Salesforce agrees to buy Cresta to add voice agents to Service Cloud

Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta, a company whose artificial intelligence (AI) voice agents answer customer calls, the software maker said Monday. Salesforce described Cresta as “the voice-first operating system for customer experience” and said its voice agents “resolve complex customer calls end to end.” Salesforce plans to combine Cresta with Service Cloud, its customer service software.

Salesforce did not disclose the terms. The Information reported, citing one person familiar with the matter, that Salesforce agreed to pay $2.7 billion. Salesforce’s post does not give a figure.

Cresta’s platform also guides human service representatives in real time and analyzes every interaction, according to Salesforce. Salesforce says Cresta’s voice agents hold “natural, real-time conversations,” handle interruptions and run at enterprise scale for brands including Marriott, Comcast and Alaska Airlines.

What’s driving it

Salesforce’s pitch is that phone calls are where service matters most. “Voice is where service is hardest to get right, and where it matters most to customers,” said Kishan Chetan, executive vice president and general manager of Agentforce and Service Cloud at Salesforce. “As more service is resolved in the conversation itself, together we’ll bring the customer, the conversation and the outcome into one place.”

The post argues that what customers say on calls is too often “trapped in silos,” cut off from customer records. Salesforce says it brings the customer’s history and the systems to act on it, while Cresta brings an understanding of each conversation. Ping Wu, Cresta’s chief executive, said the deal will let Cresta embed “real-time conversation intelligence and agentic experiences” into Salesforce’s service platform.

Our read

Cresta follows Salesforce’s deals for Fin and Braze since June, and it fits a clear pattern: buy products that already work with large customers rather than wait to build them. In June, Salesforce agreed to acquire Fin, formerly Intercom, for about $3.6 billion, and it closed that deal Sept. 10, saying Fin brought more than 30,000 customer companies. On Oct. 20, it agreed to buy the marketing platform Braze for about $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Cresta fills a specific gap. Fin’s agent works across channels including chat, email and voice; Cresta is built around the phone call, which Salesforce itself calls the place customers go “for their highest-stakes issues.” Buying it gives Salesforce working voice agents with named enterprise users once the deal closes. The cost is integration risk. Salesforce now has to fit Agentforce, Fin and Cresta into one service story without confusing buyers, and it has promised Cresta will keep working with other contact center and phone systems. If it can tie those calls to its customer records, it strengthens its grip on service budgets. If not, it has bought overlapping products.

Who has a stake

Cresta’s existing customers, including Marriott, Comcast and Alaska Airlines, are the most directly affected. Salesforce says that after the deal closes, Cresta “will continue to support the leading contact center and telephony platforms its customers rely on today,” which matters to companies that run their phone systems on software from other vendors. Service Cloud customers stand to gain a voice agent option inside the Salesforce products they already use. Human service representatives are also in the picture: Cresta’s platform coaches them in real time and holds people and voice agents “to the same standard of quality,” the post says.

What’s next

Salesforce expects the deal to close in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2028, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. Salesforce has not said what it is paying, or how Cresta will be priced or packaged inside Service Cloud. Its Braze deal, which Salesforce said needs Braze shareholder approval and regulatory approvals, is still pending.

Sources: Salesforce, “Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Cresta,” Nov. 2, 2026; Salesforce, “Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Fin,” June 15, 2026; Salesforce, “Salesforce Completes Acquisition of Fin,” Sept. 10, 2026; Salesforce, “Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Braze,” Oct. 20, 2026; The Information, “Exclusive: Salesforce Acquires Startup Cresta for $2.7 Billion”