Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) re:Invent conference saw many announcements from organizations enhancing their partnership with AWS.
Here, we highlight the new strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) between AWS and Zendesk, as well as new agentic AI capabilities from Salesforce.
Zendesk announces strategic collaboration with AWS
Zendesk’s SCA with AWS will accelerate AI-powered contact center innovation and joint go-to-market to support the growth of Zendesk Contact Center.
The collaboration between the two companies will focus on integrating Amazon Connect voice capabilities, conversational analytics, and sentiment analysis with Zendesk Contact Center.
“Our collaboration with AWS addresses a critical industry challenge: contact centers are drowning in fragmented systems that create friction instead of resolution,” said Adrian McDermott, Zendesk CTO. “This collaboration helps Zendesk build the next generation of agentic-centric solutions, where AI is seamlessly integrated – not bolted on – ensuring every interaction across channels, agents, and systems drives resolution.”
CCaaS services built on Amazon Connect combine voice technology with customer service AI
Zendesk and AWS will help businesses modernize their contact center operations with scalable, flexible voice and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions built on Amazon Connect.
This will boost both customer and employee experiences by combining Amazon Connect’s voice technology with conversational analytics capabilities and Zendesk’s AI for customer service, powered by Amazon Bedrock.
“Zendesk’s reception as AWS’ Customer Experience Partner of the Year (Technology) – Global showcases their commitment to contact center innovation on AWS,” said Pasquale DeMaio, Vice President of Amazon Connect at AWS. “This Strategic Collaboration Agreement deepens our partnership by connecting Amazon Connect’s AI capabilities – including agents that reason and assist representatives – with Zendesk’s automation platform. Together, we’re empowering human-AI collaboration to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and build trust.”
Salesforce and AWS launch Agentforce 360 for AWS
Meanwhile, Salesforce and AWS announced the intention to deepen their collaboration by introducing Agentforce 360 for AWS.
This new offering will run on AWS’s global, secure infrastructure and provide access to proven foundation models through Amazon Bedrock. It will provide enterprises a safe path to addressing critical roadblocks in enterprise AI adoption: trust, governance, and time to value.
“Our joint customers want AI agents that are powerful, can be trusted, and align with their cloud investments,” said Brian Landsman, CEO of AppExchange and EVP of Global Partnerships at Salesforce. “Agentforce 360 for AWS delivers that – with trusted guardrails and a simple path to get started by purchasing through AWS Marketplace, helping them make the most of their existing commitments.”
Solution targets need for security and flexibility in deploying AI models
Agentforce 360 on AWS uses Amazon Bedrock for Agentforce’s reasoning engine and gives customers access to Amazon Bedrock’s selection of high-performing foundation models from AI companies for prompt builder capabilities.
Among the capabilities of this solution are:
- The Agentforce 360 platform’s Atlas Reasoning Engine delivers transparency for how agents think, plan, and act. The engine can now be powered with Anthropic’s Claude models hosted on Amazon Bedrock.
- The Agentforce 360 Prompt Builder will bring trusted generative AI to life with accurate, relevant prompts with the customer’s own data. Within Prompt Builder, model optionality is delivered, including select Claude models and Amazon models such as Nova Lite and Nova Pro.
“AWS and Salesforce have a proven track record of helping customers succeed,” said Ruba Borno, VP of Global Specialists and Partners at AWS. “Agentforce 360 for AWS expands on this success by making it easier for customers to discover, deploy, and innovate with AI agents on AWS infrastructure. By bringing together Amazon Bedrock’s model selection with Salesforce’s trusted platform, we’re giving enterprises the security, flexibility, and procurement simplicity they need to accelerate their AI initiatives.”
Caylent, an AWS-focused partner, is working with AWS to accelerate cloud migration and modern application modernisation with AI-driven tools, cost efficiencies, and strategic guidance. Hear more about this partnership from Ryan Gross, Head of Data & Applications at Caylent.
Interested in more news from AWS re:Invent? Head over to TechRepublic to read more about AWS’ ecosystem approach to growth.