Salesforce will add ChatGPT to Slack as part of the OpenAI partnership

(Reuters) – Salesforce Inc said on Tuesday it is working with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to add chatbot sensing to its companion software Slack, as well as to bring generative artificial intelligence to its business software in general.

The San Francisco-based company said the technology it’s calling EinsteinGPT will combine its proprietary AI with outside partners, including OpenAI, to help businesses generate email drafts, customer-account information and computer code. ChatGPT will also integrate with Slack to help users summarize conversation threads and manage other queries.

The move reflects a race among tech companies to outfit their tools with generative AI, which can create new text, images and other content based on inputs from past data.

For example, Microsoft Corp. announced that technology from OpenAI — a company in which it is investing — can generate meeting notes in its product teams, as well as suggest email replies to salespeople through its Viva sales subscription. Teams compete with Slack.

Clara Shih, a general manager at Salesforce, said in a press briefing that the announcement was in response to business demand for new technology. He said Salesforce’s proprietary data and AI models will help differentiate its offering.

Salesforce’s generative AI tools will help companies “completely reimagine how they engage with their customers.”

Salesforce also announced a fund to invest in generative AI startups.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dustin in Palo Alto, Calif.; Editing by Matthew Lewis)