Microsoft, Salesforce Vie for Attention With Dueling AI Launches
**Microsoft, Salesforce Vie for Attention With Dueling AI Launches**
By Kevin McLaughlin
5 hours ago
Source: The Information
Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff has spent months criticizing Microsoft's AI chatbot for giving inaccurate responses, and now Microsoft is fighting back. Microsoft unveiled a new AI agent that uses data from its customer management software, as well as Salesforce's, to automate the process of vetting sales leads and setting up meetings with customers. Microsoft also launched a program aimed at getting more customers to adopt its sales-oriented AI, pitching it as a way to "migrate off legacy CRM system vendors."
The moves served as a distraction from Salesforce's efforts to highlight its progress in AI agents for businesses. These included unveiling a new version of Agentforce, its main AI product, that lets customers build agents that can independently perform tasks, and an app store that lets agents incorporate features from third-party business software providers like DocuSign and Workday.