Salesforce to buy customer service automation startup Cresta for reported $2.7B

Salesforce has agreed to acquire Cresta Intelligence Inc., a venture-backed provider of customer service software, for a reported $2.7 billion. The deal allows Salesforce to enhance its customer service offerings with artificial intelligence technology. Cresta’s platform uses AI to handle customer inquiries, as well as more complex tasks like scheduling appointments.

It personalizes its responses based on customers’ preferences, previous interactions, and related data. Companies can customize Cresta by creating AI voice agents tailored to specific support request categories. The platform can break down complex support requests into smaller tasks, improving processing efficiency. Cresta ships with a pre-packaged agent called Deputy, designed for particularly complex support tickets requiring multiple employees to process.

The agent automatically gathers necessary information and coordinates follow-up tasks. Another pre-packaged agent provides real-time guidance to human support representatives, highlighting potential upselling opportunities and pulling relevant information from external systems. Cresta offers tools such as Opera, which enables organizations to fine-tune AI models for specific customer service use cases, and Synthetic Customers, which generates AI-generated support conversations for testing.

The deal is Salesforce’s second multi-billion dollar acquisition in the customer service market this year, following its $3.6 billion purchase of Fin Inc., formerly Intercom Inc. Salesforce expects to close both the Cresta and Braze acquisitions within its 2028 fiscal year, beginning in February.