Artificial intelligence has once again taken center stage in the wave of tech layoffs. With companies increasingly turning to AI to automate tasks, the industry continues to face widespread job cuts. Salesforce is the latest to join the trend, letting go of 4,000 customer support employees as AI handles a larger share of its service operations. CEO Marc Benioff confirmed the downsizing on the Logan Bartlett podcast released Friday, noting that the company’s support staff has been reduced from 9,000 to 5,000.
What Benioff Said About the Layoffs?
When asked about the layoffs, Benioff explained, “I was able to rebalance my headcount in support.” He said the team was reduced from 9,000 to about 5,000 employees, as fewer roles were needed. The move marks nearly a 45% reduction in Salesforce’s support division.
Benioff’s Shifting Stance on AI and Job Cuts
Salesforce’s recent layoffs stand in stark contrast to Benioff’s own words just a few months ago. In July 2025, he told Fortune that AI would enhance, not replace, human workers, dismissing “scary narratives” about mass unemployment and insisting, “the humans are not going away.”
Only two months earlier, Benioff had pushed back against AI startup leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who warned of large-scale white-collar displacement. At the time, he argued that AI’s accuracy—around 90% even with company data—still required “a human in the loop.” According to him, AI could boost productivity but couldn’t fully replace workers since “AIs can’t fact check because they don’t have that level of accuracy.”
Which Job roles have been impacted?
The implementation of AI extends beyond customer support into sales operations, where AI agents are addressing a significant backlog. Benioff revealed that Salesforce had accumulated over 100 million uncalled sales leads over 26 years due to insufficient staffing.
“There were more than 100 million leads that we have not called back at Salesforce in the last 26 years because we have not had enough people,” he explained. “But we now have an agentic sales that is calling back every person that contacts us.” The company uses an “omnichannel supervisor” system that coordinates collaboration between human and AI agents, allowing AI to recognise when tasks require human intervention.
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The Future of Hiring at Salesforce
Back in July, Benioff revealed that Salesforce would pause hiring for roles such as software engineers, customer service agents, and lawyers. Instead, the company planned to expand its sales team to help clients adopt AI-driven solutions. As of January 2025, Salesforce employed 76,453 people across all divisions, meaning the recent 4,000 support staff cuts account for about 5% of its total workforce.
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