Introducing Generative Lightning Canvas: Dynamically Generated Enterprise UX Grounded in Trusted Data and Workflows

A few weeks ago, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Canvas, an interface that displays text, code, and visualization outputs, similar to Claude Artifacts, which was released in August.

In the enterprise app world, we rely on structured and trusted UI/UX elements– such as dashboards, record details, lists, and action buttons. For years, Salesforce Admins have utilized Page Layouts and Dynamic Forms to control how these components appear. These no-code tools have been the best available on the market, yet they still time-consuming to configure and rigid. It is also nearly impossible to anticipate the full spectrum of data and workflows each user will need.

What if that complexity could disappear? This is the motivation behind the new Salesforce Generative Lightning UX. This innovative UI dynamically generates layouts that go beyond static interfaces, offering a full-screen experience enriched with tables, charts, trends, and other Lightning components.

• Empowers CRM teams with ready access to essential information and actionable insights
• Adapts dynamically to each user’s role and task, whether they’re typing or speaking
• Fully secure and trusted, respecting your Salesforce instance’s data-sharing rules and permissions

AI is transforming how we generate content, code, and now enterprise UX/UI. With Generative Lightning UX, you’ll rethink how enterprise apps work, and how easy they can be to use.

How Generative AI is reshaping each layer of the software tech stack

Over the last decades, software has generally followed the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern that separates an application's logic into three layers: the data model, the user interface view, and the logic controller. Generative AI is transforming every layer of the tech stack from chips to compute to MVC.

At the data model layer, Salesforce’s Data Cloud has pioneered both zero-copy data federation with partners, including Snowflake, Databricks, BiqQuery, and Redshift, and expanded to support both structured and unstructured data, such as Slack conversations, contact center transcripts, sales meeting notes, images, and videos.

At the logic layer, the Salesforce Platform has augmented our Flow low-code builders and Apex code with generative AI for flow and code generation, as well as introduced Agentforce Studio – Prompt Builder, Agent Builder, and Model Builder – to make it easy for customers to build trusted AI apps grounded in their organization’s data, policies, guardrails, knowledge, and semantics.

For the user interface layer, we’re introducing Generative Canvas for Lightning, to enhance business productivity by dynamically creating rich, interactive, and trusted user experiences and offering actionable insights.

With Generative Canvas, teams can explore data through suggestive prompts, surface key insights, and address strategic questions to achieve better outcomes. Instead of having to search and navigate a more rigid UX, sales and service reps can engage with a dynamic, intelligent experience that adapts to their specific needs and provides tailored insights for their accounts. For our Salesforce Admin Trailblazers, this also means freeing up time from having to painstakingly build every custom page layout for every role and user.

A New AI-Powered Personalized Experience Paradigm for CRM Teams

Whether it's a salesperson preparing for a critical business review or customer support manager navigating a complex operational issue, having the right context is essential. That’s where Generative Canvas comes in, designed to align with each end user’s profile, intent, and goals to provide the right guidance, visualization, and automation.

A Trust-Led Approach

When it comes to trusting AI-generated experiences, plans, flows, or other outputs, context is key. Generative Canvas is built on the new Agentforce platform, which means all queries run through the Einstein Trust Layer to ensure data privacy, data security, and ethical guardrails.

Rather than generating UI from pixels, Generative Canvas is grounded on your organization’s approved Lightning components and respects all of the data-sharing rules and permissions currently configured in your Salesforce instance. I believe this is the beginning of a step-change in enterprise UI/UX and look forward to evolving this based on customer feedback!

This article was adapted from my original post on the Salesforce AI Research Blog, "Introducing Generative Canvas: Dynamically Generated UX" published October 3, 2024.