IBM and Salesforce announce strategic AI partnership that will seamlessly connect Watson and Einstein

IBM and Salesforce have announced a strategic partnership to seamlessly connect IBM’s AI platform for businesses, Watson, and Einstein, AI that powers the Salesforce CRM. The combined AI will provide customer engagement for sales, marketing, services and commerce operations. Watson insights will be delivered directly to the Salesforce Intelligent Customer Success Platform. Watson and Einstein will work together to recommend measures. Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and chief executive officer, IBM said, “Within a few years, every major decision—personal or business—will be made with the help of AI and cognitive technologies. This year we expect Watson will touch one billion people—through everything from oncology and retail to tax preparation and cars. Now, with today’s announcement, the power of Watson will serve the millions of Salesforce and Einstein customers and developers to provide an unprecedented understanding of customers” Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce said, “The combination of Einstein and Watson will make businesses smarter and our customers more successful. I’m thrilled to form an alliance with IBM—no company’s core values are as close to Salesforce’s as IBM’s. It’s the best of both worlds” Watson brings to the table structured and unstructured data, from both within the organisation and outside to Einstein. For example, Watson can provide retail industry and weather data to Einstein, who will combine the information with specific shopping and and perferences data, to deliver highly personalised email campaigns to customers. The Salesforce App Exchange now has weather data from The Weather Company, an IBM business. This will enable clients to send out automatic alerts and reminders in anticipation of severe weather conditions. Bluewolf, a new IBM company has been formed to rapidly deploy the capabilities of both IBM and Salesforce to clients. There is no pricing information on the products as of now, and clients are expected to be able to use the combined services from the second half of 2017. IBM is deploying Salesforce Service Cloud across its own company.