Salesforce and Google have expanded their partnership with a seven-year, $2.5 billion deal that could represent a challenge to Microsoft’s dominance in enterprise AI.
Agentforce will gain access to Google’s Gemini models, allowing agents to work with images, audio, and video. More complex tasks can be handled using Gemini’s multi-modal capabilities and two-million-token context windows, and real-time insights and answers will be provided via Google Search with Vertex AI.
There will also be tighter integration of Salesforce Service Cloud and Google Customer Engagement Suite, boosting AI-enabled contact center capabilities such as real-time voice translation, intelligent agent-to-agent handoffs, personalized agent recommendations, and AI-driven conversational insights across all channels.
For example, Salesforce said an insurance customer can submit a claim with photos of the damage and an audio voicemail from a witness. Agentforce, using Gemini, can then process all these inputs, assess the claim's validity, and even use text-to-speech to contact the customer with a resolution, speeding up the claims process.
Meanwhile, Salesforce’s Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Customer 360 Apps will run on Google Cloud infrastructure, with access to new regions and an easier procurement process through the Google Cloud Marketplace.
Salesforce also said it's looking at better ways to connect Slack and Google Workspace products, such as Google Chat, to easily communicate across platforms.
"Through our expanded partnership with Google Cloud and deep integrations at the platform, application, and infrastructure layer, we're giving customers choice in the applications and models they want to use," said Srini Tallapragada, Salesforce president and chief engineering and customer success officer.
"Salesforce offers a complete enterprise-grade agentic AI platform that makes it easy to deploy new capabilities easily and realize business value fast," Tallapragada.
"Google Cloud is a pioneer in enterprise agentic AI, offering some of the most powerful, capable models, agents, and AI development tools on the planet. Together we are creating the best place for businesses to scale with digital labor."
Partnership marks major Salesforce shift
Historically, Salesforce has been an Amazon Web Services (AWS) customer, but this deal means fewer eggs in one basket. It may also be a challenge to Microsoft, which has integrated its Copilot AI assistant into Office 365 and currently holds much of the enterprise market.
RELATED WHITEPAPER
"Salesforce’s selection of Google Cloud as a major infrastructure provider means enterprise customers can now deploy some of their most critical applications on our highly secure, AI-optimized infrastructure — with minimal friction," said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.
"Our mutual customers have asked us to be able to work more seamlessly across Salesforce and Google Cloud, and this expanded partnership will help them accelerate their AI transformations with agentic AI, state-of-the-art AI models, data analytics, and more."
According to Salesforce research, agentic AI already represents a $2 trillion market opportunity - and 84% of CIOs believe AI will be as significant to businesses as the internet.
MORE FROM ITPRO
- Salesforce may have had its 'ChatGPT moment' with AI agents
- Slack AI agents look to 'unify' enterprise data to drive team synergy
- Marc Benioff wants to 'break the hypnosis' coming from big tech on AI
-
Using DeepSeek at work is like ‘printing out and handing over your confidential information’News Thinking of using DeepSeek at work? Think again. Cybersecurity experts have warned you're putting your enterprise at huge risk.
-
Can cyber group takedowns last?ITPro Podcast Threat groups can recover from website takeovers or rebrand for new activity – but each successful sting provides researchers with valuable data
-
Workers view agents as ‘important teammates’ – but the prospect of an AI 'boss' is a step too farNews Workers are comfortable working alongside AI agents, according to research from Workday, but the prospect of having an AI 'boss' is a step too far.
-
Everything you need to know about OpenAI’s new agent for ChatGPT – including how to access it and what it can doNews ChatGPT agent will bridge "research and action" – but OpenAI is keen to stress it's still a work in progress
-
‘Humans must remain at the center of the story’: Marc Benioff isn’t convinced about the threat of AI job losses – and Salesforce’s adoption journey might just prove his pointNews Marc Benioff thinks fears over widespread AI job losses may be overblown and that Salesforce's own approach to the technology shows adoption can be achieved without huge cuts.
-
IT leaders don’t trust AI agents yet – and they’re missing out on huge financial gainsNews While the hype around agentic AI is building, trust in fully autonomous agents is proving to be a major stumbling block for enterprise IT leaders.
-
‘Agent washing’ is here: Most agentic AI tools are just ‘repackaged’ RPA solutions and chatbots – and Gartner says 40% of projects will be ditched within two yearsNews Agentic AI might be the latest industry trend, but new research suggests the majority of tools are simply repackaged AI assistants and chatbots.
-
Enterprises are worried about agentic AI security risks – Gartner says the answer is just adding more AI agentsNews Not content with deploying agents for frontline operations, some enterprises might double down with ‘guardian agents’ to monitor their bot-based workforces
-
Get used to working with AI teammates in SlackNews The workplace collaboration app is all-in on AI agents
-
How AI agents are being deployed in the real worldSupported Content These intelligent systems, capable of independent decision-making and learning, are transforming how organisations detect, respond to, and manage security problems
