Salesforce has selected London for its first AI Centre – a physical space that will foster collaboration by bringing together industry experts, partners, and customers to advance AI innovation while providing critical upskilling opportunities. The Salesforce UK AI Centre, will be located in London’s Blue Fin building. It builds on the company’s pledge to invest $4 billion in AI innovation and growth in the UK over five years.
According to Zahra Bahrololoumi, CEO, Salesforce UK & Ireland, “Last year, we made a big commitment to the UK marketplace. This year we have completed on this commitment and Salesforce is opening an AI Centre in London. This is fabulous because it will foster important collaboration across AI experts, industry experts, customers and our partners. In addition, it will provide physical upskilling opportunities.
“This investment is an example of how Salesforce will remain rooted in our core values – guidance, trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability. These values remain important to me, personally and are more important than ever to us at Salesforce. As this AI innovation evolves, enterprises need to ensure they are introducing technology that is trusted and safe and inclusive,”
As part of its UK focus, Salesforce Ventures has invested more than $200 million in UK companies. These companies include ElevenLabs, the text-to-speech and AI voice generator, and AutoGenAI, the world’s leading AI bid writing engine.
Driving growth in UK businesses
The launch of the UK AI Centre and the latest investment figures were announced as Salesforce hosted its annual London World Tour. At the event, the company also unveiled its latest AI product innovations and announced that Salesforce Data Cloud will be available on Hyperforce — the trusted platform architecture built on the public cloud — in the UK starting in July.
“AI has the potential to drive major growth for UK businesses – with the UK AI market predicted to reach over $1 trillion by 2035. To realise this opportunity, industry-leading experts must work together to develop innovative solutions and overcome obstacles,” said Bahrololoumi.
“By locating Salesforce’s first AI Centre in London, we are sending a clear message to customers and partners on AI. We are deeply committed to working closely together so that you can reap the rewards of this transformative technology. At the same time, ensuring it is a force for good,” Bahrololoumi added.
Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Growth, Howard Dawber, said, “London is fast becoming one of the most important centres of AI businesses in the world. We warmly welcome the decision by Salesforce to launch its pioneering UK AI Centre in the capital.”
“This new UK AI Centre will bring industry experts together to innovate and collaborate. It will provide training for Londoners to access the jobs and opportunities of the future and boost our economy. We plan to continue working towards a fairer and better city for everyone,” Dawber said.
Enterprise Times: What this means for businesses
Salesforce’s plans to open a new AI Centre in London demonstrate how much UK businesses and consumers are embracing the technology. In February 2024, Slack published research that suggested the workplace is rapidly embracing AI. The research explored how desk workers feel about how AI will change the way individuals work. Additionally, it explored who is using AI and automation tools today and how these tools are affecting workplace productivity.
Salesforce’s own research, published in January 2024, suggested 85% of IT leaders expect AI to increase developer productivity at their organisations over the next three years. Salesforce says this is a welcome relief, as they reported a 39% increase in IT requests in the last year. However, 62% also say their organisation isn’t yet equipped to harmonise data systems to fully leverage AI.
These respondents say this is impeding the transition and further heightening the strain on their teams. Hopefully, this is where the new AI Centre will come to the rescue. The challenge for many organisations is the quality and fragmentation of their data – irrespective of the type of data held. Many enterprises have fundamental issues with Customer, product, marketing or corporate data. Such data needs to be accessed, cleansed and processed before it can be submitted to the Large Language Models (LLMs), which generate positive AI results. Hopefully, Salesforce’s new AI Centre will be positioned to support these needs.
