Salesforce executives are walking back their bullish AI stance after slashing the company's customer support workforce from 9,000 to about 5,000 employees. In recent discussions, leadership acknowledged they overestimated how ready their AI systems were to replace human judgment.
"We all had more confidence in LLMs a year ago," said Sanjna Parulekar, SVP of product marketing, per The Information. She cited the models' inherent randomness and tendency to ignore instructions as reasons for the shift. The company also flagged a problem it calls "drift," where AI agents lose focus when users ask distracting questions.
CEO Marc Benioff initially framed the cuts as an efficiency win. On The Logan Bartlett Show in August 2025, he put it bluntly: "I've reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need less heads." Three weeks earlier, he'd insisted Salesforce's AI wouldn't lead to mass layoffs. The company told Salesforce Ben it had "redeployed hundreds" of affected workers, not thousands, leaving a gap in the official accounting.
The stock tells part of the story. Salesforce shares dropped 27% through September 2025 and continued declining, making it the worst performer in large-cap tech. Competitors SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle posted gains of 19%, 24%, and 50% respectively over the same period. Agentforce, the AI platform behind the cuts, is on track for over $500 million in annual revenue, but investors remain skeptical about when AI investments will translate to growth.
Salesforce is now emphasizing what it calls "deterministic" automation: predictable, rule-based systems rather than generative AI for critical tasks. A spokesperson denied the company is backtracking, claiming they're just "being more intentional."
The Bottom Line: Salesforce joins a growing list of companies discovering that enterprise AI demos don't match production reality, and 55% of employers now report regretting AI-driven layoffs, according to Forrester Research.
QUICK FACTS
- Support staff cut from 9,000 to ~5,000 (4,000 positions eliminated)
- Stock down 27-28% YTD as of mid-2025, worst in large-cap tech
- Agentforce on track for $500M+ annual revenue (company-reported)
- 55% of employers regret AI-driven layoffs (Forrester Research)
- Benioff claimed AI handles 30-50% of Salesforce's work
