Salesforce has made history by announcing that it will open its first-ever “AI Center” in London
Situated in the Blue Fin building of the city, the Salesforce UK AI Center will facilitate industry experts, partners, and customers to collaborate and advance AI innovation. Additionally, it will offer crucial upskilling opportunities to guarantee that the UK workforce has the necessary skills to take on these roles.
Unveiled at its yearly World Tour London, the event has a history of making major announcements, including the introduction of Einstein GPT, the first gen-AI for CRM, along with a host of other AI announcements.
The UK AI market is expected to reach over US$1 trillion by 2035, meaning that AI has the potential to significantly boost company growth in the country. Industry-leading professionals must collaborate to create creative solutions and get beyond challenges in order to take advantage of this potential, according to Zahra Bahrololoumi, CEO of Salesforce UKI.
Highlighting its effort in AI, the software giant also announced an extension of its collaboration with consulting firm Slalom to enable joint customers to deliver the value of AI across the enterprise.
Salesforce: an AI powerhouse
Salesforce has considerably increased its AI development and investment in the last few years.
In 2023, the business established a US$250 million AI Fund, made significant investments in startups like Anthropic and Cohere, and purchased AI firms like Airkit and Spiff. The Generative AI Fund quadrupled to $500 million by year-end.
This year, the open-source AI infrastructure firm Together AI raised US$106 million in funding headed by Salesforce Ventures.
Through its venture capital arm, the corporation has invested more than $200 million in UK businesses, including ElevenLabs and AutoGenAI.
Salesforce also announced the imminent availability of its Data Cloud on the Hyperforce platform architecture in the UK beginning in July and unveiled new AI product developments.
These changes demonstrate a consistent trend of Salesforce actively seeking AI integration throughout its services and product line.
AI investment Ecosphere
Salesforce’s focus on AI aligns with the broader trend of Europe’s tech ecosystem gearing up for unprecedented growth driven by AI innovation.
According to a report by GP Bullhound, European AI companies received over €11 billion in funding last year, with 36% of new unicorns emerging from the AI/ML sector.
The UK, in particular, stands out as the third-largest AI market globally, behind only the US and China.
UK’s position
This decision to open the AI Center in the UK underscores industry confidence in the country’s flourishing AI economy.
Just last year, Salesforce pledged to invest US$4 billion in AI innovation and growth within the UK over the next five years, with this pledge building on that.
The UK’s AI sector has also attracted significant other AI investments, with one startup securing Europe’s largest-ever AI funding of $1.05 billion for autonomous vehicle solutions this year.
The government has also taken steps to support AI growth, such as incorporating the Office for Artificial Intelligence into the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in February 2024.
Furthermore, cloud providers like CoreWeave are expanding their presence in the UK, announcing a £1 billion investment and the opening of its European headquarters in London, citing unprecedented demand for AI infrastructure.
An all around win on AI
By combining its internal AI development efforts with strategic investments and partnerships, Salesforce is positioning itself to drive enterprise AI adoption.
Picking the UK as the place to open its AI Center highlights its belief the country can support its talent pool to administer it, provide advantages with government initiatives and influx of investments, and in exchange, get UK workers to be best placed to adopt the technology, further adding to the UK’s standing in AI.