Salesforce's embrace of AI was sparked by an edict from Marc Benioff, co-founder says.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping Salesforce in the same way that mobile and social did in years past. The company thrived in the transition to mobile computing with custom apps for smartphones and succeeded in social with messaging service Chatter as well as tools for tracking internet ads. Now, Salesforce is embracing AI to automate sales leads and make customer service smarter. On Wednesday, Salesforce introduced new AI services that third-party developers can weave into their applications. How did this internal trend start?