Salesforce has signed an agreement to acquire Cresta, a developer of AI-powered customer service software, in a deal reportedly valued at $2.7 billion. The deal will extend Salesforce’s Agentforce platform with voice AI capabilities built to automate customer calls and assist human service representatives.
Cresta’s AI agents can conduct phone conversations, respond to customer questions and complete service requests without human intervention. Its technology also provides real-time guidance to call center employees and analyzes customer interactions to evaluate service quality.
The company’s customers include Comcast, Marriott and Alaska Airlines, which use Cresta’s technology for voice-based customer service.
For Salesforce, the acquisition will provide the capability to automate complex phone interactions while maintaining access to customer records and business applications. Automating complex phone interactions is a tough challenge because AI agents must respond to interruptions, understand customer requests and access the systems needed to resolve problems.
Salesforce plans to combine Cresta’s technology with its Service Cloud customer support platform and Agentforce AI agents. This integration could allow automated voice systems to retrieve customer histories, handle service requests and initiate actions within Salesforce applications.
Salesforce expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2028, pending regulatory approval and other closing requirements.
Integration with Salesforce
Cresta’s technology goes beyond automated call handling. Its software monitors conversations, recommends responses to human representatives and evaluates the performance of both employees and AI agents. The platform also provides testing and coaching capabilities intended to improve service operations.
These features could help Salesforce compete for enterprise contact center spending as businesses seek to reduce support costs through AI automation.
But the acquisition may create integration challenges. Salesforce must connect Cresta’s voice technology with its existing customer data, service workflows and AI management tools without adding unnecessary complexity.
Another potential concern involves Cresta customers that operate outside the Salesforce ecosystem. Cresta currently works with third-party contact center and telephone systems. Salesforce says it will maintain support for major existing platforms after the acquisition closes.
The deal highlights the difficulty of measuring whether automated customer service actually saves money. A common industry metric, call containment, measures how often AI handles an interaction without transferring it to a person. But an automated call can still be expensive if customers spend several minutes interacting with AI before receiving help.
The Cresta deal is one of several that Salesforce has pursued to expand its enterprise software portfolio, including a 2025 deal to acquire data management provider Informatica in an $8 billion transaction. The Cresta acquisition furthers that strategy into telephone-based customer support.
