Dive Brief:
- AAA’s second-largest club, The Auto Club Group, is the latest organization to show interest in adopting generative AI. ACG is tapping Salesforce solutions to deliver more personalized member engagement and make processes more efficient, the vendor announced Monday.
- ACG, which serves more than 13 million members, is set to adopt Salesforce’s newly released AI cloud. The group expects the CRM-based AI solution to enhance customer experience, boost agent productivity and streamline DevOps.
- The organization is already using Salesforce’s Einstein AI to provide members with personalized recommendations, such as the option to bundle insurance policies for a reduced premium.
Dive Insight:
ACG adopting generative AI arrives at a time when Salesforce is doubling down on its push to advance the new technology’s adoption.
Salesforce announced a shared trust partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to mitigate data privacy risks and promote the ethical use of AI Monday. The partnership includes joint content moderation using OpenAI’s enterprise API and tools to safeguard data retained in Salesforce systems.
As part of the deal, the company's AI cloud will include an “Einstein GPT Trust Layer” preventing large language models from retaining sensitive customer data.
The software vendor is also looking for applicants for its AI accelerator program, launched Monday. Through the initiative, dubbed Salesforce Accelerator - AI for Impact, members of the initial cohort will receive a $2 million grant to advance the ethical use of AI. The company's investment arm, Salesforce Ventures, is doubling its original $250 million generative AI fund to $500 million to bolster the AI start-up ecosystem.
Salesforce is joining an industrywide push toward funding AI innovation. AWS launched a generative AI start-up accelerator in April, granting memberits initial cohort up to $300,000 in AWS credits to build products and services on its tech stack. The size of the cohort doubled after a flurry of interest, totaling 21 start-ups.
As Salesforce continues to focus on generative AI, it is running into sustained customer scrutiny over tech spend. The enterprise software vendor had its smallest revenue growth rate in Q1 2024 since its 2010 fiscal year. Salesforce’s first quarter revenue reached $8.25 billion, up 11% year-over-year for the period ending April 30, the company said during its earnings call in June.
