Salesforce Touts AI-Powered Services Amid Industry Shift to Augmented SaaS
Salesforce has announced a partnership with Anthropic to offer its services through Claude, an AI platform that aims to augment software as a service (SaaS) rather than replace it. The two companies have launched Claudeforce, a new service that enables businesses to harness the power of large language models (LLMs) for various tasks.
The deal marks a significant shift in the SaaS landscape, with CEO Marc Benioff stating that 'a shift from software as the interface to software powering every interface' is underway. He emphasized that frontier models depend on CRM rather than replacing platforms like Salesforce's SaaS offerings.
As part of this partnership, Salesforce has developed a plugin with 37 pre-built skills for Claude users, allowing them to embed Claude in their workspaces through Slack. This integration will also enable Claude models to power Salesforce's agent features and Atlas Reasoning Engine.
Salesforce's quarterly earnings report showed revenue growth of 11% year-over-year, reaching $11.3 billion, with a net income of $3.5 billion. The company's shares are up but still recovering.