Salesforce is making a big push into artificial intelligence, announcing new partnerships with the AI leaders OpenAI and Anthropic. The move comes as the software giant faces pressure from investors who are worried it’s falling behind in the AI race.
Just before its annual Dreamforce conference, Salesforce revealed it will now allow customers to use AI models from both OpenAI and Anthropic directly inside its Agentforce 360 software. This means that powerful AI capabilities, like those found in ChatGPT and Claude, will be integrated into Salesforce’s core products.
“The way people are going to interact with software is going to shift fundamentally,” said a Salesforce executive, explaining that people will soon be interacting with their software through AI chats. The partnerships are a key part of Salesforce’s strategy to stay relevant in the age of AI. The company’s stock has been struggling this year, and Wall Street is looking for a clear sign that Salesforce can capitalize on the new technology.
The new integrations will be powerful. For example, customers will be able to ask the ChatGPT assistant to pull up corporate information from Salesforce or create charts in its Tableau software. Salesforce also plans to work with Anthropic to develop special AI tools for highly regulated industries like financial services.
While Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been defending his company’s position, this new wave of partnerships is a clear admission that it can’t go it alone. By teaming up with the biggest names in AI, Salesforce is hoping to prove it can still be a major player in the next generation of software.
