March 7 (Reuters) – Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) said on Tuesday it was working with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to add the chatbot sensation to its collaboration software Slack, as well as bring generative artificial intelligence to its business software generally.
The San Francisco-based company said technology it is calling EinsteinGPT would combine its proprietary AI with that of outside partners, including OpenAI, to help businesses generate email drafts, customer-account information and computer code. ChatGPT also would integrate with Slack to help users summarize conversation threads and handle other queries.
The move reflects a race among technology companies to outfit their tools with generative AI, which can create new text, imagery and other content based on inputs from past data.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), for instance, has announced that technology from OpenAI – a company in which it is investing – can generate meeting notes in its product Teams, as well as suggest email replies to vendors through its Viva Sales subscription. Teams competes with Slack.
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Clara Shih, a general manager at Salesforce, said in a press briefing that the announcement responded to demand by businesses for the nascent technology. She said Salesforce’s proprietary data and AI models would help differentiate its offering.
Salesforce’s generative AI tools would help companies “completely reimagine how they engage with their customers,” she said.
Salesforce also announced a fund to invest in generative AI startups.
Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.
Editing by Matthew Lewis
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