SAN FRANCISCO: Salesforce Inc jumped in extended trading after the software company gave an outlook for strong revenue expansion and deepened its partnership with Anthropic PBC, reassuring investors that it can compete successfully in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.
Sales will be about US$11.5bil in the fiscal third quarter, which ends in October, Salesforce said on Wednesday in a statement.
That’s just ahead of analysts’ average estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Current remaining performance obligations, a measure of future sales, will increase about 14%, also ahead of the average estimate of 13% growth.
The company expects revenue to accelerate in the second half of the year, even without the impact of acquisitions, chief financial and operating officer Robin Washington said in the statement.
Net orders are at the strongest they’ve been in four years, she said.
The leading maker of customer management software is under pressure to prove it can thrive against competition from AI companies and products.
Agentforce, its AI tool meant to handle business tasks without human oversight, is on track to contribute about US$1.5bil in revenue this year, Salesforce said on Wednesday. That’s an increase from the US$1.2bil reported in the prior quarter.
The company also announced an expanded partnership with Anthropic, the maker of the AI model Claude.
It will integrate Salesforce’s products within Claude, allowing sellers to access information on their customers and sales cycles with the AI app.
When customers access Salesforce data from Claude, it will run up consumption bills with both companies.
This integration should help push Salesforce customers towards higher-tier plans, said Mike Spencer, Salesforce head of finance, in an interview.
Revenue gained 11% to US$11.3bil in the fiscal second quarter, which ended July 31, in line with analysts’ estimates. Profit, excluding some items, was US$5.90 a share.
The results were “encouraging”, wrote Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Valoir.
“Salesforce needed to beat the numbers, but also the narrative around AI eating its business.”
The shares gained more than 12% in extended trading after closing at US$205.62. — Bloomberg
