Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was interviewed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2025.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently cut 4,000 customer support roles. He said he is currently discussing how artificial intelligence has helped cut down the company’s staffing.
Benioff revealed the layoff in an interview released on the Logan Bartlett Show podcast on Friday.
“I reduced that from 9,000 to about 5,000 because I need less brains,” Benioff said as he discussed the impact of AI on Salesforce operations.
Salesforce is at the forefront of the AI revolution and has built what is called the “Agent Force” of customer service bots.
“We’ve seen the number of support cases that have faded due to the benefits and efficiency of AgentForce, but there’s no need to actively fill in the role of support engineers,” Salesforce said in a statement to the NBC Bay Area on Tuesday.
The layoff comes after Benioff announced in the summer that he is doing up to 50% of his job at San Francisco-based Salesforce.
Human Resources consultant Laurie Ruettimann said AI is affecting employment in several industries.
“There were layoffs across the US directly due to AI,” Ruettimann said, adding people who needed to continue hiring or find jobs to learn new skills.
“If your network could get you a job, it would have already done it. It would have done it yesterday,” Ruttiman said. “You have to expand your vision, broaden your horizons and meet new people.”
Analyst Ed Zitron said AI is being criticized by tech companies that have been overemployed during the pandemic. Companies are now considering seducing investors by claiming they are more efficient, Zitron said.
“It’s just growth in any cost mindset,” Zitron said. “The only thing that matters is growth, even if it ruins people’s lives. Even if it makes the company worse and offers inferior products.”
