IBM and Salesforce Deepen Partnership With AI and Cloud Collaboration

Artifical intelligence might not be as diabolical as many science fiction writers have feared, not yet at least. IBM and Salesforce recently announced an expansion of their strategic partnership, which will further collaboration between their two AIs. Specifically, they’re working to bring together IBM Cloud and Watson with Salesforce Quip and Service Cloud Einstein. This will “enable companies to connect with their customers and collaborate more effectively with deeper insights.”

The companies first announced their partnership in March 2017. Their intent has always been to bring their AI services and cloud computing platforms together to create a more insightful CRM.

This announcement also includes Salesforce naming IBM as their cloud services provider, and IBM naming Salesforce as its preferred customer engagement platform for sales and service.

IBM will build newIBM WatsonQuip Live Apps, which will combine the power of Watson and Quip. Quip is Salesforce’s fully integrated cloud-based word processing application. These applications will be embedded directly into any Quip document. The intent is to increase the effectiveness of sales teams.

IBM Watson and Service Cloud Einstein will deliver new AI-driven recommendations for next best actions. So companies will be able to utilize AI driven predictive analytics to provide the best insight for salespeople.

Improving relationships between customers and salespeople is the goal of the Salesforce and IBM partnership. The release says, “Companies will be able to create personalized, custom-triggered interactions based on the latest call or messaging chat they had, to help build stronger connections with their customers.”

The two companies have over 4,000 joint customers. Their partnership has already helped companies implement new Watson solutions, helping them connect more deeply with customers. As with any industry, knowledge is power. Businesses have tremendous amounts of customer data and don’t always know what to do with it. IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein, together, will be able to provide companies with a detailed understanding of their customer base. This kind of information is invaluable for any business and sales team.

We encourage you to read the full release here.