Salesforce forms research group, launches Einstein A.I. platform that works with Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud

Salesforce is announcing today the launch of its Einstein artificial intelligence (A.I.) platform that's implemented into several of the company's existing cloud services: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Analytics Cloud, App Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud, and IoT Cloud. The company is also announcing the formation of Salesforce Research, a unit that will do research in deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision that can be used to improve Salesforce products. The unit is led by Salesforce chief scientist Richard Socher, formerly cofounder and chief executive of A.I. startup MetaMind, which Salesforce acquired earlier this year. In a press briefing in San Francisco this week, Socher declined to say how many people were part of the team, although he did say that some of Salesforce's 175 data scientists have joined the newly organized division. The product enhancements will have an impact on Salesforce's direct competitors.