Salesforce Announces Agreement to Acquire Cresta on November 2 to Strengthen Voice Customer Service
Key Facts
Salesforce announced on November 2, 2026, that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta, adding voice AI technology to its customer service tools. The company describes Cresta as a platform focused on customer experience through voice and says its agents can handle complex calls from start to finish. The announcement follows Salesforce’s October 20 agreement to buy Braze for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Under the terms of the Braze deal, Class A shareholders were set to receive $47.50 in cash per share. Salesforce did not disclose the value or financial terms of the Cresta deal in its announcement.
The deal aims to connect voice calls with customer data and interaction histories through Service Cloud, according to Salesforce. The company said the integration will link each customer conversation to the customer and its outcome, including issue resolution, retention and revenue. Cresta also adds tools to assist employees during conversations: Salesforce says its platform guides customer service representatives in real time and analyzes interactions. This puts the technology on two parallel tracks: enabling automated agents to handle calls and providing employees with real-time signals and conversation analytics. Kishan Chetan, a Salesforce executive, said, "Voice is the hardest channel to get right in service, and the most important to customers."
Salesforce said Cresta agents conduct natural conversations in real time and handle interruptions, and that the platform operates at enterprise scale. The company named Marriott, Comcast and Alaska Airlines among the brands using Cresta’s services. Its routing and analytics capabilities let employees receive guidance while engaging with customers, while the voice agents are designed to complete complex calls directly. Salesforce also said Cresta will continue supporting the contact center and telephony platforms its customers rely on after the deal closes. The arrangement links continued support for existing systems with the addition of the technology to Salesforce products.
The deal is part of Salesforce’s expansion into AI and data tools. In the second quarter of its fiscal 2027, the company said annual recurring revenue from Agentforce and Data 360 was nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210% year over year. Agentforce alone exceeded $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, an increase of more than 240%, according to the company. It said the figure includes AI offerings, Slackbot and Headless 360 as of that quarter. Chief Executive Mark Benioff said in August that demand for its AI and data products was strong and that their annual recurring revenue was approaching $4 billion.
Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin, formerly known as Intercom, on September 10. Fin is a platform for AI customer service agents. When announcing the deal’s completion, the company said Fin handles complex inquiries across channels including live chat, email, WhatsApp, text messages, voice and Slack. It added that Fin’s agent had an average resolution rate of 76% when the deal was announced as complete. The Cresta acquisition gives Salesforce a specialized addition for voice calls and contact centers alongside its multichannel tools. The two deals, according to the company’s descriptions of their products, combine customer interaction handling across different channels with improved links to customer records and service outcomes.
Salesforce expects to complete the Cresta deal in the first quarter of its fiscal 2028, subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals. The company’s announcement did not specify a final closing date or give the agreement’s financial value. Until the deal closes, Cresta will continue supporting the contact center and telephony platforms its customers currently use, according to the company. After closing, Salesforce says integrating the technology with Service Cloud will connect conversations with customer data and service outcomes. Completion of the acquisition remains subject to satisfying the agreement’s conditions and obtaining the necessary approvals.