New Delhi: Salesforce Ventures, the company's global investment arm, has launched a new $250 million generative artificial intelligence (AI) fund to bolster the startup ecosystem and spark the development of responsible AI. The fund will initially invest in four companies, including Anthropic, Cohere, Hearth.AI and You.com. "Salesforce Ventures has been investing in high-potential enterprise technology businesses for more than a decade, and these initial investments from the fund in generative AI companies fit squarely into that strategy," John Somorjai, EVP Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures at Salesforce said. More than two-thirds of leaders will be prioritising generative AI over the next 18 months, but technical and ethical concerns with the technology remain a top concern. "This fund will accelerate our commitment to fostering the next generation of innovation and we're excited to see how these companies reinvent how the world works," he added.Daniela Amodei, President, Anthropic said that Anthropic and Salesforce share a vision for creating innovative technology that is rooted in safety, and "we're looking forward to introducing more useful AI services into the world."

Virtual avatars might well be the future of customer support. According to Juniper Research, conversational assistants will drive cost savings of over $8 billion annually by 2022 (up from $20 million in 2017). In fact, chatbots are anticipated to power 85% of all customer service interactions by year-end 2020 -- already, 42% of consumers use them on the regular. It was with this in mind that Greg Cross and Mark Sagar, a former special projects supervisor at director Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, founded Soul Machines in 2016. The goal was to develop a suite enabling clients to build interactive customer experiences.

The venture wing of Salesforce.com is launching a $50 million fund to invest in startups employing artificial intelligence, the cloud computing firm told Reuters on Tuesday. Salesforce (crm), whose software helps businesses sell, market and track customer activity, has been increasing its use of AI since launching its'Einstein' technology a year ago, which uses automation and data-driven features. "There's a tremendous surge in companies who are providing unique AI innovations," said John Somorjai, executive vice president of Salesforce Ventures. "We want more of those companies to do these innovations on Salesforce's platform." Salesforce revenues and income have grown rapidly in recent quarters, and it has boosted spending on research and development in the face of tough competition from rivals such as Oracle (orcl) and Microsoft (msft).

Salesforce's investment arm is launching a $50 million fund to invest in AI-focused startups. Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of cloud-computing giant Salesforce, is launching a $50 million fund to invest in startups focused on artificial intelligence, according to Reuters. Salesforce has been working more and more with artificial intelligence (AI) through its Salesforce Einstein tool, which marks its first year on Tuesday. More than 7,000 developers are building AI apps with Einstein, according to Matt Garratt, vice president of Salesforce Ventures. Interest in AI has been rising across the tech industry. According to CB Insights, deals tied to AI startups increased from 150 in 2012 to 698 in 2016.

The venture arm of Salesforce.com is launching a $50 million fund to invest in startups employing artificial intelligence, the cloud computing firm told Reuters on Tuesday. Salesforce, whose software helps businesses sell, market and track customer activity, has been increasing its use of AI since launching its'Einstein' technology a year ago, which uses automation and data-driven features. "There's a tremendous surge in companies who are providing unique AI innovations," said John Somorjai, executive vice president of Salesforce Ventures. "We want more of those companies to do these innovations on Salesforce's platform." Salesforce revenues and income have grown rapidly in recent quarters, and it has boosted spending on research and development in the face of tough competition from rivals such as Oracle and Microsoft.

Salesforce Ventures recently announced its fourth investment fund, the Salesforce platform fund. Given Salesforce's critical market position in both SaaS and enterprise-facing software, what does the new fund mean for entrepreneurs seeking investment, and what could it tell us about Salesforce's broader ambitions? Under the umbrella of the venture sector is corporate venture capital (CVC). Oftentimes, CVC investments are deployed by large firms, such as Intel, in order to fund startups who are particularly innovative or will help propel the the parent company's strategic goals. The concept has also expanded to cash-rich incumbents like Slack, which uses its CVC investments to encourage developers to build on Slack's bot platform.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has permeated many industries from finance to healthcare, and sales is no exception. Within sales tech, there are a number of startups using AI and machine learning capabilities to help facilitate and streamline the sales process, particularly in the area of voice call and speech analytics. We used the CB Insights platform to surface 10 notable, early- to mid-stage (Series C or earlier) sales tech startups developing software platforms that specifically incorporate AI and machine learning. We selected these companies based on several factors including the recency and size of the companies' disclosed funding, as well as Mosaic scores, CB Insights' algorithm that uses financial and non-financial signals to predict private company health. After evaluating the companies on the list, we determined that the 10 companies below are some of the top companies to pay attention to.

Inc. (CRM - Analyst Report) acquired MetaMind, a start-up specialized in offering "deep-learning" services. However, the financial terms of the deal remain under wraps. Founded in 2014, MetaMind received a combined investment of 8 million from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Khosla Ventures in December the same year. MetaMind's "deep-learning" AI technique, according to Bloomberg "helps business users employ deep learning technology, which trains networks of computers to mimic the human brain's ability to recognize and analyze pictures or text without explicit instructions". MetaMind's technology and tools span natural language and image recognitions which help users to analyze data and make better decisions.