Clara Shih, the former CEO of Salesforce AI, has joined Meta as the head of Business AI, marking a significant career move amid intense competition for top AI talent. Shih announced her new role on X, Meta’s platform, stating that the transition represents a full-circle moment for her.
Shih’s departure from Salesforce to Meta seems to have come just weeks after her high-profile role at the Dreamforce conference from Salesforce in September. She was moderating discussions on the company’s advancements in AI, most notably in having announced the launch of Agentforce AI bots. Indeed, the departure of this talented young leader inside Salesforce comes when such skills are in increasing demand worldwide in the artificial intelligence business applications area.
At Meta, Shih will focus on how AI can be employed in enhancing business interactions across its platforms-for example, such as automated advertising campaigns and improving customer service. Although Meta is well known with its consumer-facing applications like Facebook and Instagram, the company also caters for businesses through advertisement and customer engagement tools. Shih’s service in AI will come in handy in developing a solution to solve Meta’s diverse business clientele.
Prior to her time at Salesforce, Shih co-founded Hearsay Systems, a company specializing in social media management software. Hearsay, which attracted investment from Salesforce, was later acquired by Yext. Shih’s deep background in leveraging social software for business applications includes her notable 2009 book, The Facebook Era, in which she explored the intersection of social media and business.
Shih’s career began at Microsoft and Google before moving to Salesforce, where she initially served as general manager of its AppExchange platform. She left later to go build tools for salespeople and then came back to Salesforce and headed up the firm’s AI initiatives. She received recognition for her work in the tech industry, as well: In 2015, she was included in the San Francisco Business Times’s annual list of Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.
This is one of the reasons why Shih’s leadership at Meta will be watched keenly as companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence, which will help streamline operations and drive the much-needed innovations in customer engagement.
