Salesforce Acquires Cresta and Five9 Acquires Level AI as CX Suites Consolidate
- Updated:
- Authored by
-
Robert Cowlishaw Head of Marketing
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta on November 2, 2026, and Five9 signed a definitive agreement to acquire Level AI three days later for approximately $325 million in cash.
Cresta and Level AI built their market positions as independent contact center AI vendors, with Cresta focused on voice AI agents, real-time agent assist, and interaction analysis, while Level AI focused on AI agents, automated QA, and conversation analytics. Salesforce's acquisition of Cresta and Five9's acquisition of Level AI will bring those capabilities into their CX suites.
CX suite consolidation through mergers and acquisitions narrows your contact center's choice of AI agents, Auto QA, and AI models to a suite-controlled ecosystem, creating a walled garden where Salesforce or Five9 sets renewal pricing and roadmap pace, decides which outside AI agents and models connect to their suite, and controls access to interaction recordings, transcripts, and evaluation history in exchange for fewer contracts and tighter integration.
Before your next Level AI or Cresta contract renewal, you need to know what Salesforce and Five9 will control after the acquisitions close and how to protect your software choices, contract terms, and access to your data.
Topics covered:
- Salesforce Agrees to Acquire Cresta
- Five9 Agrees to Acquire Level AI
- Salesforce's Cresta Acquisition and Five9's Level AI Acquisition Compared
- CX Suites Are Absorbing Contact Center AI Point Solutions
- Salesforce and Five9 Acquisitions Expand CX Suite Control
- How to Protect Your Ability to Choose Contact Center Software After CX Suite Acquisitions
Salesforce Agrees to Acquire Cresta
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta on November 2, 2026, with the acquisition bringing Cresta's voice AI agents, real-time agent assist, tools for testing and improving voice agents, and interaction analysis into Salesforce Service Cloud after the transaction closes. Salesforce says the Cresta acquisition will connect customer conversations with CRM records and business outcomes, naming Marriott, Comcast, and Alaska Airlines among Cresta customers in the announcement.
Salesforce didn't disclose the Cresta acquisition price and expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2028, subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals. After Salesforce closes the acquisition, Cresta will continue supporting the contact center and telephony platforms its customers use today.
Five9 Agrees to Acquire Level AI
Five9 signed a definitive agreement to acquire Level AI on November 5, 2026, for approximately $325 million in cash from the Five9 balance sheet, with the acquisition bringing Level AI's AI agents, agent assist, quality management, Voice of the Customer, coaching, and AI Workers into the Five9 Genius CX Platform after the transaction closes. Level AI's applications use Level AI Latitude, a proprietary family of AI models built for customer conversations.
Five9 will offer Level AI's applications through the Five9 Genius CX Platform and as standalone software for enterprises with on-premises contact centers or another vendor's cloud contact center, without requiring a Five9 CCaaS purchase. Five9 and Level AI have partnered through the Five9 CX Marketplace since 2022. Five9 expects the Level AI acquisition to close in 2026, subject to certain closing conditions.
Salesforce's Cresta Acquisition and Five9's Level AI Acquisition Compared
Compare Salesforce's acquisition of Cresta with Five9's acquisition of Level AI by announcement date, disclosed price, acquired capabilities, destination suite, cross-vendor support, and expected close.
| Deal Term | Salesforce Acquisition of Cresta | Five9 Acquisition of Level AI |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | November 2, 2026, definitive agreement | November 5, 2026, definitive agreement |
| Price | Not disclosed | Approximately $325 million in cash |
| Acquired capabilities | Voice AI agents, real-time coaching for live agents, and interaction analysis | AI agents, agent assist, quality management, Voice of the Customer, coaching, and AI Workers |
| Destination | Salesforce Service Cloud | Five9 Genius CX Platform and standalone applications |
| Support for other vendors | Cresta continues to support the contact center and telephony systems Cresta customers use today | Standalone applications for on-premises contact centers and other cloud contact centers, with no Five9 CCaaS purchase required |
| Expected close | First quarter of Salesforce fiscal year 2028 | 2026 |
| Ask Salesforce, Five9, Cresta, or Level AI how pricing, roadmap, and support for other vendors change after close, before your next contract renewal. | ||
CX Suites Are Absorbing Contact Center AI Point Solutions
From 2025 into 2026, CX suites have increasingly moved to absorb independent contact center AI point solutions, consolidating capabilities buyers previously selected separately under larger suite vendors. Thoma Bravo completed its acquisition of Verint on November 26, 2025, combining Verint with Calabrio, bringing Calabrio under the Verint name. NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud already follow the suite model, bundling CCaaS routing with workforce engagement management, quality management, and analytics. Salesforce's acquisition of Cresta and Five9's acquisition of Level AI further extend CX suite consolidation into voice AI agents, real-time agent assist, and Auto QA.
CX suite acquisitions and consolidations place independent AI capabilities under the commercial and technical control of the acquiring vendor. Contact centers may gain tighter integration and fewer contracts at the cost of becoming more dependent on one suite vendor for pricing, roadmap priorities, outside AI access, and data portability.
Salesforce and Five9 Acquisitions Expand CX Suite Control
Salesforce's acquisition of Cresta and Five9's acquisition of Level AI will consolidate voice AI agents, real-time agent assist, Auto QA, conversation analytics, Voice of the Customer, and coaching under CX suite control. Contact centers that previously purchased these capabilities from independent vendors will need to consider that Salesforce and Five9 will control how those capabilities are priced, developed, connected, and made available after the acquisitions close.
Salesforce and Five9 say they plan to maintain cross-vendor support, but neither company guarantees continued support across other contact center environments after the acquisitions close. Salesforce and Five9 will decide which capabilities remain standalone or become part of suite tiers, how outside AI agents and models connect, and whether standalone customers receive product updates as quickly as suite customers.
CX suite control carries risks to renewal pricing, roadmap speed, and vendor choice. CX suite vendors can shift capabilities into add-ons or higher-priced tiers, prioritize suite integration over standalone product development, and limit how outside AI agents, Auto QA, or internal models connect to shared reporting and workflows.
Before Salesforce closes its acquisition of Cresta and Five9 closes its acquisition of Level AI, you need to ensure you have full access to and control of your data to preserve your ability to exit a CCaaS or CX suite, or replace an independent AI agent vendor. Full data access is also required if you intend to feed interaction recordings, transcripts, and evaluation history into independent quality software, analytics, and internal AI models.
Ask Cresta and Salesforce, or Level AI and Five9, the following questions about price, roadmap speed, choice, and data control before your next purchase or renewal:
- Price: Ask whether Cresta or Level AI capabilities will carry add-on pricing, shift into higher suite tiers, or remain in your current contract after close, and how Salesforce or Five9 will price your standalone Cresta or Level AI contract at renewal.
- Roadmap speed: Ask how often Cresta or Level AI will release product updates after the acquisition closes, whether standalone customers will receive updates on the same schedule as Salesforce or Five9 suite customers, and which capabilities will move into suite-only tiers.
- Choice: Ask whether your contact center can connect AI agents, Auto QA, and AI models from other vendors or internal builds to the suite's reporting and workflows, whether Salesforce or Five9 will evaluate outside AI alongside Cresta or Level AI, and whether your existing CCaaS and CRM vendors will maintain the APIs and data access required for those connections after close.
- Data control: Ask who controls your interaction recordings, transcripts, and evaluation history after close, how your contact center can export those records, and whether the data remains usable in independent quality software, analytics, and internal AI models if you switch vendors.
How to Protect Your Ability to Choose Contact Center Software After CX Suite Acquisitions
You can protect your ability to choose AI agents and core contact center software through a unified intelligence layer that powers quality intelligence, CX performance, and workforce orchestration without relying on a particular CX suite or core infrastructure vendor. A unified intelligence layer keeps customer journey data, QA evaluations, and performance workflows connected when you replace an AI agent or switch core software vendors, so an acquisition, merger, or shutdown doesn't force you to rebuild your contact center around another suite.
AmplifAI Is the Unified Intelligence Layer for CX Performance and Workforce Orchestration
AmplifAI ingests and unifies interaction, CCaaS, CRM, WFM, survey, and quality data into one governed, vendor-agnostic data set, keeping your choice of CCaaS, CRM, and AI agent vendors in your hands.
Using your unified, governed contact center data, AmplifAI natively provides QA for AI agents, Auto QA, conversation intelligence, and customer analytics and ingests third-party QA evaluations when your QA team retains its existing Auto QA vendor.
With AmplifAI, you can manage performance across live agents, AI agents, and BPO partners in a single pane, turn unified data into next best actions for supervisors, QA teams, and contact center leaders, and measure whether those actions improve customer, performance, and business outcomes.
Before your next purchase or renewal, compare Cresta, Level AI, and Five9 to AmplifAI across 13 contact center software categories, including unified data integration, Auto QA, performance management, and AI-powered coaching.
If you'd like to discuss Salesforce's pending acquisition of Cresta or Five9's pending acquisition of Level AI, we're happy to walk you through what either deal could mean for your contact center software contracts, vendor choices, and AI roadmap.