Microsoft has announced a partnership with Adobe Inc and a Private startup C3.ai to provide customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Microsoft is taking on CRM market leader Salesforce.com via a partnership with Adobe and AI startup C3.ai.
Tom Siebel, CRM pioneer founder of Siebel Systems, is the CEO of C3.ai.
The CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella, said
“This year has made clear that businesses fortified by digital technology are more resilient and more capable of transforming when faced with sweeping changes like those we are experiencing,”
“Together with C3.ai and Adobe, we are bringing to market a new class of industry-specific AI solutions,” he added.
Attracting More customers will also be a boon to Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure service.
The joint effort will contribute AI-driven CRM software that promises enhanced predictive capabilities.
C3.ai will release a new CRM software program that blends its AI tools with Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 CRM software and adobe’s marketing and customer-targeting cloud.
The offering pulls in an array of data from clients internal systems.
The outside information, such as regulatory filings, to predict, future revenue, what new products are needed and which customers might be ready to take their business elsewhere.
The Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said.
“Sales force has done a fantastic job, but they have 20% share and therein lies the story- we talk about this as if it’s all over, and the reality is it is a pretty competitive market.”
Adobe, being the leader in photoshop software has been a close partner of Microsoft in its cloud businesses.
Siebel’s C3.ai was founded in 2009 and now has customers including Bank of America Corp, Royal Dutch shell plc and the U.S Defense Department.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said
“This is now blending what the sales person wanted and what the marketing person wanted and what the finance person wanted.”
