Software and data firms rush to meet customers inside the chatbot
A new Salesforce plugin for Claude shows how software and financial services firms are adapting to the AI era, but monetization remains an open question.
Software giants are racing to connect customer data to chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT. Salesforce recently unveiled "Claudeforce", a partnership with Anthropic that lets salespeople interact with customer records and deals through simple text prompts. This trend of AI integration is driven by fears of obsolescence from AI-native companies and the need to meet customers on their preferred platforms.
Companies see this shift as a proactive move to stay relevant, as white-collar work becomes more "agentic." Standardized protocols, like the MCP (Model Context Protocol), are being adopted to allow seamless data flow between AI models and external software. However, the monetization aspect remains unclear, as many firms are experimenting with new pricing models for these AI interfaces.
While some companies, like Upwork, offer free access to their AI chatbots, most financial services firms are still exploring how to charge for these services without disrupting their existing revenue strategies.
Written by urgent.news from Semafor's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
