*By Jacqueline Corba*
Salesforce has saved a seat at its executive meetings for Einstein, an artificial intelligence-powered robot developed by the cloud computing company.
"The fact that we are using our own products to really drive our forecasting, it's pretty amazing," said Bob Stutz, CEO of Salesforce's Marketing Cloud. "It is really great to have that tool that you can use every single day to run your business."
Salesforce's chief executive, Marc Benioff, has been an outspoken proponent of the company's use of A.I., and said that Einstein has [been at every weekly senior staff meeting](http://fortune.com/2018/01/25/salesforce-benioff-einstein-davos-ai/) for the last year.
Stutz said Einstein pulls his weight on a team that has grown its quarterly revenue by 41 percent year over year.
"We are on an incredible tear right now," Stutz said in an interview with Cheddar. "It's really helping customers connect with their consumers across sales, marketing, service ー it's a real growth driver for us nowadays."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-salesforce-marketing-cloud-growth).
Apple says it will build a $1 billion new campus in Austin, Tex. that would almost double the size of its current footprint in the city, with the room to house as many as 15,000 new jobs.
2018 was a year of serious advancement in tech. It brought us more driver-less cars, Bitcoin adoption, and more A.I. But as the year dwindles, we're looking to the future, not the past. As we gaze into Cheddar's Crystal Ball, here are our top five picks for the technology that is most likely to advance even further in 2019.
The e-scooter market is steadily growing more competitive, but Spin's leader isn't fazed ー he's got Ford on his side. "We've got a great capital backer, a company that believes in the long-term vision that we have," Euwyn Poon, co-founder and president of Spin, told Cheddar Wednesday. "And I think we're the company that's going to be here to stay."
Ray J has built an unconventional career to say the least, but the musician and television personality-turned entrepreneur ー and new father ー says he has turned over a new leaf in his personal and professional life, thanks to a leader who once inspired him: Elon Musk.
Big beverage and big tobacco may be seducing some players in the burgeoning marijuana market, but Canada-based Aurora Cannabis is not one of them. In a Tuesday interview with Cheddar, CEO Terry Booth said it's just too soon for his company, one of the world's largest medical marijuana producers, to jump in bed with a major name in alcohol or tobacco.
As ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft rush to debut on the public markets, the pressure is on. "You can falter out of the gates, because people don't know how to value a ride-share company," Phil Haslett, founder and chief revenue officer of EquityZen told Cheddar on Tuesday.
Gene Munster isn't worried about Apple. The managing partner of Loup Ventures and venture capitalist told Cheddar Tuesday that the tit-for-tat with Qualcomm over iPhone sales in China is insignificant for Apple's long-term value.
If forced to choose between putting their child in a driverless car or in a vehicle driven by a stranger, the majority of parents, Ford reports, would prefer a non-human to take the wheel. "When we talk about trust, that's somewhere where we see something really jumping out at us," Sheryl Connelly, futurist at Ford, told Cheddar Monday.
Tally is on track to expand its product offering in 2019, Cheddar has learned. “With 2019 ahead of us, we’re laying the foundation for being able to automate beyond credit card debt,” CEO and founder Jason Brown said, potentially referring to savings and investing, or other kinds of debt like student and auto loans.
Apple filed an appeal on Monday to overturn a court-ordered ban on the import and sale of some iPhones in China. Chipmaker Qualcomm requested an injunction against Apple ($AAPL), alleging patent violations on a particular feature that allows users to adjust the size and appearance of photos, and another that manages applications with a touchscreen.
