Salesforce Sets Up $50m Artificial Intelligence Fund

In the US, CRM software giant Salesforce has set up a $50m artificial intelligence (AI) fund through its Salesforce Ventures corporate investment arm. Funds will be used to help AI start-ups grow their businesses.

San Francisco-based Salesforce offers a cloud-based CRM solution for managing all interactions with customers and prospects. In June, the firm enhanced its Einstein product with the addition of artificial intelligence, allowing it to 'automatically surface CRM insights and recommend actions to accelerate sales, improve customer service and optimize marketing campaigns'. It has also just launched a feature called Einstein Forecasting, to help users more accurately predict sales revenue at every stage in the sales cycle.

The new Salesforce AI Innovation Fund will be used to help AI-focused companies accelerate the development of their solutions. Conversation analyst specialist TalkIQ is one of the first recipients of funding, along with sales enablement platform Highspot and context intelligence firm Squirro. Additionally, Salesforce Ventures has completed an investment in AI start-up studio All Turtles, which partners with founding teams and companies to build AI-centric products. Salesforce will work with All Turtles to co-create AI solutions built on the Salesforce platform.

John Somorjai (pictured), EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures, comments: 'Artificial intelligence has the potential to make every company and employee smarter, faster, more efficient and more productive. The new Salesforce AI Innovation Fund will help accelerate the development of transformative AI solutions that extend and complement Salesforce, helping our customers reach new levels of success'.

Web site: www.salesforce.com .