Salesforce Goes Full Skynet - Hiring Thousands to Sell Tools That Replace Humans (Oh, The Irony)

The irony with this one is laughable. 

Marc Benioff just pulled a classic Salesforce move: he’s hiring another 2,000 salespeople to push the company’s so-called groundbreaking new AI products. That’s double the 1,000 hires the company promised just a month ago. The goal with this one though, is that the new hires will be selling Agentforce, an AI-powered customer support tool designed to replace humans handling complex customer queries. LOL Yes, you read that right—The same company that’s adding  thousands of human salespeople is also betting big on software that will make humans… less necessary. Somewhere in the Salesforce Ohana (Benioff’s cult-like term for corporate family), someone’s probably quoting Alanis Morissette.

(Source: Giphy) 

Keep in mind, this announcement came Tuesday at a San Francisco event, where Benioff also casually mentioned they’ve already received 9,000 referrals for the roles. Nine-thousand! Which is just nuts, and again hilarious. In fact, I guarantee you these people all thought the same thing when they saw the job opening, “if you can’t beat them, join them”. 

(Source: CNBC) 

Now when it comes to the product they are pushing, it’s Agentforce 2.0—and this beast is not only set to launch in February 2025, but it promises to handle complex questions in Slack and other Salesforce tools. Benioff claims it’s already cutting the number of support cases escalated to humans by 50%, so either this AI is really good, or customers have just given up on asking tough questions. Either way, Benioff is banking on this being the next big thing.

Now with that said, Salesforce isn’t the only player pushing AI products—it’s just trying to outshout Microsoft, Amazon, and basically every other tech giant in the room. Microsoft’s Copilot tools have already made waves in the AI space, and Benioff couldn’t resist throwing some shade. He claimed, in a not-so-subtle jab, that Microsoft’s customer support AI doesn’t even show up on their website. (Microsoft, of course, promptly fired back with stats about how Copilot is crushing it on revenue and efficiency.) 

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

But let’s not ignore the obvious: this AI push is about revenue growth. Generative AI is the hot new SaaS buzzword, and Salesforce is hungry to grab its slice of the pie. The company’s AI-enhanced tools are aimed at sales reps, marketers, and customer service agents—aka the exact people who might eventually be replaced by the products they’re buying. Meta much?

For Salesforce though, his move is as much about optics as it is about innovation. Doubling down on AI sales while beefing up the human salesforce (pun intended) is a balancing act between embracing the future and keeping the present afloat. 

Sure, investors might be  side-eyeing the irony (including yours truly), but Benioff clearly sees dollar signs. Whether Agentforce becomes the next big thing or just another overhyped software tool, one thing’s for sure: Salesforce’s sales team won’t be lacking in headcount—or confidence apparently.

In the meantime, do what you will with this information, and place your bets accordingly. As always, stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time…

P.S. On Saturday night, I took my wife out to dinner, and while it was a fantastic evening with the woman I love, the bill came in at $220 (we love premium steak here in Oklahoma). However, on the drive home, it hit me… I could’ve bought 11 frigging memberships to Stocks.News premium with that bill. ELEVEN. The crazy part? Unlike those friggin’ steaks I bought, just one Stocks.News premium membership actually has the potential to put money back into my pocket. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade that date night for anything (happy wife, happy life, right?). But seriously, think about it: That’s how ridiculously affordable Stocks.News premium is. Less than the cost of a fancy night out, and it’s packed with tools, insights, and strategies designed to help you make better financial moves.

Meaning, if you’re not in Stocks.News premium yet, what are you doing? For just $20 a month—less than what you’d shell out for a decent appetizer—it’s time to rethink where your dollars are going.  Click here to see all the details including what Stocks.News premium gets you for just $20 A MONTH…

Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft and Amazon as mentioned in the article.