Listen Labs’ AI agents run customer interviews and analyze the answers. Salesforce says the founders will stay on and join its AI Labs unit.
Salesforce has agreed to acquire Listen Labs, a San Francisco startup that uses artificial intelligence to run customer research, in a deal signed Sept. 29 for an undisclosed price.
Business Insider reported Sept. 9, citing people familiar with the matter, that the companies were discussing a price of about $2 billion. Salesforce and Listen Labs did not confirm the figure.
What Listen Labs does
Listen Labs, founded by Alfred Wahlforss and Florian Juengermann, builds software that automates much of the qualitative research process, which has typically been slow and expensive. Salesforce said the startup’s AI agents design studies, conduct interviews and synthesize the findings, compressing work that took months into days. Customers include Microsoft, Google and Anthropic, according to Business Insider.
Why Salesforce wants it
Salesforce said the deal will complement its Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud products and help companies understand, and even simulate, what customers will do and why. Business Insider said the technology could also make Agentforce, Salesforce’s AI agent platform, better at understanding customers, recommending products and tailoring sales pitches.
Wahlforss will remain chief executive, and Juengermann will remain chief technology officer, and the team will join Salesforce AI Labs.
Also Read: Autonomous AI Fails Without a Real-Time CDP Memory Layer
A fast climb in value
Listen Labs was valued at $500 million in a financing round earlier this year, Business Insider reported. It raised $69 million in a Series B led by Ribbit Capital in January. TechCrunch reported that the startup signed and then abandoned a $125 million term sheet at a $1.5 billion valuation while talks with Salesforce were underway.
Listen Labs is Salesforce’s sixth acquisition this year. It follows the company’s June agreement to buy customer service automation company Fin for about $3.6 billion.
