IBM and Salesforce team up to bring AI tools to their shared clients

Big Blue is teaming with an even Bigger Blue to deliver AI solutions to clients.

Today, IBM and Salesforce announced they are joining forces to bring Salesforce AI solutions (Sales GPT, Service GPT, Salesforce Einstein, Slack GPT and Marketing GPT) to customers who do business with both companies.

Obviously, what Salesforce brings to the table is its popular and powerful customer relationship management (CRM) software, in addition to the aforementioned AI apps and tools.

160,000 consultants!

What IBM offers through the partnership is “industry expertise and innovative delivery models” through its IBM Consulting arm of 160,000 human consultants, the company said in a press release.

Specifically, this includes “IBM Garage … an operating model for business transformation,” which will help the combined clients get their Salesforce AI integrations up and running.

IBM notes that the shared customers may also wish to adopt its Watsonx enterprise AI platform for finding and fine-tuning enterprise grade AI models. WatsonX can further help customers find “data locked in backend systems” that they can better access and leverage through their shiny new Salesforce and open-source AI models.

That’s classified

Further, customers should consider using IBM’s Data Classifier, an “AI-powered application trained on industry-specific data models,” to help them map all their internal data to make it useful and accessible to the AI tools and apps, IBM says.

“Companies are embarking on a transformative journey fueled by generative AI,” Steve Corfield, Salesforce EVP and GM of global alliances and channels said in a press release. “Salesforce partners like IBM Consulting play an important role in helping businesses use Salesforce’s AI, data and CRM technologies to connect with their customers on a new level. Bringing Salesforce and IBM innovations together will help transform the way companies deliver personalized, engaging experiences.” 

IBM is practicing what it preaches. The original Big Blue used Salesforce and its own watsonx to overhaul its customer service and sales processes — now it’s hoping to do the same for many others around the globe.