Latest news with #RobinWashington
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce Says AI Has Reduced Hiring of Engineers and Customer Service Workers
(Bloomberg) — Salesforce Inc. (CRM) said the use of artificial intelligence tools internally has allowed it to hire fewer workers, another example of a company changing its hiring plans due to the emerging technology. NYC Congestion Toll Brings In $216 Million in First Four Months NY Wins Order Against US Funding Freeze in Congestion Fight NY Congestion Pricing Is Likely to Stay Until Year End During Court Case 'We have reduced some of our hiring needs,' Chief Financial and Operations Officer Robin Washington said Wednesday on a call with analysts, citing the implementation of AI tools. For example, she said that 500 customer service workers would be redeployed to different roles within the company this year, saving $50 million. Tech companies are relying on AI to help with everything from customer service to software engineering. Job cuts at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) earlier this month fell hardest on software engineers. Leaders of Microsoft and Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) say AI is producing about 30% of new code on some projects. For years, social networks have been offloading content moderation jobs to AI; this year Meta Platforms Inc. (META) will be relying on a class of AI-powered engineers to carry out basic bug fixes and product improvements at Meta, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has said. In an interview, Washington said Salesforce is hiring fewer engineers due to productivity gains from AI. 'We view these as assistants, but they are going to allow us to have to hire less and hopefully make our existing folks more productive.' Salesforce reported a workforce of about 76,500 employees as of Jan. 31. At the same time as i's slowing hiring in some roles, Salesforce is increasing the ranks of sales workers. The company now has 13,000 salespeople, a sum that is expected to expand 22% this year from a year earlier, Chief Revenue Officer Miguel Milano said on the call. Earlier this year, Salesforce planned to cut over 1,000 employees as it hired for AI-focused roles, particularly in sales. Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Inside the First Stargate AI Data Center How Coach Handbags Became a Gen Z Status Symbol ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Salesforce's AI push slows hiring; piles pressure on engineers, customer service roles
Salesforce has acknowledged that its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has enabled the company to scale back on recruitment, according to a report by Bloomberg. During an analyst call, chief financial and operations officer Robin Washington said the company is reducing hiring, with 500 customer service staff to be moved into other roles—an adjustment expected to save $50 million. She attributed this to the implementation of AI. Meanwhile, in an interview, Washington also said that the company is recruiting fewer engineers thanks to AI-driven productivity boosts. 'We view these as assistants, but they are going to allow us to have to hire less and hopefully make our existing folks more productive.' As of January 31, Salesforce had a workforce of around 76,500. Despite the reduced hiring in technical roles, the company is ramping up its sales team. Chief revenue officer Miguel Milano stated that the salesforce now numbers 13,000 and is expected to grow by 22% over the coming year. In February, Salesforce announced plans to cut over 1,000 jobs, while simultaneously hiring staff to support the sale of its new AI products. Other major tech companies are also using AI to cut costs associated with staffing. Earlier this month, Microsoft laid off approximately 6,000 employees, with software engineers bearing the brunt of the cuts. At Meta's LlamaCon conference in April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that AI now writes between 20% and 30% of the code within the company's repositories.
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Salesforce Is Cutting Back on Hiring Engineers Thanks to AI
AI has enabled Salesforce to reduce hiring and save millions, but it's using the savings to hire in other areas. Salesforce has recently leveraged AI tools internally to hire fewer workers in certain divisions and more in others. "We have reduced some of our hiring needs," Salesforce's chief financial and operations officer Robin Washington said on Wednesday on a call with analysts, per Bloomberg. She credited the implementation of AI tools for the slowed hiring. According to Washington, AI has enabled Salesforce to reassign 500 customer service workers to other roles at the company this year, resulting in a cost savings of $50 million. The company is also hiring fewer software engineers as its current staff use AI to become more productive. Related: 'Amazing Momentum': Here's Why Salesforce Is Hiring 1,000 New Employees At the same time, Salesforce is ramping up its efforts to hire more salespeople to sell its AI products and other offerings. Chief revenue officer Miguel Milano said on the analyst call that the company now has around 13,000 salespeople and wants to expand the number by 22% this year. Salesforce currently has 76,453 total employees globally. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images Other tech companies are using AI to help with tasks ranging from engineering to reporting earnings. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated last month that engineers at the company are using AI to write about 30% of new code. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the same month that the company was using AI to write more than 30% of new code, up from 25% in October. Meanwhile, Klarna, a company that has said its AI chatbot does the work of 700 customer service agents, reported earnings last week using an AI avatar of its CEO. Goldman Sachs predicts that 300 million jobs across the globe could be lost or downgraded due to AI by 2030. Salesforce isn't the only company to ramp up hiring in some areas and cut back in others, thanks to AI. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month that IBM had used AI to replace several hundred human resource employees. IBM's workforce ended up growing instead of shrinking, Krishna disclosed, because the company used the cost savings from the layoffs to hire more software engineers, marketers and salespeople. Related: IBM Replaced Hundreds of HR Workers With AI, According to Its CEO Salesforce's own technology could help other companies reduce their headcount. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in September that the company's AI agents would allow its clients to forgo hiring new employees or gig workers in busier periods of time. Earlier this week, Salesforce announced that it was acquiring cloud data management company Informatica for $8 billion to help advance its AI capabilities. The deal is one of Salesforce's largest since it bought Slack in 2021 for $27.7 billion and data firm Tableau in 2019 for $15.7 billion. Salesforce reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat estimates, with revenue up 8% to $9.83 billion. The company stated that its AI subscriptions more than doubled in its first quarter and expects sales in the second quarter to be $10.11 billion to $10.16 billion, more than the $10.02 billion analysts anticipated. "Sometimes you have a quarter when everything is going right for you," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in an earnings call, per The Wall Street Journal. Related: Can Anyone Beat Microsoft at AI? The CEO of Salesforce Thinks His Company Can. Still, Salesforce shares were down about 4% on Thursday at the time of writing due to investor concerns about the still-early stage of its AI offerings and the deal risk with Informatica.
Hans India
2 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Is AI transforming software engineering or a job killer?
Artificial Intelligence is no longer just a productivity booster—it's becoming a job reducer, especially in software engineering. With companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, Meta, and Google increasingly relying on AI to write and review code, the traditional role of the software developer is being redefined—and in some cases, replaced. AI Is Helping Big Tech Hire Less Salesforce recently confirmed that it's hiring fewer engineers due to AI-driven productivity gains. 'We view these as assistants, but they are going to allow us to hire fewer people,' said Robin Washington, the company's Chief Financial and Operations Officer, in an interview with Bloomberg. It's a sentiment being echoed across Silicon Valley. The shift is particularly hitting entry-level tech jobs. With AI tools capable of handling routine coding tasks, fresh graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to get their foot in the door. What started as a promise to 'augment' engineers is now clearly moving toward replacement in certain roles. Entry-Level Jobs Are Disappearing For aspiring software engineers—especially in tech talent hubs like India—the future looks uncertain. Many students are pursuing advanced degrees abroad, but with top firms reducing hiring thanks to AI, those efforts may not guarantee a return on investment. LinkedIn's Aneesh Raman summed up the shift in a New York Times op-ed: 'Now it is our office workers who are staring down the same kind of technological and economic disruption. Breaking first is the bottom rung of the career ladder.' AI Now Writes a Big Chunk of Code At Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella says AI writes 20–30% of the company's code. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg expects AI to take over at least 50% of software development within the next year, noting that 'AI engineers' will do the heavy lifting over 'people engineers.' Google isn't far behind. CEO Sundar Pichai recently said that over 30% of new code is being written by AI—up from 25% last October. Acceptance of AI-generated code among Google employees is also on the rise. At Anthropic, CEO Dario Amodei believes we could be just months away from AI writing 90% of all new code. Duolingo has already started replacing human contract workers with AI. The Role of Software Engineers Is Evolving The rise of AI models like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and OpenAI's Codex is not only automating code generation—it's changing how engineers work. These tools are no longer limited to minor tasks. They're writing complex code, reviewing pull requests, and accelerating development cycles at a pace that was unimaginable just two years ago. What This Means for Developers While senior engineers and specialized developers may still be in demand, the entry-level pipeline is tightening. The new norm in tech may no longer be about scaling teams—but scaling AI-powered productivity. Engineers of tomorrow will need to upskill fast, focusing on creativity, systems thinking, and working with AI—not competing against it.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CRM Q1 Earnings Call: Salesforce Highlights AI Product Momentum and Informatica Acquisition
Customer relationship management software maker Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) missed Wall Street's revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, but sales rose 7.6% year on year to $9.83 billion. Its non-GAAP EPS of $2.58 per share was 1.3% above analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy CRM? Find out in our full research report (it's free). Revenue: $9.83 billion (7.6% year-on-year growth) Adjusted EPS: $2.58 vs analyst estimates of $2.55 (1.3% beat) Adjusted Operating Income: $3.17 billion vs analyst estimates of $3.16 billion (32.3% margin, in line) Revenue Guidance for Q2 CY2025 is $10.14 billion at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $10.02 billion Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $11.30 at the midpoint, a 1.5% increase Operating Margin: 19.8%, up from 18.7% in the same quarter last year Billings: $6.89 billion at quarter end, up 11.2% year on year Market Capitalization: $264.8 billion Salesforce's first quarter results reflected ongoing adoption of its unified platform, particularly among small and mid-sized businesses. Management highlighted that both segments saw double-digit new bookings growth, with CEO Marc Benioff emphasizing the 'velocity' of deals tied to AgentForce and Data Cloud. The company noted that nearly 60% of its top 100 deals included investments in both areas, suggesting that customers are increasingly leveraging Salesforce's new AI-driven offerings. Robin Washington, Chief Operating and Finance Officer, pointed to strong renewal performance and the role of pricing and packaging changes in driving expansion. While revenue growth was partially constrained in retail, consumer goods, and the public sector, markets like the UK, France, Canada, and South Asia outperformed, helping offset these headwinds. Looking ahead, Salesforce is focused on expanding the reach of AgentForce and Data Cloud, betting that AI-driven automation will drive future growth. Management raised annual adjusted EPS guidance and cited a ramp-up in sales capacity as a key enabler, with Benioff stating that the company will "supercharge" investments in high-growth segments and geographies. The upcoming Informatica acquisition is viewed as critical for harmonizing enterprise data, a necessary foundation for successful AI implementations. Washington noted that while AgentForce and Data Cloud are still emerging as revenue drivers, their integration into Salesforce's core applications is expected to accelerate customer adoption. However, management cautioned that execution risks remain, particularly around the pace of enterprise AI transformation and integration of acquired assets. Management attributed first quarter performance to rapid growth in AI-powered products, successful expansion into new customer segments, and a disciplined approach to acquisitions. AI adoption gaining traction: AgentForce, Salesforce's digital labor platform, saw rapid early uptake, with over 4,000 paid customers and eight thousand total deals across industries. Management described this as the fastest ramp for any product in company history. Data Cloud driving expansion: Data Cloud surpassed 22 trillion records, up 175% year over year. Nearly 60% of top 100 deals included both Data Cloud and AI investments, indicating that large enterprises are prioritizing unified data strategies alongside automation. Small and mid-market strength: Small and medium business segments delivered robust double-digit new bookings growth, prompting management to reallocate sales capacity to these areas. This was identified as a surprise growth driver for the quarter. Informatica acquisition announced: Salesforce announced an agreement to acquire Informatica for $8 billion, aiming to combine its own AI CRM platform with Informatica's data management capabilities. Management expects the deal to be accretive to non-GAAP operating margin, EPS, and free cash flow by year two post-close. Pricing and packaging changes: The introduction of flex credits, a consumption-based pricing model, was implemented in response to customer feedback to support easier adoption and expansion of AI-driven services. Salesforce's forward outlook is anchored by continued investment in AI, expanded sales capacity, and integration of strategic acquisitions like Informatica. AI product expansion: Management expects AgentForce and Data Cloud to become more significant revenue contributors as customers increasingly deploy AI agents and unified data platforms. The success of early adopters and rapid iteration of new features are anticipated to drive broader adoption. Salesforce ecosystem leverage: The company is hiring up to two thousand additional salespeople, focusing on high-growth geographies and segments such as small and mid-market businesses. This expanded capacity is intended to accelerate revenue growth while maintaining operating margin discipline. Integration risks and market headwinds: Management acknowledged that successful integration of Informatica and sustained demand for AI solutions are critical. Uncertainties remain regarding the pace of enterprise AI adoption, and slower growth in certain traditional markets could offset gains from new products. In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will be monitoring (1) the pace of AgentForce and Data Cloud adoption across industries, (2) early signals of Informatica integration and its impact on Salesforce's data strategy, and (3) the effectiveness of expanded sales capacity in driving new bookings. The evolution of pricing models and the company's ability to maintain margin discipline amid these investments will also be key areas of focus. Salesforce currently trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 6.4×. At this valuation, is it a buy or sell post earnings? See for yourself in our full research report (it's free). Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election sent major indices to all-time highs, but stocks have retraced as investors debate the health of the economy and the potential impact of tariffs. While this leaves much uncertainty around 2025, a few companies are poised for long-term gains regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate, like our Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025). Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+782% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
