Salesforce is making a move to strengthen its AI capabilities by acquiring an Israeli startup called Doti. This deal aims to blend Doti’s technology into Slack, Salesforce’s popular collaboration tool, to make finding and interpreting data easier for users. The goal is to help Salesforce stay competitive as other tech giants develop their own AI-powered search tools for businesses.

Why Salesforce is Buying Doti

The main reason Salesforce wants Doti is to improve how its products handle data searches. Companies today need faster, smarter ways to access and understand their information. Doti has built an AI search bot that can connect to Slack and pull insights from various apps like Jira, Notion, Zendesk, and even Salesforce itself. This bot doesn’t just find data; it also interprets it, making it more useful for workers trying to make quick decisions.

The enterprise search market is growing fast. A recent report says it could hit $12.2 billion by 2032, up from $5 billion in 2022. That’s a compound annual growth rate of about 9.6%. Slack has already been adding AI search features since March, helping users dig through data from different programs. Still, Salesforce sees more potential in adding Doti’s tech to better compete with other major players.

What Doti Brings to Salesforce

Doti’s technology is more than just a search tool. It creates a kind of “knowledge graph” that organizes data across multiple sources. Its auto-answering layer acts like a smart assistant that can understand questions and give precise answers. This makes the information retrieval process much smarter and faster than traditional search bars.

Doti’s system is flexible too. It can be deployed in different ways and is deeply integrated with Slack, making it easy for users to access insights directly within their workspace. For Salesforce, this means they can more quickly build the intelligent features they envision for Slack and their automation platform, Agentforce. These tools aim to turn conversations into concrete actions, streamlining workflows and boosting productivity.

Experts say that building something like Doti from scratch would take years and come with many hurdles. “Getting to Doti’s level of maturity would have taken years, and proper execution would have been a challenge,” explains analyst Ashwin Venkatesan. That’s why buying Doti makes sense — it gives Salesforce a ready-made, advanced AI search solution that fits perfectly into their plans.

The Competitive Landscape and Future Challenges

While the acquisition is promising, Salesforce faces stiff competition. Big companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services are also developing AI search tools for enterprises. There are three main groups of competitors: general platform providers, specialized search engine companies, and assistant-layer firms like Glean, which integrate AI directly into workflows.

Even with Doti’s technology, Salesforce’s Slack must keep up with these rivals. The AI search space is crowded, and each player is racing to provide smarter, more integrated solutions. Salesforce plans to integrate Doti’s team into its Israeli AI research hub after the deal closes, which is expected to happen by January. This move will help Salesforce accelerate its AI ambitions and stay ahead in the enterprise search game.

In the end, the acquisition of Doti is a strategic step for Salesforce. It’s about more than just adding a new feature; it’s about transforming how users find and use data across all their tools. If successful, it could significantly boost Salesforce’s position in the rapidly growing AI enterprise market.

Inspired by

• https://www.computerworld.com/article/4090102/salesforce-to-acquire-doti-to-boost-ai-based-enterprise-search-via-slack.html

Sources

• gmpg.org
• alliedmarketresearch.com
• slack.com
• hfsresearch.com
• podigee.com