Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has pushed back against warnings that artificial intelligence will lead to widespread white-collar job losses. In an interview with Fortune during a recent trip to London, Benioff challenged the notion that AI is driving large-scale layoffs, despite Salesforce itself automating up to 50% of its internal work with AI agents.
“I keep looking around, talking to CEOs, asking: what AI are they using for these big layoffs?” Benioff said. “I think AI augments people, but I don't know if it necessarily replaces them.”
Salesforce has become one of the most aggressive adopters of AI in the corporate sector. Its AI agents now handle 85% of customer service queries and qualify sales leads 40% faster than human staff. Still, Benioff maintains that full automation remains unrealistic due to AI's limitations in accuracy.
Humans still essential in the AI loop
Despite the efficiency gains, Benioff stressed that AI still needs human oversight. “The AI we have isn't 100% accurate because it's built on word models,” he told Fortune. “When we add in our data set, we reach about 90% accuracy, but that’s not enough. So you need the human in the loop.”
He added that AI cannot function reliably without human fact-checking. “Every AI needs its own fact checker, and those fact checkers are humans, not AIs,” he said, underscoring the current limitations of generative models.
Benioff said he uses AI as a collaborative tool, reviewing business plans and spotting gaps in strategy, but always keeping human judgment central. “It’s a partnership,” he explained.
AI to fuel small business growth, not job cuts
Rather than mass layoffs, Benioff predicts AI will fuel a surge in entrepreneurship. “There’s going to potentially be a lot more employment because everybody is augmented and has the ability to do more,” he said. “I think there's going to be an explosion of small and medium businesses because they can do more, it's easier to start one, and you can create value more easily.”
While Salesforce has paused hiring for engineering, legal, and support roles, it is actively hiring in sales and customer success to help clients adopt and scale AI solutions.
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