Artificial intelligence is not at the point where it can replace software engineers just yet, Marc Benioff has said.
The Salesforce Founder and CEO told Matthew Berman, of the Forward Future podcast, that the company’s 15,000 software engineers had been “hugely augmented” by tools like Anthropic 4.6, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, and others.
‘The Canary in the Coalmine’
Benioff said: “When they start to use these models, they’re now working not only with the AI, but agents to help them code – and they can even become somewhat supervisory over these agents. But still, those engineers are needed. The model still cannot operate autonomously.
“We’re not at that level yet of AI, so it’s really critical, so our engineering organization’s probably 30% more productive, but I wouldn’t call it 100% more productive, and that’s why even in the top AI companies, if you go to their job boards you’ll see they’re hiring a lot of engineers.”
He added that tech companies are hiring a lot of “everybody”, because they still need to build companies of humans, and that was the “canary in the coalmine” of knowing that AI models are “not at that level yet”.
In a wide-ranging interview, Benioff also answered a somewhat tongue-in-cheek question from the host about apparent “AI psychosis” in San Francisco.
Benioff said: “Whatever geography you’re in, you’re feeling the spirit and the energy of the location. And I think for San Francisco, this is the home of the summer of love; this is the home of gay rights; this is the home of many great companies… It’s where we started the gold rush.
“All of that, ideas, the spirit of transformation and innovation all started in San Francisco, and that kind of idea is still present here because it’s about the energy that’s present here in the city.”
A Change of Tune?
It’s been more than a year since Benioff made headlines when he announced that Salesforce would be hiring no more software engineers in 2025, hailing significant productivity boosts from AI.
Interestingly, Benioff’s recent appearance saw a repeat of the 30% productivity boost figure – echoing comments he had made on the 20VC with Harry Stebbings podcast in late 2024.
Benioff had said at the time: “We’re not adding any more software engineers next year because we have increased the productivity this year with Agentforce and with other AI technology that we’re using for engineering teams by more than 30% – to the point where our engineering velocity is incredible. I can’t believe what we’re achieving in engineering.”
In late 2025, survey data from recruitment giant Indeed showed which tech industry roles were most likely to be cut in AI restructuring. Pessimists in the software engineering community had their suspicions confirmed: it was, in fact, their role taking the top spot.
Software engineers and developers, quality assurance engineers, product managers, and project managers were the top four roles – while those working in cybersecurity, data analytics, and AI were seeing the most benefit.
While AI is undoubtedly changing the job market landscape for software engineers, there is some reason not to panic (yet).
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the projected percent change in employment from 2024 to 2034 for software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers is 15% – much faster than average.
Roughly 129,200 openings for the roles are projected each year, on average, over the decade, the BLS claims.
The tech industry more broadly is also expected to return to growth this year, according to the IT certification trade association, Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), which estimates net tech employment will grow by 1.9% in 2026, creating 185,499 new jobs.
Seth Robinson, vice president, industry research, CompTIA, said: “The fundamentals of tech employment remain on solid footing. As companies continue to invest in AI, cybersecurity, data analytics, infrastructure, and other areas, they will also need skilled tech professionals to make those investments pay off.”
The institution says that, over the next 10 years, tech occupation employment is expected to grow at about twice the rate of overall US employment.
Several occupations are projected to grow at even higher rates, including data scientists and analysts (420%), cybersecurity analysts and engineers (346%), and software developers and engineers (188%), according to CompTIA.
Final Thoughts
The “canary in the coalmine” analogy from Benioff is an interesting one. If AI companies are indeed still hiring engineers, it’s a good sign that human accountability, judgment, and creativity are still pivotal.
But it seems evident at this point that the role of the developer is changing rapidly, with overseeing AI tools becoming a critical aspect of it. Demand for engineering talent appears to remain strong, for now, and, if we’ll allow ourselves a small grain of optimism, we might consider that the future of software engineering is one of reinvention, not replacement. At least, not yet.
