Salesforce will invest $4 billion in its U.K business in the next five years, the company said this week at the start of its World Tour London: AI Day event. 

Salesforce and its customers and partners are poised to create 271,700 new jobs and £52 billion ($66 billion) in new business revenues by 2026, IDC reports. 

The investment decision was hailed by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

"Salesforce's major investment in its UK business over the next five years is a ringing endorsement of our economy," Sunak said. 

Sunak added: "It will strengthen the company's UK presence, increasing capacity, as well as creating vital jobs, reinforcing our position as one of their largest markets outside of the U.S.”

Salesforce announced a five-year U.K. investment of $2.5 billion in 2018.

The new investment comes as generative AI becomes an imperative for brands. 

"A clear pro-innovation regulatory framework that compels safe and responsible use of AI is vital, and Salesforce is fully focused on bringing secure, trusted, enterprise ready generative AI to UK businesses," said Zahra Bahrololoumi, CEO, Salesforce UKI.

This week, Salesforce unveiled Sales GPT, a generative AI tool for sales professionals. And it announced a collaboration with Deloitte Digital to help companies deploy AI for CRM.