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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is pushing backmost connected the communicative that AI is driving wide white-collar layoffs, calling it an oversimplification—and successful immoderate cases, a CEO's "lazy mode out." While companies similar Block and Atlassian person framed sweeping cuts arsenic AI-driven restructuring, Benioff argues they're conflating 3 precise antithetic problems. At Salesforce, he's doing the opposite: hiring 20% much salespeople, convinced that quality transportation is thing nary AI tin replicate.
Marc Benioff thinks the tech manufacture is telling the incorrect communicative astir AI and jobs—and he's bushed of it. The Salesforce CEO isn't losing slumber implicit a white-collar wipeout. He's actively hiring, approaching $50 cardinal successful revenue, and arguing that the existent question of layoffs sweeping Silicon Valley is being severely misread by astir everyone watching it.
"Even though I've spoken astir this somewhat aggressively, I don't deliberation astir radical truly recognize what is going on," Benioff said connected The Future Live this week. "It's excessively casual to fundamentally marque AI the scapegoat."His argument: companies are cutting jobs for 3 precise antithetic reasons—costs that got retired of hand, information halfway fiscal commitments, and genuine AI-driven rebalancing. Treating them arsenic 1 communicative is simply a mistake, helium said.
And for immoderate CEOs pinning everything connected AI? "I deliberation it's the lazy mode out."
Salesforce CEO is betting connected much salespeople, less engineers—and says request has ne'er been higher
At Salesforce, the rebalancing looks deliberate alternatively than reactive. Benioff said helium held technologist hiring level past fiscal twelvemonth due to the fact that coding agents gave him the capableness helium needed. Service headcount was trimmed somewhat arsenic AI agents absorbed the load. But sales? He went the different absorption entirely—hiring adjacent to 20% much relationship executives, due to the fact that request crossed small, medium, and ample customers kept climbing.
"I'm going to effort to get to 20,000 relationship executives this year," helium told TBPN. Salesforce present employs implicit 83,000 people—a institution record, Benioff noted—with a 4th of that workforce dedicated to helping customers usage its products.The underlying logic is that AI handles coordination and execution, but humans inactive adjacent deals. "AI doesn't person a soul. It's not that quality connectivity," helium said.
Marc Benioff says the companies cutting deepest are the ones that grew excessively fast, not excessively dilatory to follow AI
His sharpest comments came successful effect to Jack Dorsey's determination to chopped astir 4,000 employees astatine Block—about 40% of its workforce—framed arsenic an AI-era restructuring.
Benioff wasn't convinced by the framing. "Obviously, that institution has its ain unsocial issues. We each cognize that, truthful let's enactment that aside," helium told CNBC.His sharpest comments came successful effect to Jack Dorsey's determination to chopped astir 4,000 employees astatine Block—about 40% of its workforce—framed arsenic an AI-era restructuring. Benioff wasn't convinced by the framing. "Obviously, that institution has its ain unsocial issues. We each cognize that, truthful let's enactment that aside," helium told CNBC. Block grew from 4,000 employees successful 2019 to astir 13,000 by extremity of 2023, earlier going done aggregate rounds of cuts. Atlassian followed suit weeks later, announcing a 10% workforce reduction—around 1,600 employees—also citing a pivot to AI and endeavor sales. The signifier hasn't gone unnoticed. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged earlier this twelvemonth that there's "some AI washing wherever radical are blaming AI for layoffs that they would different do"—adding that helium expected genuine AI displacement to turn implicit time.
Mizuho Americas expert Dan Dolev was blunter astir Block specifically: "The immense bulk of these cuts were astir apt not owed to AI."Dorsey, for his part, isn't backing down. In a blog station co-authored with Sequoia spouse Roelof Botha this week, helium outlined Block's AI-restructured future: nary mediate management, replaced by idiosyncratic contributors, straight liable individuals, and "player-coaches" who make endowment portion inactive building.
"There is nary request for a imperishable mediate absorption layer," they wrote. "Everything other the aged hierarchy did, the strategy coordinates.
"Benioff sees it differently. The companies restructuring astir aggressively aren't needfully the astir AI-forward—they're often the astir overstretched. His medicine for CEOs is straightforward: beryllium honorable astir what's really driving cuts, instrumentality the disapproval that comes with it, and determination on."You're gonna instrumentality bullets nary substance what due to the fact that that's your relation arsenic CEO," helium said. "Then you person to get forward, enactment everything backmost together."
