Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta, a provider of AI-powered contact center automation software, for $2.7 billion, according to the Information1. The deal extends Salesforce's acquisition streak and adds voice-native AI agents to its Service Cloud platform2,3.
Salesforce announced the agreement on November 2, 2026. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of Salesforce's fiscal 2028, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
Cresta's platform combines voice agents that resolve complex customer calls end to end, real-time guidance for human representatives, and conversation analysis. Salesforce described Cresta as a voice-first operating system for customer experience. Marriott, Comcast, and Alaska Airlines are among the brands using the platform at enterprise scale.
Cresta's voice agents hold natural, real-time conversations and handle interruptions. The platform also coaches human representatives, tests and improves voice agents, and holds both to the same quality standard. Cresta's AI Agent documentation describes shared memory that preserves context across channels, handoffs, and transitions between human and AI agents.
Kishan Chetan, executive vice president and general manager of Agentforce and Service Cloud, framed voice as the most difficult and consequential service channel. Cresta CEO Ping Wu said the combination would embed real-time conversation intelligence and agentic experiences directly into Salesforce's customer-service platform.
Salesforce said it brings customer history and the systems to complete work, while Cresta brings deep understanding of every conversation and the ability to drive action with voice agents. Resolution, retention, and revenue are the stated business outcomes.
ANALYSIS The $2.7 billion price tag for a nine-year-old contact center AI company marks voice agents as a category Salesforce considers strategic enough to buy rather than build, particularly as its Agentforce platform competes for enterprise AI-agent deployments.