*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).
Elastic, a company that provides data services for Uber and Tinder, went public on the NYSE on Friday. The stock rose as much as 104 percent before settling at $70. CEO Shay Banon said he didn't take the company public in order to raise money but to mark the maturity of the company.
Elon Musk's infamous "funding secured" tweet spawned a now-settled SEC lawsuit, but will his latest "Shortseller Enrichment Commission" one open it back up? Elizabeth Lopatto, deputy editor at The Verge, said the Tesla CEO doesn't seem to want to give up his Twitter fingers just yet, but that could hurt the company in the long run.
If Nike's Colin Kaepernick ad taught us anything, it might have been that ads are getting more political. And Stacy Minero, Twitter's head of content strategy, said one of the reasons the ads get such traction on the platform is that "Twitter has the most valuable audience when they're most receptive."
Snap’s Vice President of Marketing, Steve LaBella, is leaving the company, Cheddar has learned. His departure comes as CEO Evan Spiegel has tasked the company with developing a new marketing and communications strategy to help reignite growth.
The newly-launched game uses AR to help fans immerse in the worlds of the hit AMC show even when new episodes aren't airing. Clayton Neuman, VP of games and entertainment at AMC Networks, told Cheddar, "Gaming is an ever-evolving field, and there is always going to be a place for more."
Days after Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement over securities fraud charges, Musk tweeted an insult directly at the SEC. This could reopen the suit and lead to further consequences for Musk, who's already agreed to step down as chairman and pay a $20 million fine.
VR may have trouble finding its foothold with the general public, but esports could give it new life. Frank Soqui, vice president and general manager for Intel's gaming division, said it is difficult to get virtual reality technology into the hands of everyone, but esports is making it more accessible.
Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel has given Snapchat the directive of achieving full-year profitability in 2019 and has refocused the company around a new set of strategic goals, according to a recent memo sent to employees.
The professional gamer and Twitch streamer told Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg that it's hard to get fans to follow you from game to game, no matter how big your following. The 31-year-old also championed the "shenanigans" of Fortnite maker Epic Games, which allowed him to ride a rocket launched by fellow esports hero Ninja ー a combination of words that aren't typically uttered in a traditional workplace.
Kids are increasingly using technology at earlier ages, raising concerns over how to protect them in an age of such frequent data breaches. Kurt Beidler, general manager of Amazon Kids and Family, said the company's family-centered privacy controls will let parents monitor and secure their kids' data.
