Are AI Agents the Future of Business? Salesforce Is Betting $8 Billion on It

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Informatica isn’t a household name, but it plays a crucial role in helping companies like Toyota and Unilever manage and organize vast amounts of data. As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, that data is like a gold mine. Customer relationship software company Salesforce recently struck a multibillion-dollar deal to acquire Informatica. On the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast, Informatica CEO Amit Walia speaks to WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins about why his company is worth $8 billion to Salesforce’s AI ambitions. Check Out Past Episodes: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and the AI ‘Fantasy Land’ Tariffs, EVs and China: A CEO Insider’s View of the Car Business How Microsoft’s AI Chief Defines ‘Humanist Super Intelligence’ Venture Capitalist Sarah Guo’s Surprising Bet on Unsexy AI Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I've ruled out uni because I want to live at home.
0:02.0	I've ruled out uni because I want to earn money.
0:05.0	I've ruled out uni because of my grades.
0:10.0	Study with the Open University and there's no need to rule out anything.
0:13.0	With our respected degrees, you can learn from home and work alongside study.
0:17.0	We're open to all. Plus, you'll have the support of expert tutors. So rethink your
0:23.6	future with the degree you didn't think was possible. The Open University. The future is open.
0:30.2	Mims, so many companies, even surprising ones like Clorox and McDonald's, they're using AI for things
0:37.1	like customer service and product innovation.
0:39.3	But how does that actually work?
0:42.3	Based on what I've heard, I've got one word for you.
0:46.3	Agents.
0:47.3	Like secret agents, talent agents, who I need to call about this job.
0:52.3	Travel agents? What do you mean by agents? I'm talking about
0:56.1	AI agents. AI agents are advanced computer programs that can do tasks for you. And we talked about
1:03.5	this with Salesforce CEO Mark Beniof last year. But we're about to hear from a CEO who is actually
1:09.2	selling his company to Beniof and Salesforce
1:11.9	for $8 billion in order to take this technology to the next level.
1:16.8	That's next.
1:22.5	Informatica is a company that's been around since 1993.
1:25.9	It's not a household name, but many of its clients are.
1:29.6	And CEO, Amit Walia, helps them manage the mountain of data that modern companies generate.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.