Latest news with #Benioff
Axios
a day ago
- Business
- Axios
Marc Benioff: AI and humans both have a role
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, like many tech executives, is pushing the idea that humans and AI bots will soon work side by side, despite current turbulence. Why it matters: Tech leaders are hedging their bets on AI: promising an eventual utopia in which everyone is productive and fulfilled, while at the same time reducing hiring, cutting jobs and voicing a range of near-term concerns. The big picture: For most companies, the workforce transition is bumpy. Over half of executives say that AI is "tearing their company apart," according to a study from March. Benioff said that the main problem isn't the technology, it's that companies and workers aren't set up for the current pace of technological shift. "Change management is extremely difficult for all these customers, because the level of transformation that is happening is unlike anything we've ever seen," Benioff said during a telephone interview last week. At an Axios event at January's World Economic Forum in Davos, Benioff predicted that the next generation of CEOs will have to manage a workforce that is a mix of humans and AI agents. Between the lines: Benioff sees the glass as more than half full, recently outlining an optimistic vision of our shared AI future in an op-ed in the Financial Times. Being human is our "superpower," Benioff wrote. "AI has no childhood, no heart. It does not love, does not feel loss, does not suffer. And because of that, it is incapable of expressing true compassion or understanding human connection." Zoom in: Benioff says Salesforce's own experience can be instructive, pointing to shifts in the way the company handles both customer support and sales. On the sales front, Benioff said the company plans to add thousands of sales staff even as it relies more on AI. All told, Benioff says the move will increase the company's sales capacity by 19%. "For the last 26 years, the vast majority of the leads that we've received... we've not been able to call back," Benioff said. Benioff says an AI agent called 4,000 potential new customers in one recent week. The picture in support is more mixed. Benioff said the company has cut its costs by 17% by mixing in AI support agents. Since the October 2024 introduction of Agentforce, Salesforce says help requests have been evenly split between humans and AI agents, each of which have handled roughly 1.2 million conversations. "We've radically augmented our support personnel," Benioff said. "This is a great example of it really working." Yes, but: Hiring for support workers has stagnated. "There's no question that we're getting more productivity, which means that we're not growing our customer support this year," Benioff said. "We're also not radically reducing it." Zoom out: Benioff isn't the only tech leader painting a rosy future while acknowledging it's likely to be a bumpy and uncertain path to get there. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees last week that the company is nonetheless well-positioned and growing thanks to AI, despite laying off a further 9,000 workers on top of earlier cuts. "Progress isn't linear. It's dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding," Nadella wrote in a memo. Amazon has also been touting its AI prowess at the same time the company has said it expects to have a smaller corporate staff over time. The bottom line: For Benioff, the future is growth. As long as companies can survive the growing pains.
NDTV
16-07-2025
- Business
- NDTV
AI Does 50% Work At Salesforce, But Mass Layoffs Not On Cards Yet: CEO Marc Benioff
Artificial Intelligence (AI) performs a lot of work at Salesforce, but the company has no mass lay-off plans yet, CEO Marc Benioff has said. On The Circuit With Emily Chang podcast for Bloomberg, he spoke at length about the transformative power of AI, but added it can either replace humans or enhance them, and he believes in the latter. AI will support and improve human work, instead of taking it away or replacing people completely, he added. With the advancement of AI in the tech industry, Mr Benioff said that some jobs will disappear but new ones will also be created. He explained that Salesforce has already undergone major changes, such as thousands of employees in his company being given new roles and there being a pause on hiring engineering jobs for now. According to Fortune, in the first quarter, the San Francisco-based software company has redeployed more than 50 percent of the people already working with them, he said. His company has created an AI tool that can do tasks like customer service without human supervision with 93 percent accuracy, Mr Benioff said. Humans have led to the formation of some of the greatest innovations and also created several businesses that seek to solve real-world problems, he said. They possess a "superpower" that AI lacks, which is the capacity to show empathy or establish genuine connections with others, Mr Benioff added, reported Fortune. "All of us have to get our heads around this idea that AI can do things that we were doing, he added, stating, "We can move on to do higher-value work." Apple iPod founder Tony Fadell also stressed the importance of being hands-on with the tools, instead of just learning about them in theory. He said that companies nowadays are not hiring freshers like they used to but are looking for those who already have experience. He said that junior-level jobs, like entry-level or fresher jobs, in all industries are at high risk as businesses are no longer willing to spend time training freshers or interns. Last month, Mr Benioff said that AI does up to 50 percent of all work at Salesforce, including critical tasks like customer service, development, and engineering. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated in May that 20 percent to 30 percent of the company's code was generated by Artificial Intelligence. In April, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said more than 30 percent of his company's coding work was done by Artificial Intelligence. In May, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that within the next 12 to 18 months, AI will soon be doing most of the coding work for his company's Llama Project. Currently, AI can help in auto-completing a section of code and soon will become even better than the top coders, he added.
India Today
15-07-2025
- Business
- India Today
AI does 50 per cent of the work at Salesforce but don't fear mass layoffs yet, CEO Mark Benioff says
Whether AI will take over white-collar jobs or not remains a heated debate. While many industry experts believe that AI will eventually become as intelligent as humans and take over most jobs involving mental or administrative work, others argue that AI will work in cooperation with humans, and that it is humans who will always keep the upper hand. A similar view is held by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who believes that artificial intelligence will not lead to widespread job losses but rather improve at the 2025 AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Benioff said that AI is already doing 50 per cent of the work at Salesforce. However, it is not replacing human employees. Instead, it is acting as a productivity tool that is transforming how teams operate without displacing them. 'In the AI (vision) I have, it's not going to be some huge mass layoff of white-collar workers,' Benioff said. 'It is a radical augmentation of the workforce.'Benioff's comments come at a time when companies are actively incorporating AI tools into their operations. This shift is also prompting concern that automation could render a significant portion of human roles getting replaced. However, Benioff believes that, in the AI transformation, people and machines will collaborate rather than compete. 'Maybe they have AI I don't have,' he quipped. 'When I speak with our customers, they're not saying, 'I'm laying off employees because of AI advancements in A, B, or C technologies.' That fear, we need to let it go.' The Salesforce chief is clear and firm in his belief that AI should be seen as a means of increasing output rather than reducing headcount. Notably, Salesforce has already fine-tuned its operations with AI capabilities. In a recent Financial Times op-ed, Benioff revealed that 25 per cent of Salesforce's new code in the first quarter of 2025 was AI-generated. He also noted that customer service agents using the company's AI platform, Agentforce, resolved 85 per cent of incoming queries. According to Benioff, these improvements have enabled teams to work more efficiently and build stronger relationships with this broad adoption of AI tools, Benioff is clear that AI is reshaping Salesforce from within. He emphasises that, rather than cutting jobs, the company is rethinking how work is organised — breaking roles into distinct skills and helping employees transition into new, AI-augmented Benioff does not dismiss the potential disruptions AI may bring, he suggests that job roles will continue to evolve as AI capabilities grow, and that fears of large-scale job displacement are overstated. Rather than eliminating jobs, he argues, AI is prompting a rework around what humans need to do, with the need for many roles to be restructured around new skill sets.- Ends
Time of India
14-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: May be they have different AI, the AI I have will not lead to mass layoffs, but ...
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has empahised that the AI he envisions will not lead to mass layoffs. Contrary to the common narrative that artificial intelligence will lead to widespread job displacements, Benioff feels that AI will be used to augment rather than replace the workforce. While industry leaders and analysts have warned about significant layoffs due to automation, the Salesforce CEO has a more optimistic outlook, hinting at a different kind of AI integration. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on why AI will not lead to mass layoffs Speaking at the 2025 AI for Good Global Summit, Benioff said that AI is dramatically reshaping Salesforce and that is why he feels that AI will not wipe-out white collar jobs. Benioff quipped, 'Maybe they have AI I don't have,' in response to predictions from other tech leaders that AI could eliminate up to 50% of entry-level office jobs. 'In the AI I have, it's not going to be some huge mass layoff of white-collar workers,' he said. 'It is a radical augmentation of the workforce.' Benioff's comments comes at a time when the tech industry is witnessing AI-driven restructuring. Company's like Anthropic and Nvidia have already warned about mass layoffs due to AI. However, Benioff insists that the Salesforce customers are not laying off staff due to AI. Instead, he feels that AI works a a co-pilot which boosts productivity and unlock new opportunities. 'When I speak with our customers, they're not saying, 'I'm laying off employees because of AI advancements in A, B, or C technologies.' That fear—we need to let it go.' said Benioff. Benioff also revealed that he paused the hiring of engineers, lawyers and customer service agents for Salesforce for almost and year to allow AI productivity gains to take hold. However, the company is ramping up sales-related hiring to meet surging demand for AI deployment. Marc Benioff wrapped up his point by saying, 'Given the remarkable productivity gains AI is bringing to engineering this year, let's take the time to integrate those advances—so we're not racing to hire another thousand, two thousand, or even three thousand engineers.'
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Salesforce CEO says AI now resolves 85% of customer service, urges shift in US education
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Sept. 17, 2024. (Getty Images) Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) is now responsible for handling 85% of the company's customer service interactions, signalling a significant shift in workforce roles within the tech sector. In a recent op-ed published by the Financial Times and widely cited by Fortune, Benioff described AI as a transformative force, radically reshaping operations at Salesforce and across the broader enterprise software landscape. He emphasised the need for humans to remain "at the centre of the story", stating that human qualities such as compassion and connection remain irreplaceable. However, the rapid uptake of AI in business operations is also prompting concerns about job displacement and a growing gap between workforce readiness and emerging industry demands. AI's growing footprint in Salesforce operations According to Benioff, AI has taken over a substantial portion of core functions at Salesforce. In addition to customer service, where AI agents now resolve 85% of queries, AI is also responsible for generating 25% of net new code within the company's research and development teams. "Jobs will change, and as with every major technological shift, some will go away—and new ones will emerge," he wrote in the Financial Times, as quoted by Fortune. The shift is already underway within Salesforce, where the workforce is undergoing substantial internal redeployment. In the first quarter, 51% of all hiring was conducted internally, indicating a strategic pause in external recruitment, particularly for engineering roles. AI Implementation at Salesforce Impact 85% of customer service queries Handled by AI agents 25% of R&D code Generated by AI 51% of Q1 hiring Internal redeployment Engineering hiring Largely paused Calls for changes in US education and job readiness Benioff's remarks highlight concerns beyond his own company. As reported by Fortune, he suggested that the ongoing AI revolution necessitates a fundamental overhaul in how the US prepares its workforce. He said the current cohort of chief executives might be the last to lead all-human workforces, underlining the urgency for education systems to adapt. Echoing this, Tony Fadell, co-inventor of Apple's iPod, warned that junior-level jobs are at high risk due to AI, stating in an interview with Bloomberg TV—cited by Fortune—that businesses are no longer training employees in traditional ways. "They need to have experience… working experience before they're actually going to the job market," Fadell said. AI is not destiny, Benioff says Despite the rapid shift, Benioff maintains that AI should be a tool to enhance rather than replace human potential. "AI is not destiny," he wrote in the Financial Times, as quoted by Fortune. "We must choose wisely. We must design intentionally. And we must keep humans at the centre of this revolution." TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here . Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
