Salesforce is reportedly exploring a potential acquisition of Listen Labs, an artificial intelligence-powered customer research platform, in a deal that could value the company at around $2 billion. Business Insider reported the discussions on Wednesday, September 9, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The talks are still ongoing and may not result in a finalized agreement. Salesforce and Listen Labs had not immediately provided comments regarding the reported acquisition discussions.
Listen Labs provides an AI-driven platform designed to help companies better understand customer preferences, behavior and feedback. The platform enables organizations to design research studies, connect with participants through a global network of around 50 million people, conduct interviews using an AI moderator and generate insights that help businesses make informed decisions. The company’s technology also allows organizations to build on previous research findings to improve future studies and customer understanding. Earlier this year, Listen Labs reached a valuation of $500 million during a financing round, according to Business Insider’s report. In January, the company announced a Series B funding round that raised $100 million, highlighting its rapid growth since its launch nine months earlier. At the time, Listen Labs said it had interviewed more than 1 million people and was helping companies including Microsoft, Sweetgreen and Perplexity gather customer feedback through its AI-based research platform.
The company stated that its mission is to help businesses begin important decisions with insights from real people rather than assumptions. Listen Labs explained that its platform allows companies to upload ideas, collect feedback from relevant audiences and receive research results quickly to support product development, market strategies and business growth. The company’s focus on AI-powered customer research reflects growing demand among enterprises for faster ways to collect and analyze customer insights. The reported acquisition discussions align with Salesforce’s broader strategy of expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities across its enterprise software ecosystem. In June, Salesforce announced plans to acquire AI customer service platform Fin for $3.6 billion. Salesforce said the acquisition would strengthen its AI agent capabilities by adding technology designed to handle complex customer interactions across channels such as live chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone and Slack.
Salesforce has also continued expanding its portfolio through acquisitions focused on business automation and data-driven services. In June, the company announced an agreement to acquire m3ter, a metering and rating platform built for consumption-based monetization models. Salesforce said the acquisition would add high-volume mediation, metering and rating capabilities to its Agentforce Revenue Management platform. The company later confirmed that the m3ter acquisition was completed on July 1. If completed, the potential Listen Labs acquisition would further strengthen Salesforce’s position in AI-powered business solutions by combining customer research capabilities with its existing cloud, customer relationship management and AI agent technologies. The move would reflect increasing interest among major technology companies in acquiring specialized AI platforms that can improve decision-making, customer engagement and enterprise productivity.
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