Salesforce has cut around 4,000 jobs in its customer support division after introducing artificial intelligence (AI) agents to handle a large share of service requests. CEO Marc Benioff disclosed the move during an appearance on The Logan Bartlett Show podcast, explaining that the support workforce was reduced from around 9,000 people to roughly 5,000 as AI systems proved capable of resolving nearly half of all customer cases.
According to him, the change was not driven by a decline in demand but by a shift in how Salesforce manages its operations, with automation taking on routine tasks that previously required human intervention. This change at Salesforce is being driven by the company’s AI system, Agentforce, which launched earlier this year. Benioff explained that the platform can handle many customer support requests on its own, while more complex issues are passed to human agents through a supervisor model that coordinates the work between AI and staff. He argued that this setup creates a balance between efficiency and reliability, with automation managing routine tasks and people stepping in when needed.
The company CEO further noted that the AI rollout has already had a significant effect on how Salesforce serves its customers. He informed that Agentforce has handled around 1.5 million interactions so far, while customer satisfaction levels have stayed steady despite the smaller support team. Even this automation has enabled Salesforce to reconnect with over 100 million dormant customer leads, potential business opportunities that were previously unreachable due to limited staffing.
While thousands of jobs have been cut, the CEO also claims that Salesforce has assisted many of the affected employees in finding new roles within the company. Benioff said they have been moved to positions in sales, professional services, and customer success. He described this as a ‘rebalancing’ of the workforce, placing people in areas where human skills are more valuable and growth opportunities are greater.
This recent workforce reduction comes at a time when the company is intensifying its AI efforts. For example, last year Salesforce announced it was dedicating an additional $500 million to its corporate venture fund, Salesforce Ventures, bringing the total capital for AI-related investments to $1 billion. Also, in May 2025, the cloud-based software giant announced its plan to acquire cloud data management company Informatica in a deal valued at around $8 billion. However, despite such advancements, the firm is not free from controversies. In early 2024, Salesforce cut around 700 jobs, about 1% of its global workforce. While the company said the layoffs were to better align resources, the decision drew criticism given its ongoing acquisitions and strong revenues in previous quarters.
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