Oracle Cloud Sales users get GenAI agents at no extra cost

In a market where many cloud vendors make AI features available a la carte, Oracle isn't charging extra for new AI features being built into its CX cloud offerings.

Oracle's new generative AI tools for Cloud Sales users include agents that write emails, give account summaries and enter data into customer records based on activity such as notes from calls, as well as multilingual translation tools.

The features represent useful sales force automation and potential time-savers similar to what CRM providers such as Microsoft or Salesforce are adding to their cloud offerings, said Predrag Jakovljevic, an analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers.

A major difference, however, is that Oracle offers all these for no extra charge, thanks to its OEM deal with Cohere. Unlike Microsoft and Salesforce, Oracle doesn't require customers to buy add-ons or invest in a particular infrastructure to turn on AI features.

"[Oracle's] point of view is that all customers are going to want this," said Kamyar Seradjfar, group vice president of product management for Oracle Sales, CPQ and Subscriptions. "You can't really go big [when AI requires additional licenses] because you have to always think about, 'Well, what about those customers who don't want to pay for this?'"

That philosophy comes straight from the company's founder Larry Ellison.

"[He is] pushing us, saying, 'Hey, you got to bring this to the products,'" Seradjfar said. "Where that's been really helpful for us is that he's driving the decisions behind including AI in the applications. [His directive is,] 'Don't build different versions of it. Who would want the dumb version? Everybody wants the smart version.'"

Oracle is keeping up with the white-hot competition for AI agents in enterprise CX, Jakovljevic said. While the sales agents are more of the user-prompted copilot type, the company has deployed autonomous agents in customer service.

As AI agents, in general, take hold in CX, it's hard to judge whether they're just a tech fad or a truly groundbreaking revolution. Companies such as Epicor are creating agents for industries like HVAC distribution, lumberyards and automotive manufacturing that represent the next wave, he said.

"They're not a fad, but [I'm] not sure about the revolution either," Jakovljevic said. "My guess next would be to get these agents verticalized via RAGs [retrieval-augmented generation models] for vertical industries."

Generative AI is here to stay, Seradjfar believes. Citing the example of the contract management process inside Oracle, he said the technology can greatly reduce time and human bandwidth spent creating the complicated cloud subscriptions the company makes with its customers -- especially multinational ones.

Large language models can also help speed up contract review processes between Oracle and a customer to determine if the redlined changes the customer requested are within acceptable parameters the legal department has set.

"For us, the big difference is that generative AI really does make intelligence consumable by the average user and it really does improve their productivity," Seradjfar said. "It's just that kind of efficiency that hasn't existed before."

Don Fluckinger is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget. He covers customer experience, digital experience management and end-user computing. Got a tip? Email him.