch and subscribe to catch the other episodes when they come out!

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CRMs are the next typewriters. That might sound crazy when Salesforce’s market cap is $243 billion, but hear me out. When I was doing my PhD in AI, I started to realize just how massive this shift would be. A few years later, and now I’m convinced: Most SaaS tools we rely on today—especially bloated CRMs—won’t survive the AI wave. Let’s zoom out for a second. 50 years ago, your desk wasn’t complete without a Rolodex, typewriter, or stack of sticky notes. Then PCs and smartphones showed up, and suddenly all of it became dead weight. That same thing is about to happen to SaaS as we know it. Generative AI will turn CRMs, ticketing systems, and knowledge bases into relics. Not because they weren’t useful, but because something better will do the job faster, smarter, and cheaper. Here’s what will stay: 1. Communication tools (email, Slack, Zoom) 2. Something to create content in (can be part of an AI assistant) 3. Cloud infrastructure platforms Everything else is up for disruption with AI. Maybe you don’t believe me, so picture this: An AI-native platform that replaces the CRM by doing things like: - Pulling insights from any connected system in real-time - Handling repetitive support tasks, from tagging to resolution - Supporting sales with call briefs, live coaching, and auto-summaries - Predicting churn and surfacing retention opportunities before you lose customers If all of that lived in your AI assistant—aka it was built into the tools you already use—why would anyone pay for a CRM just to “see everything in one place?" We’re not there yet. But we’re close. Here's what needs to shift in the next few years to unlock this reality (and it’s what we’re building into Ask-AI): On the software side: 1. Flexibility. AI needs to talk with you — follow-ups, context-switching, multiple use cases. No more rigid forms and dropdown hell. 2. Ubiquity. The AI should show up wherever you work: Slack, Chrome, customer chats, internal docs. It should be omnipresent. 3. Good data inputs. Great AI is built on clean, complete, and curated knowledge. Garbage data = garbage insights. On the human side: 1. Change management. Companies have already sunk millions into SaaS. Enterprises have whole teams devoted to maintaining and improving CRMs. Letting go won’t be easy. 2. Workflow habits. Teaching people new ways to work will take time. Old habits die hard, and veteran team members may find this the most difficult. But the promise is that AI will make the same info and possibilities available to every person on your team, slashing ramp up times and helping everyone get more done. It’s still the early innings, but we’re moving this direction every day. Agree or disagree?

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GetATeam.org: Ask our AI to learn something new. Watch it build its own capability. Most AI agents are limited to pre-defined skills. Ours create their own. "Create a skill to connect to Salesforce." Done. Now it knows Salesforce. "Create a skill to scrape LinkedIn company data." Done. Now it can research prospects. This sounds like magic. It's actually architecture. Here's how it works: 1. Agent receives skill request 2. Analyzes what's needed (APIs, auth, data format) 3. Writes the integration code 4. Tests it in sandbox 5. Deploys to production 6. Skill is now permanent The agent literally programs itself. Why does this matter? Because every company has unique tools. Unique workflows. Unique data sources. Pre-built integrations will never cover everything. Self-programming agents adapt to YOUR stack. Not the other way around. Is it perfect? No. Complex integrations need human review. But for 80% of use cases? The agent figures it out in one shot. This is what separates AI assistants from AI employees. Employees learn on the job. Public Beta lauching in 2 weeks :D #AI #Agents #GetATeam #SelfProgramming #Automation #TechInnovation

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The most important things about CRMs haven’t changed in 20 years. Salesforce is powerful. So was Siebel. So was Dynamics. So will whatever comes next. But the same enduring truths apply to every CRM: • Data degrades over time • Growth creates duplicates and edge cases • Integrations multiply inconsistency • Workarounds compound faster than fixes • Trust erodes quietly until reports stop getting used • Admins spend more time reacting than designing CRMs don’t fail because they lack features. They fail because entropy wins without intention. That’s the problem Cloudingo was built to solve. Not just deduplication, but helping orgs: • Restore trust in their data • Make records searchable, reportable, and actionable again • Put guardrails in place instead of bandaids • See issues early, not downstream • Treat the CRM like a long-term asset, not a fragile system The goal was never perfect data. The goal is an org that scales without slowing down, adapts without breaking, and keeps delivering value long after go-live. Salesforce gives you the power. Cloudingo helps you steward it into what it was designed to be.

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Over the past few months, I've had several people reach out asking for guidance on how to grow in the Salesforce ecosystem. If you are trying to stand out, build credibility, and create more opportunities for yourself, here are a few tips that can help you get started!

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I sat down with Daniel Burka, Mahima Chandak, and Elyce Cole, the co-founders of Hard Problems, for the latest episode of Unmissables. Together they built Simple, a hypertension management system used a million times a month in rural clinics across India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka. A nurse sees 100+ patients a day with about three minutes per person. Internet is unreliable. And paper registers have been working fine for decades. So they designed within these constraints. They got data entry down to 13 seconds per visit. They built the whole thing offline first. And they deliberately chose not to track individual productivity because the system couldn't capture the full picture of someone's work. We get into all of it: paper as competition, co-designing with governments mid-crisis, and what it actually takes to work on hard problems — including a willingness to commit to one for decades. New episode is live. https://lnkd.in/ehTy4rcs

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I’m a little annoyed about Salesforce’s headless announcement. First of all because they didn’t tell me it was coming, but mostly because I had a conversation with Alan Berkson at IRL last month about an idea I had for a FastForward commentary called “Headless Everything” based on the idea of headless content management and how agents would force vendors to make everything headless (exposing the backend programmatically). And I sat on it and now I’m kicking myself. But you can probably guess what I’ll be writing about this week.

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I attended New York Council of Nonprofits Summit this past week and listened in to many of the conversations. They were about resilience, purpose and trust. The connections nonprofits build in communities. All real. And all of it, in many of the organizations I've seen, living inside one person. This week's Field Notes is about what that actually means. And what it costs. Watch here 📹 👇

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⚡ Salesforce just made a bold bet: You shouldn’t have to rely on logging into Salesforce anymore. With Headless 360, capabilities are exposed as APIs, MCP tools, and CLI commands so AI agents can execute workflows across the platform. This is the real shift: SaaS is becoming a permission layer for agents. UI is becoming less central. For 20+ years, enterprise software was built for humans clicking dashboards. Now it’s being rebuilt for agents executing workflows. That changes the model: • Seats → access rights • UI → API surface • Features → actions The moat is shifting. Not just interface, but who controls what agents are allowed to do. Salesforce isn’t replacing SaaS. It’s adapting it for an agent-first world. The real question for every SaaS company: If agents can operate your product without opening it…where does your value actually sit? https://lnkd.in/epgvvdEA #AI #SaaS #Agents #EnterpriseSoftware #Salesforce

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In 2025, finding the right funding isn’t about typing the perfect keyword anymore - it’s about understanding meaning. We just published a short piece comparing three approaches researchers and research administrators are using today: 1️⃣ Keyword-based systems like Pivot or GrantForward 2️⃣ General AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity 3️⃣ Purpose-built AI engines like Atom Grants Each has its strengths (and blind spots), but the real shift is toward semantic search and eligibility-aware AI - tools that actually understand what you’re looking for. 👉 Read the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/df2SMhXF #ResearchDevelopment #AIforResearch #GrantFunding #OpenData #ResearchStrategy #AtomGrants

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I’m starting a new series on Salesforce Data Management best practices. The first video covers the What, Why, and How of Salesforce Data Management using Inspector and Data Loader. You can watch it here: https://lnkd.in/eN7aW8Pc #Salesforce #DataManagement #SalesforceAdmin #DataLoader

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Findigs avoided 2x'ing their support team by switching from Salesforce Service Cloud to Pylon. Tatiana and Nikita's team went from asking engineers for custom Retool workarounds to building support workflows themselves in 30 minutes. Every part of their support operations got more efficient: → Reduced ticket volume 30% → AI runbooks auto-triage 10-15% of all tickets → 4+ different teams working from the same platform Huge thanks to Tati and Nikita for sharing how Pylon supported their scale. Link to their full case study in the comments!

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Association leaders can’t afford to be passive observers in the AI conversation. This piece from Sidecar hits the mark: if we’re not actively shaping how emerging technologies like AI are integrated into our missions and operations, someone else will do it for us—and likely with less context and fewer values. Being a tech advocate doesn’t mean being a coder. It means asking the right questions, framing the strategic value, and leading the cultural shift that innovation demands. Leadership in the age of AI. Worth your time: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gaSsZDXM #Leadership #Associations #AI #DigitalTransformation

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Looking forward to presenting this week at #NetInclusion2026 on AI-Ready Workforce Hubs: A blueprint for rural communities. Many rural and under-resourced communities still lack practical ways to use AI to build skills, earn credentials, and stay competitive in local labor markets. This session centers on closing that gap through community-centered delivery models. I am excited to join a strong group of panelists from NewAmerica, Connect Humanity, Can Code Communities, and The Brookings Institution. If your work connects AI, digital inclusion, workforce development, and rural capacity, I hope you will join the conversation. Learn more about KINBER’s AI-Ready Workforce Hubs initiative https://lnkd.in/eFvaFqpw — #KINBER #RuralDevelopment #DigitalInclusion #ResponsibleAI #WorkforceDevelopment #Upskilling #Reskilling

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How do you send tens of thousands of emails in Salesforce — without hitting limits? In the latest episode of the Salesforce Center Podcast, Siva Devaki (Co-Founder of MassMailer) speaks with Matthew Henson from Advanced Portfolio Management about how they transformed their Salesforce email outreach using MassMailer. Here’s what changed for them: - Seamless high-volume email sending - Engaging, professional templates - Real-time open & click tracking - Easy document attachments For sales, marketing, and corporate communications teams — this is how modern Salesforce email outreach should work. Watch the full podcast here: https://lnkd.in/e5KGt-kE #Salesforce #EmailMarketing #CRM #MassMailer #MarketingAutomation #SalesEnablement

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