IBM and Salesforce forge AI partnership

IBM and Salesforce have entered into an expanded strategic partnership aimed at providing customers greater choice and flexibility with their AI and data deployments.

The collaboration will combine IBM’s watsonx AI and data platform capabilities with the Salesforce Einstein 1 platform.

IBM watsonx has been designed to help enterprises build, scale and govern custom AI solutions with choice of AI models from different providers, or with IBM’s own Granite model series.

Integrating IBM Granite models with the Einstein 1 platform will enable joint customers of IBM watsonx and Salesforce to utilise Granite models for a range of use cases, including industry content generation, field summarisation and classification.

Salesforce’s Einstein 1 platform integrates CRM applications, data from external systems and AAI models to power AI solutions including the Einstein Copilot virtual assistant.

The collaboration will also enable Salesforce customers to access a range of industry-specific prompt templates and copilot actions being developed in collaboration with IBM Consulting. The actions and prompts will be usable across Salesforce applications including Einstein Copilot, Salesforce’s conversational AI assistant for CRM.

Meanwhile, IBM has joined the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network as part of the collaboration to enable data to be actioned across the Einstein 1 platform. Customers will be able to access their IBM data via watsonx.data from within Salesforce Data Cloud in a zero copy pattern, which will enable businesses to maintain their data in its original location while accessing external data from Salesforce Data Cloud.

Salesforce EVP and GM for Unified Data Services & Einstein Rahul Auradkar said the partnership will deliver significant value for customers of both companies.

“Salesforce and IBM are well positioned to make it easier for customers to get the most value from their data — no matter where it resides — and establish a foundation for customer engagement and trusted AI,” he said. “With the addition of bidirectional data integration, companies can harmonise all of their data faster, fuelling actionable insights that empower teams to make data-driven decisions and deliver amazing integrated experiences across all touchpoints and channels for every customer interaction.”

Salesforce has recently joined the AI Alliance, committing to supporting the alliance’s mission to create a world where AI is developed collaboratively, transparently, safely and ethically.

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