*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).
The wireless company, fresh off its deal to buy Time Warner, wants to build out an ad platform to rival Facebook and Google.
The cannabis culture company launched an equity crowdsourcing campaign on its own website Tuesday ahead of an official IPO expected this quarter. CEO Adam Levin told Cheddar shares will be offered at $11 apiece.
The founder of the streaming platform, DeShuna Elisa Spencer, created KweliTV after realizing that there was barely any content she could relate to on other channels. KweliTV now has 30,000 paying subscribers and is home to independent films, shows, and documentaries by and for the black community.
IBM on Monday hosted a debate between live humans and an AI-powered robot that managed to hold its own, scanning through research and news reports to formulate arguments against its opponents. It even managed to convince the audience to favor its stance, displaying its nuanced ability to create persuading opinions. "This is a great tool for helping educate the public," says Arvind Krishna, SVP & Director of IBM Research.
Each team competing in the hugely popular esports competition, which culminates in the sold-out Grand Finals at Brooklyn's Barclays Center next month, is attached to a city, giving fans a reason to follow. "We wanted to make an esport league that was really easy to follow," says Overwatch commissioner Nate Nanzer.
In Cheddar's interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, the CEO of VaynerMedia talks about the state of advertising, if it is the year of independent agencies, and what type of growth to expect.
Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, joins Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to discuss the future of voice technologies like Amazon's Alexa and the Google Home. He says development for the platform is just getting started.
Video games and esports, which are front and center at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, have caught the attention of the entrepreneur and CEO of VaynerMedia. "I have been lurking in the grass, as they say," he told Cheddar's Jon Steinberg.
Google is investing $550 million in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com. Now, JD.com products will be featured on Google's shopping service. JD.com is China's second largest e-commerce company, just behind Alibaba.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested on Monday in Germany. Authorities detained him for fear that he would interfere with the ongoing investigation into Volkswagen over its emissions testing scandal. Volkswagen is the parent company of Audi.
Pressure is mounting on President Trump to end the zero-tolerance immigration policy that's separating children and parents at the border. Mike Allen, executive editor at Axios, weighs in on the controversy.
The game plays "so smoothly" on Nintendo's Switch console, says the eSports commentator and Twitch broadcaster. The Japanese gaming giant made the uber-popular game available on its latest device at E3 this week.
