IBM and Salesforce have unveiled a groundbreaking collaboration aimed at accelerating the worldwide adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Their partnership seeks to empower businesses across various industries to transform customer, partner, and employee experiences while ensuring the security of their data.
IBM Consulting and Salesforce are collaborating closely with shared clients to expedite business transformations using generative AI. This partnership offers clients access to the following key benefits:
1. Driving AI Adoption: IBM Consulting, leveraging its industry expertise and innovative delivery models such as the IBM Garage methodology, is guiding clients through the seamless integration and deployment of Salesforce’s AI technologies. This approach streamlines the incorporation of Salesforce’s AI solutions like Einstein, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Slack, ultimately enhancing efficiency.
2. Integrating Data and Insights: In addition to assisting clients with Salesforce’s generative AI tools, IBM Consulting can complement these solutions with IBM watsonx, an enterprise-ready AI and data platform embracing open standards. Watsonx unlocks data residing in backend systems, enabling the creation of dynamic user and employee experiences.
3. Accelerating Value through Delivery: Shared clients can benefit from IBM Consulting Managed Services for Salesforce, which offers a suite of AI experience and implementation accelerators. For example, IBM Data Classifier, powered by AI and trained on industry-specific data models, streamlines the data mapping process.
Matt Candy, Global Managing Partner, Generative AI, IBM Consulting, highlighted the pressing need to enhance employee productivity while delivering a highly personalized and convenient customer experience. He emphasized, “Through our collaboration with Salesforce, we can help empower enterprise clients to scale and accelerate the adoption of generative AI that will support them in meeting their business needs.”
IBM Consulting also maintains a strong presence within a diverse AI partner ecosystem, fostering an open and collaborative approach. This strategy enables them to design, develop, implement, and operate generative AI solutions in partnership with industry leaders across multiple cloud platforms, ensuring clients achieve their desired outcomes.
IBM itself has leveraged generative AI from Salesforce, Slack, and IBM watsonx to transform its own customer experience, offering a holistic view of the client journey and enabling global teams to collaborate efficiently. Salesforce’s open API architecture played a pivotal role in integrating IBM Watson Assistant into Salesforce Customer 360.
Steve Corfield, EVP and General Manager, Global Alliances and Channels at Salesforce, acknowledged the transformative potential of generative AI and the vital role played by partners like IBM Consulting in helping businesses harness AI, data, and CRM technologies to engage with customers at a deeper level.
The IBM and Salesforce collaboration marks a significant milestone in the adoption of AI in CRM, offering businesses the tools and expertise needed to revolutionize their customer interactions while ensuring data security and compliance. IBM Consulting’s commitment to open collaboration and its extensive AI capabilities position it as a trusted partner in driving innovation and modernization for its clients.
