Software company Salesforce has cut 4,000 of its customer support roles. CEO Marc Benioff recently confirmed this while talking about the role of artificial intelligence in the company.
He revealed the layoffs
In an interview published on Friday, August 29, with The Logan Bartlett Show podcast, the software company CEO discussed how AI has helped reduce the company headcount.
“I’ve reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need less heads,” he said.
Salesforce has its own AI
The sales company has been on the frontlines of AI integration in the tech industries, having developed its own AI customer service bots called ‘Agentforce’.
Speaking to NBC Bay Area on Tuesday, September 2, Salesforce said in a statement that ‘Agentforce’ has shown ‘benefits and efficiencies’.
They explained the use of ‘Agentforce’
Salesforce, which is based in San Francisco, said in a statement, “Because of the benefits and efficiencies of Agentforce, we’ve seen the number of support cases we handle decline and we no longer need to actively backfill support engineer roles.”
AI is doing a large portion of the work
Benioff’s confirmation on the thousands of layoffs comes after he announced over the summer that AI is doing up to 50% of the work at Salesforce, per the outlet.
AI has been affecting jobs in several industries
Human resources consultant, Laurie Ruettimann, told NBC that AI is affecting jobs in more than one industry.
“There have been layoffs all over America directly attributed to AI,” Ruettimann said.
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The job market requires new skills now
Ruettimann added that anyone who is job searching or looking to stay employed must now learn a new set of skills.
“If your network could get you a job, it would have done it already. It would have done it yesterday,” Ruettimann said. “It’s on you to expand your vision, to expand your horizons and to meet new people.”
Microsoft has also conducted layoffs recently
Like Salesforce, Microsoft has also recently laid off more than 9,000 employees as it turns to invest $80 billion in AI, mainly in training AI models.
Speaking to the BBC at the time, a spokesperson for Microsoft said, “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.”
