Salesforce announces plans to acquire Cresta, a provider of AI-powered contact center automation software; source: Salesforce agreed to pay $2.7B for Cresta

Your contact center AI tools will now offer deeper integration with customer history and automated resolution pathways.

Salesforce has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta, a company specializing in AI-powered contact center automation software, for $2.7 billion. Cresta's technology includes AI voice agents that can handle complex customer calls from end-to-end, as well as tools that provide real-time guidance to human representatives and analyze customer interactions. The acquisition aims to integrate Cresta's conversational AI capabilities with Salesforce's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, particularly its Service Cloud. This combination is intended to unify customer data, conversation insights, and resolution outcomes. Cresta's existing platform supports various contact center and telephony systems and will continue to do so post-acquisition. The transaction is anticipated to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2028, pending regulatory approvals.

This acquisition signals Salesforce's aggressive push to embed generative AI and agentic capabilities directly into its core CRM offerings, moving beyond simple chatbots to sophisticated, real-time operational tools. By integrating Cresta's "voice-first operating system," Salesforce aims to directly address complex customer service issues, enhancing both automated resolution and human agent performance within a single workflow. This move directly challenges competitors by offering a more holistic solution that connects customer interactions to tangible business outcomes like retention and revenue.

The integration of Cresta's technology is poised to benefit businesses that rely on high-stakes customer service interactions, potentially improving efficiency and customer satisfaction. For Salesforce, this acquisition represents a significant step in capturing a larger share of the burgeoning AI-driven customer experience market. Companies should watch how quickly Salesforce can operationalize these advanced AI agents and what new Service Cloud features emerge, as this could set a new standard for AI's role in customer service operations.