Salesforce to plug $4bn in UK business for AI innovation

The investment also aims to drive job creation amid the continued digital skills shortage

Salesforce has unveiled plans to invest $4bn in its UK business over the next five years.

The announcement comes as Salesforce kicks off its World Tour London: AI Day, the company's largest-ever UK event.

The CRM vendor claims it is experiencing rapid growth in the UK as companies invest in digital transformation and leverage the exponential innovation around artificial intelligence.

This latest round of capital injection builds on the company's previous five-year investment of $2.5bn announced in 2018.

UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak said the funds are a "ringing endorsement" of the UK economy.

"It will strengthen the company's UK presence, increasing capacity, as well as creating vital jobs, reinforcing our position as one of their largest markets outside of the US," Sunak said.

"This investment sits alongside my key priority to grow the economy and pledge to make the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in tech businesses."

Salesforce chair and CEO Marc Benioff hailed the UK as a home for "incredible" innovation, hoping his company will drive the "next wave of digital transformation in this new AI era."

Generative AI is transforming the world of work with many companies launching their own AI products in response.

Salesforce itself released Einstein GPT, the world's first generative AI for CRM, the vendor claims.

This month, Salesforce also announced AI Cloud, which brings together AI, data, analytics and automation to provide trusted, open, real-time generative AI that is enterprise ready.

Digital skills shortage

Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners in the UK is expected to create 271,700 new jobs and £52bn ($66bn) in new business revenues by 2026, according to research by IDC.

However, the emergence of generative AI serves as a powerful reminder of the digital skills crisis facing UK businesses.

Last year Salesforce announced a grant of over £1.1m to support education programs in the UK, and is urging business and government to work together to establish a national online digital skills platform to show people where to access the training they need.