Salesforce chief predicts today's CEOs will be the last with all-human workforces
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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff speaks with Axios' Ina Fried in Davos on Jan. 22. Photo: Dani Ammann Photography on behalf of Axios
Today's CEOs are likely the last who will "manage a workforce of only human beings," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Axios' Ina Fried in Davos Wednesday.
Why it matters: The rise of generative AI "agents," which Benioff described Wednesday as "digital labor," is among the next wave of advancements for the tech.
- "We are really moving into a world now of managing humans and agents together," he said, highlighting his own company's Agentforce.
Catch up quick: Salesforce launched Agentforce in September, with Benioff applauding the technology at the time as "AI as it was meant to be."
- "Because I'm using Agentforce, I just have that much more productivity," he told Axios Wednesday, highlighting the increased ability of his Agentforce to resolve support inquiries.
- He added he's thinking of ways to "redeploy" support agents in sales positions because those employees "don't have as much to do because Agentforce is so productive for them."
Zoom out: President Trump on Tuesday announced billions in private sector investments to support artificial intelligence growth in the U.S. and construct massive data centers for OpenAI.
- OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and the UAE's MGX will come together for a joint venture called "Stargate." The respective companies said they would commit $100 billion at the start start with a potential of up to $500 billion over four years.
- That's money MAGA ally Elon Musk claimed the tech titans "don't actually have" in a Tuesday X post, undermining the Trump-backed project. He claimed he had on "good authority" that SoftBank secured "well under" $10 billion.
What he's saying: "This is actually the beginning of the end of the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI," contended Benioff, who in the past has taken shots at Microsoft's AI-powered CoPilot assistants as tech giants hash out whose model comes out on top.
- He also claimed Wednesday that Microsoft "has really disappointed everybody with this CoPilot."
- When asked for comment, Microsoft pointed Axios to a statement from Tuesday that it's "thrilled to continue our strategic partnership with OpenAI and to partner on Stargate." The "key elements" of the partnership between the two companies will remain in place through 2030 for the duration of their contract, per the statement.
He also pledged to stand by his employees as Trump unleashes a barrage of executive orders targeting DEI initiatives and the transgender community.
- "My job as the CEO is to kind of get their [employees'] back," Benioff said. He added that if "somebody's going to come after our employees or discriminate against them in any way, we'll do everything we can to help them, support them."
The bottom line: As AI grows more autonomous, it opens the door to never-before-seen possibilities — but it also increases the possibility for errors or dramatic risk.
- "This AI does not work if it's not grounded in data," Benioff said.
Go deeper: OpenAI product chief says world is "on the verge" of AI agents
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from Microsoft.
