Salesforce and Google Cloud Expand Strategic Partnership to Unlock the Power of AI, Data and CRM

• New hyper-efficient data sharing between Salesforce Data Cloud and Google BigQuery will provide bi-directional secure data access without the need to copy or move data

• “Bring your own AI model” (BYOM) integrations between Salesforce Data Cloud and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI will help democratize AI capabilities by giving customers greater choice in how they utilize AI and customer data

On June 7, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) and Google Cloud announced an expanded strategic partnership to help businesses utilize data and AI to deliver more personalized customer experiences, better understand customer behavior, and run more effective campaigns at a lower cost across marketing, sales, service, and commerce.

Two new data and AI innovations will bring real-time data sharing with enhanced predictive and generative AI capabilities, so businesses can use their data and their custom AI models to better predict customer needs and reduce the cost, risk, and complexity of synchronizing data across platforms.

Why this matters: While 80% of business leaders say data is critical in decision-making at their organization, 41% find their data too complex and inaccessible to be useful. These new integrations will help solve the problem of accessing and understanding data and allow companies to use their data to power AI insights across their business that drive better customer experiences.

Go Deeper: Turning business data into actionable insights and personalized experiences

Salesforce Data Cloud + Google BigQuery

The new integration between Salesforce Data Cloud and BigQuery will enable companies to more easily create unified profiles of their customers to provide new, highly personalized experiences. Salesforce and Google Cloud will provide customers with seamless data access across platforms and across clouds, akin to having their data housed in a single location — with zero-copy or zero-ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) that can reduce the cost and complexity of moving or copying it while maintaining governance and trust.

Salesforce Data Cloud + Google Vertex AI

New integrations between Salesforce Data Cloud and Google Cloud's Vertex AI will enable customers to bring their own models from Vertex and use them across the Salesforce Platform, addressing the specific needs of their businesses – such as predicting buying behavior or churn likelihood – across their Salesforce Customer 360 data. Zero-copy data access for AI model training can maximize a company's AI investment by providing immediate access to unified customer data, thereby streamlining the model development process and enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of AI predictions and insights.

How industries will use Salesforce’s Data Cloud and Google’s BigQuery and Vertex AI to improve the customer experience and personalize interactions

• A fashion retailer can connect CRM data, like customer purchase history and service interactions, with non-CRM data like real-time online activity or social media sentiment. They can then deploy custom AI models that predict customers’ likelihood to buy certain types of clothing based on that data, and deliver hyper-personalized recommendations to customers via the most appropriate channel, including email, a mobile app, or social media.

• A healthcare organization can connect CRM data, like appointment history and patient feedback, with non-CRM data like patient demographics and medical history data. They can then deploy custom AI models that predict which patients are at risk of readmission, which informs personalized care plans for those high-risk patients to improve medical outcomes through proactive medical care.

• A financial institution can connect CRM data, like a customer's transaction history, credit score, and financial goals, with non-CRM data like market analysis or economic trends. They can then deploy custom AI models that predict a customers’ spending habits, investment preferences, and financial goals to inform personalized banking services and offers.

Quotes:

"AI and data are revolutionizing the way businesses operate and innovate, and together Salesforce and Google are empowering organizations to unlock the full potential of their trusted data, put AI insights into action, and personalize customer experiences like never before. This partnership paves the way for unprecedented innovation and business value for our customers." – David Schmaier, Chief Product Officer, Salesforce

“Google Cloud and Salesforce share a commitment to helping businesses accelerate their data-driven transformations. This new partnership brings together one of the world’s largest data clouds from Salesforce with analytics and AI capabilities from Google Cloud, and represents a significant leap forward in businesses’ ability to generate more value and insights from their customer data.” – Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud

Salesforce and Google Partnership Momentum

In 2017, Salesforce and Google launched a strategic technology partnership, bringing together two of the world’s most innovative companies to help customers turn marketing, sales, service, and commerce data into actionable insights and better business outcomes. Since then, companies of all sizes and across all industries have been leveraging Google and Salesforce together to enhance marketing, provide AI-powered customer experiences, and increase productivity.

Availability:

• The Data Cloud and Google Vertex AI integration will be in pilot mid-2023, and generally available late-2023.

• The Data Cloud and BigQuery integration will be in pilot late-2023, and generally available early 2024.

• The Marketing Cloud and Google Analytics integration will be available later this year and compatible with GA4.