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Salesforce is set to acquire data management giant Informatica for $8 billion, a move poised to significantly enhance its artificial intelligence offerings, particularly in the burgeoning field of agentic AI.

Informatica’s expertise lies in helping organizations manage and structure vast quantities of data, making it a crucial piece of the puzzle for improving the performance and reliability of Salesforce’s AI systems. The integration of Informatica’s data management and integration solutions with the Salesforce cloud platform will ensure AI functionalities are fueled by organized, secure, and trustworthy data.

The acquisition promises enhanced transparency by visualizing data flow, providing critical context by merging Informatica’s metadata with Salesforce’s data models, and ensuring robust governance through advanced data quality controls and policy enforcement.

According to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, the acquisition is pivotal in creating responsible and trustworthy AI solutions for businesses. Informatica’s capabilities will be deeply integrated across Salesforce’s key products, including Data Cloud, Agentforce, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Customer 360.

Specifically, Informatica’s tools will directly enhance Salesforce’s core offerings by ensuring data trustworthiness for Data Cloud, enabling more informed decision-making for AI agents within Agentforce, providing enhanced data inputs for Customer 360, and bolstering data reliability for MuleSoft APIs. Salesforce President and CTO Steve Fisher emphasized the critical importance of AI agents having complete contextual understanding of data, including its origin, transformation history, quality, and governance.

The deal, already approved by shareholders representing roughly 63% of Informatica’s voting shares, is expected to finalize early in Salesforce’s fiscal year 2027, pending regulatory clearance. Salesforce plans to finance the acquisition through a combination of existing cash reserves and newly issued debt.