*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).
Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith rang the closing bell alongside SAP CEO Bill McDermott to celebrate his company's last minute buyout by SAP. Smith and McDermott talk to Cheddar about Qualtrics' planned expansion, their goals for enterprise technology and why they think the $8 billion acquisition makes so much sense. "Our mission is bigger than everything. We want XM, or experience management, all over the world, and this is by far the best way to do it," Smith told Cheddar.
NASA is partnering with an unlikely organization for one of its newest experiments ー The Michael J. Fox Foundation. NASA is planning on growing crystals out of the proteins that are likely connected to Parkinson's disease. Sarah Lewin, associate editor at Space.com, told Cheddar that growing the crystals in space will give scientists more information on the proteins and hopefully lead to a breakthrough in curing Parkinson's.
The burgeoning sport of drone racing is about to go autonomous. The professional Drone Racing League is preparing to launch a circuit for A.I. drones to compete against one another ー and, eventually, against human-controlled drones. Nicholas Horbaczewski, the founder and CEO of the DRL, previewed the new circuit in an interview on Cheddar Wednesday.
Federal regulators have subpoenaed Snap as part of a probe into its 2017 initial public offering, the company confirmed in a statement to Cheddar.
E-cigarette maker Juul announced new concessions to limit rampant teen vaping on Tuesday ー including pulling certain products from stores and abandoning social media feeds ー in the face of increasing pressure from the FDA and anti-smoking groups.
Trendy beverage maker Dirty Lemon may have halted production of its CBD-infused drink due to legal concerns, but CEO Zak Normandin insisted the company isn't otherwise slowing down or playing it safe. Rather, it is working to expand the brand's physical presence and develop new products.
In a big year for mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry, consumers are right to fear rising insurance premiums and prescription drug prices. But eHealth ($EHTH) CEO Scott Flanders told Cheddar on Tuesday that vertical integration, like Aetna's merger with CVS, might actually help combat rising costs by creating more choices for consumers.
Petco will phase out dog and cat food containing artificial ingredients and preservatives entirely by May 2019. Petco CEO Ron Coughlin told Cheddar Tuesday that the decision to move to a wholly natural-ingredient line was part of a corporate strategy to become a full-service "partner to pet parents." It also reflects broader consumer trends toward healthier, organic foods ー that now includes the diets of their pets.
Hybrid cloud computing is now the name of the game at IBM, thanks to the company's recent acquisition of Red Hat. "We are going to be the company that is providing enterprise-ready hybrid cloud solutions and actually create the foundation of the infrastructure of the future," IBM's chief digital officer Bob Lord told Cheddar on Tuesday.
The backlash was swift after Amazon announced on Tuesday morning that it will split its second unbuilt headquarters and up to 50,000 full-time jobs between two locations: Long Island City, in Queens, N.Y., and the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, Va, just outside the nation's capital.
