Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, while speaking on Matt Berman’s show The Future Live said that it is too simplistic to blame artificial intelligence for the wave of layoffs seen across parts of the tech industry. In an interview, Benioff stated that the companies are cutting jobs for different reasons and cautioned that AI is sometimes being used as a convenient explanation.
Speaking about the wider layoffs debate, Benioff stated, “I don’t think most people still really understand what is going on.” He added, “And it’s too easy, you know, to kind of basically make take the make AI and make it the scapegoat. And I think for some CEO’s , it’s the lazy way out.”
One label does not explain every layoff
Benioff mentioned that the companies should not all be grouped together when discussing AI-related cuts. As per him, some firms are cutting down on staff because “they have made financial commitments specifically to data centres that they have to pay for.” In other cases, companies are changing their workforce mix “to reflect the changes in artificial intelligence.”
He pointed out that the reasons vary, and that putting every company into the same category is misleading. As he put it, “You cannot bucket all these companies together. If you do, you are making a fundamental mistake, I think, in business.”
Salesforce says it is rebalancing, not stepping away from hiring
Benioff mentioned that Salesforce itself has gone through workforce changes over the last five years. He further described it as “an uncomfortable period for ourselves over the last 5 years of rebalancing our workforce.” At the same time, he noted that Salesforce has “hit a new record number of employees which is more than 83,000.”
He stated that AI tools are making engineers more productive, but added that people are still important. Referring to Salesforce’s engineering teams, he said that the organisation is “probably more than 30% more productive,” but also emphasised, “We’re not at that level yet of AI.”
Benioff said that Salesforce continues to need talent, mainly in engineering and sales. He said that the company is recruiting interns and graduates, and added, “We badly need that talent.”
Overall, Benioff’s message was that AI is changing how companies work, but it should not be used as the only explanation for every layoff decision.