- By Shreyansh Mangla
- Tue, 02 Sep 2025 06:18 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Salesforce CEO: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called off 4,000 customer jobs, reducing the workforce from 9,000 to 5,000 people. Through this, Benioff said he wanted to rebalance his staff, which was not possible before the advent of AI.
By taking this action, Marc Benioff has contradicted his own statements. In July, Benioff told Fortune magazine that "humans were not going away," dismissing the scary reports of "AI replacing human jobs".
Benioff is also using AI to manage a large number of sales calls, showing that the company is quickly shifting to a new model where AI takes center stage in support and sales roles.
Moreover, Benioff had also dismissed AI CEOs such as Dario Amodei, who stated that there would soon be white-collar job displacement. Benioff resisted, but the recent cuts from his company show how important AI has become for company leaders, as they shift toward an AI-powered workforce instead of just human resources.
Despite removing such a large chunk of the workforce, Benioff has ensured that Salesforce maintains a human touch, as their agentic sales platforms are calling every person who is trying to contact them. Also, Salesforce has pulled out its 'single-channel' supervisor, which can manage and oversee how humans and AI are splitting up their tasks. The fact that more tasks are completed by humans ensures that the systems still work with a human touch and authenticity.
Benioff had stated in July that Salesforce was not going to hire more software engineers, service engineers, or lawyers in the near future. Their focus is strongly toward expanding their AI teams. Salesforce has a team of 76,000 people, of which 5 percent, or 4,000 employees, have been laid off. The corporate landscape is changing quickly with AI changes, where autonomous systems are preferred over a subordinate humans.
