Latest news with #MarcBenioff
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Corner Office Conversation with Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe
Corner Office Conversation is The Economic Times' flagship interview podcast featuring unfiltered, one-on-one conversations with some of India and the world's most powerful business leaders. Hosted by ET's top journalists and editors, this fortnightly show goes beyond headlines and press releases to explore how CEOs and founders think, decide, and lead in an era of disruption. From Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber), and Roland Busch (Siemens) to Adar Poonawalla (Serum Institute ...Read More ), Suresh Narayanan (Nestlé India), and Ravi Kumar S (Cognizant), these conversations uncover personal leadership playbooks, global strategy pivots, lessons from failures, and bold visions for the future — across industries like tech, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and consumer goods. New episodes drop alternate Monday. ...Read Less
Forbes
17-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Are Agentic AI Systems Quietly Taking Over Enterprises? 3 Ways To Keep Humans In The Loop
Are Agentic AI Systems Quietly Taking Over Enterprises? Imagine a future where AI agents run the majority of your company's daily operations by handling complex tasks, managing workflows, and resolving customer issues around the clock, all while reporting to another AI agent manager who then reports to you. Picture reaching out to McKinsey and instead of a human consultant, being connected with a customized AI agent that provides expert insights instantly. That future is nearly here. Agentic AI is rapidly reshaping how enterprises operate. At Salesforce, these AI agents now manage 30 to 50 percent of internal workflows, and more than 85 percent of customer service inquiries are resolved by AI, dramatically easing the burden on human staff. CEO Marc Benioff, known for his bold branding, has even called himself the 'Taylor Swift of Tech,' comparing Salesforce's AI transformation to the sweeping impact of Swift's multi-era world tours. Salesforce isn't alone. McKinsey & Company has introduced its own "Lilli" agents, AI tools capable of conducting deep research, generating data-driven insights, and producing presentation-ready charts and slides. As these systems evolve, they are poised to take over tasks traditionally assigned to junior consultants, potentially reshaping the firm's hiring needs and operational structure. The broader implication? We are moving toward a future where firms like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or Deloitte might offer AI agents as the first point of contact—consultants that never sleep, scale instantly, and continually improve. The rise of enterprise AI agents is no longer speculative; it's unfolding now, and fast. But how far will it go? Could AI agents eventually displace 80-90% of today's workforce within these firms? Will humans have a meaningful role in workflows as automation scales? These are not just hypothetical questions—they are strategic imperatives. As agentic AI begins to power everything from back-office functions to client-facing operations, the challenge is clear: how do we keep humans meaningfully in the loop? Here are three strategies to ensure that, even in an era of hyper-automation, the human touch remains essential to enterprise success. 1. Design Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) Agentic Ai Systems with Unique Human Roles As Agentic AI systems increasingly take on core operational functions, it is imperative for enterprises to reimagine organizational roles and workflows to ensure continued and meaningful human involvement. Rather than assigning humans to tasks that AI can readily perform, the focus should shift toward areas where human expertise remains indispensable, such as strategic decision-making, ethical governance, nuanced client engagement, and cross-functional leadership. To enable this transition, organizations must design and implement robust human-in-the-loop (HITL) frameworks. These systems embed human oversight into AI-driven processes, particularly in high-impact areas like talent acquisition, financial decision-making, legal analysis, and healthcare. For instance, in a consulting environment, an AI agent might generate an initial draft of a client strategy or market report. However, it is the responsibility of the consultant to interpret the findings, tailor the insights to the client's specific context, and ensure overall quality and relevance. Supporting these evolving workflows are a new wave of hybrid roles such as AI strategy leads, human-AI collaboration specialists, and HITL analysts. These roles serve as essential interfaces between AI systems and business outcomes, safeguarding against errors while optimizing the value AI delivers. By embedding human judgment, accountability, and strategic alignment into AI-enabled operations, organizations can unlock the full promise of Agentic AI while maintaining human agency at the core of enterprise decision-making. 2. Build an AI-Ready Workforce for Human-AI Collaboration As Agentic AI becomes increasingly integrated into enterprise operations, it is essential to invest in up skilling the workforce in both AI literacy and systems thinking. Employees need a clear understanding of how AI systems function, where they create value, and what their limitations are. This knowledge allows them to interpret AI outputs thoughtfully, identify potential risks or biases, and collaborate with these systems effectively. When AI is approached as a collaborative partner rather than a mysterious or autonomous tool, organizations can foster greater adoption, trust, and alignment with business goals. For example, in financial services, portfolio managers who are trained in AI concepts can use algorithmic tools to enhance investment strategies while still applying their own market expertise for final decisions. In marketing, teams can combine AI-powered customer segmentation with human creativity to develop more tailored and impactful campaigns. By cultivating these skills across functions, companies create a workforce that is not only technically capable but also strategically positioned to guide and govern the responsible use of AI throughout the organization. 3. Establish AI Governance and Escalation Frameworks to Ensure Accountability As AI systems are increasingly deployed in critical business functions, it is essential to establish strong governance and escalation frameworks to maintain oversight and accountability. These protocols ensure that when AI-generated recommendations conflict with legal standards, ethical principles, or stakeholder expectations, human experts can intervene. For example, in financial services, if an AI system produces a credit decision that appears biased, compliance officers should have the authority to pause and review the process before action is taken. To support this oversight, organizations should form dedicated structures such as AI ethics boards or enterprise-level agent councils. These groups evaluate high-impact use cases, assess risk, and define clear escalation paths for teams interacting with AI systems. By embedding governance into the AI lifecycle, enterprises can scale intelligent automation responsibly while preserving human judgment and organizational integrity. Leading Through the Age of AI Agents Agentic AI is no longer a vision of the future; it is an active force reshaping the enterprise landscape. As organizations embrace these powerful systems, the challenge is not simply technological but deeply human. Success will depend on how well companies design for collaboration between intelligent agents and the people who guide them. By embedding thoughtful human oversight, investing in AI literacy, and governing automation with intention, enterprises can unlock the full potential of agentic AI while ensuring that people remain at the heart of innovation and decision-making.
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
New York Post
14-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
White collar workers displaced by AI could spark a revolution
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 9,000 employees, joining the ranks of tech companies cutting headcounts while touting the productivity gains enabled by artificial intelligence. According to CEO Satya Nadella, up to 30% of the company's code is now being written by AI. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff one-upped him after his own firm's layoffs, claiming that up to 50% of their work is now being shouldered by AI. These are not simply corporate earnings call updates. They are previewing the future of work in America. Advertisement Claims from leaders at OpenAI and Anthropic that their products will change the world deserve some skepticism. After all, snake oil salesmen project confidence, too. But when layoffs start happening and the heads of publicly traded companies tell you why, it's worth listening. Displacement's here The question isn't whether AI will displace workers, but which workers — and what happens when America's comfortable laptop class finds itself on the wrong side of technological disruption for the first time. Advertisement Over the past 50 years, Americans were sold on the promise of globalization and the idea that we'd lead the world in knowledge work and no longer have to make things ourselves. We'd 'learn to code' and someone halfway around the world would assemble our iPhones. The most searched topics on Anthropic's AI platform Claude. Merrill Sherman / NY Post Design College-for-all became the guiding principle of education policy, and the dollars followed: Since 1980, public spending on higher ed has more than doubled. Meanwhile, career and technical education — the kinds of programs that lead to good blue-collar jobs after high school — has been ignored, with its share of federal K–12 spending dropping to low single digits. Advertisement In other words, America has systematically overinvested in precisely the kinds of jobs AI seems primed to disrupt. Right now, these disruptions seem largely focused in the tech sector. But that's likely a harbinger of things to come. The history of innovation shows repeatedly that when general-purpose technologies are introduced, they take time to diffuse throughout the economy — and the first place we see disruption is in their own industry. Advertisement Electricity is a perfect example. As the economic historian Paul David shows, the first productivity bump from electrification was confined to the power plants themselves — they learned to squeeze more kilowatt-hours from each ton of coal and worker. Only gradually, over the following decades, did factories reorganize around electric motors, and only then were these gains mirrored across the economy. In computing, too, David shows how the initial gains were seen in the computer manufacturing sector, followed by sectors that were already using early computers the most. Eventually, every company from Walmart to Bank of America had its own IT department. Elite 'overproduction' AI seems to be in the early stages of following this precise pattern, starting on its home turf of software. It's one thing for software engineers to be concerned for their futures, quite another for mass layoffs to hit economy-wide. Just as electrification ultimately came for agriculture and manufacturing, AI will come for law, and banking, and marketing. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters When the last big economic disruption of globalization struck blue-collar workers, sending manufacturing jobs overseas, the result was hollowed-out communities, an opioid crisis and an unfulfilled promise of 'retraining' for 'the jobs of the future.' Now, the AI wave is primed to hit those exact jobs, and the people who built their own prosperity on the wave of globalization that left so many others behind. Advertisement But this isn't just a mirror image of the globalization crisis. On the one hand, high-income, highly educated elites have much greater resources at their disposal to weather an economic storm. On the other, the power elites hold may pose a far greater risk to political and social stability when they find themselves under threat. The complexity scientist Peter Turchin has shown how, throughout history, an excess of elites with poor economic prospects is the path to political instability. Going back as far as the late Roman Republic, elite overproduction is a key contributor to chaos (alongside stagnating or declining general living standards and increased public debt — which may sound familiar). Disruption factor Advertisement The American laptop class is a political powder keg. As the comfortable jobs they were promised become harder to land, and the self-validating stories they told themselves of their own value come unwound, competition will become fierce. As more and more of them end up on the losing side, Occupy Wall Street may look like a mild preview of what's to come. How long will this all take? If we have decades to adapt, older workers will have time to learn new skills while younger workers can adjust their own career paths. New industries can spring forward to use the labor no longer dedicated to litigating in court, speculating in markets and posting on social media. Advertisement But if the disruption happens more quickly, we risk creating millions of displaced knowledge workers who will have not only the skills and networks, but also the time and motivation to organize a radical political movement. Predictions about what's to come are mostly educated guesses, drawing on history and an expectation that the lines on the graph will continue to go up. This is not enough. Policymakers cannot neither rest comfortably in Sam Altman's promises of utopia, nor overreact to overwrought warnings with regulation that short-circuits valuable innovation that may take decades to deploy, nor simply wait and see what happens. It's time to prepare Advertisement The Bureau of Labor Statistics should begin to track AI displacement in real-time, sector by sector, occupation by occupation. Instead of waiting for quarterly employment reports that tell us what happened months ago, live data should highlight which jobs are disappearing and where new ones are emerging. Anthropic has already begun leading the way on this type of research, reporting how its tools are being used within each of the BLS's job categories. AI has the potential to remake the American economy — it may already have started. The last century was defined by the remarkable gains of technological progress as electrification and then the digital revolution washed across society, and the shocking costs of foolish enthusiasm for the rapid disruptions of globalization and deindustrialization. The next will be defined in part by which of these transitions AI resembles. The choice isn't whether AI will displace knowledge workers — it's whether we'll see the disruption coming and prepare accordingly, or wait for the laptop class to take to the streets. Abigail Ball is the executive director of American Compass.
