Salesforce to buy Cresta, maker of AI voice agents

The phone call is the last part of customer support that AI has not fully taken over. Salesforce just bought a company built to change that.

Salesforce announced on November 2 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta, which Salesforce describes as "the voice-first operating system for customer experience."

Salesforce did not give a price. The Information reported the deal at $2.7 billion.

What Cresta does

According to Salesforce, Cresta sells voice agents that resolve complex customer calls end to end. The same platform guides human representatives in real time, analyzes every interaction, and tests and improves the voice agents themselves.

Salesforce names Marriott, Comcast and Alaska Airlines as Cresta customers.

Cresta's capabilities will be embedded into Salesforce's customer service platform and connected with Service Cloud, so each conversation links to the customer record and the outcome, the announcement says.

"Cresta has built voice agents that handle complex, high-volume calls for some of the world's largest brands," said Kishan Chetan, who runs Agentforce and Service Cloud at Salesforce.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, subject to customary conditions including regulatory approvals. Salesforce's fiscal year begins in February, which puts that window in early 2027.

Voice is the hard part

Yes, another enterprise software acquisition. This one is worth a slot because of what it buys.

Chat support is already crowded with AI. Calls are harder: they happen live, customers interrupt, and a bad answer is heard by a person on hold. That is why so much support volume still runs through human agents on the phone.

Salesforce already sells AI agents under the Agentforce name. Buying Cresta adds voice agents with named enterprise customers already in production, plus the coaching tools for the humans who stay on the line.

The pairing is the point. Cresta covers both the calls an agent can finish alone and the ones a person still has to take.

What it means for you

If your support team runs on Service Cloud, expect voice agents to show up as a Salesforce product rather than a separate vendor you integrate. Ask your account team how Cresta will be packaged and priced before your next renewal, not after.

If you are a Cresta customer on another platform, Salesforce says Cresta will continue to support the contact center and telephony platforms its customers rely on today. Get that commitment in writing, with a timeframe, at your next renewal.

If you build voice agents, your largest potential channel partner now owns a competitor. Plan your integrations accordingly.

What to watch

Regulatory approval and the close date, since nothing changes for customers until then. Then the price list: whether Cresta's voice agents arrive bundled into existing Service Cloud plans or as a new line item will tell you who Salesforce expects to pay for this.

Ask about packaging now. The bundle gets decided before you see it.