Salesforce agrees to buy Cresta in a reported $2.7B AI deal

Salesforce has agreed to buy Cresta, a startup that builds AI for customer service calls. The eye catching figure is $2.7 billion, but that price comes from The Information, not Salesforce.

In its November 2 announcement, Salesforce said it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta. It described Cresta as a voice first customer experience platform whose agents handle calls, coach human representatives in real time, and analyze conversations. The company says Cresta will keep supporting the contact center and telephony platforms its customers use after the deal closes. Salesforce confirmed the agreement and described the product.

The Information reported that Salesforce agreed to pay $2.7 billion, citing a person familiar with the deal. Salesforce did not disclose a price in its announcement. Treat the amount as reported, not an official transaction term. The Information's report gives the reported price and deal context.

Cresta brings voice automation into a customer service business where Salesforce already has a major software platform. The logic is easy to see: a call agent can act while the conversation is happening, while CRM data can provide customer context. But combining the two is not the same as proving the system can resolve difficult calls safely and consistently. The release says the acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.

For startups in voice AI, this is a sharp signal that incumbents may buy capabilities instead of waiting for them to mature internally. The more useful test will be what happens after close: whether customers adopt the combined system and whether Cresta continues to support the other platforms named in the announcement.