Marc Benioff: AI and humans both have a role
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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
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.
- The key is balance, Benioff told Axios. "If you turn it over to 100% AI, you're putting your whole company at risk."
