Salesforce will not be hiring any more software engineers in 2025 amid significant productivity boosts from AI, Marc Benioff has revealed.
The CEO and founder of Salesforce told the 20VC with Harry Stebbings podcast that the cloud giant was in the midst of doing its business plan for next year, and Agentforce – the company’s flagship artificial intelligence product – was the “only thing that really matters today”.
“30% Productivity Boost” from AI
In a long-ranging conversation with the venture capitalist, Marc outlined the reasons why his company decided to implement the hiring freeze.
When asked if Salesforce would have more or fewer employees in five years’ time, he said he thinks the company will “probably be larger”.
But he went on to say: “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.”
“And then, we will have less support engineers next year because we have an agentic layer. We will have more salespeople next year because we really need to explain to people exactly the value that we can achieve with AI. So, we will probably add another 1,000 to 2,000 salespeople in the short term.”
He also confirmed a focus shift in the company which many in the ecosystem have been commenting on for some time:
“Everything needs to become about Agentforce at Salesforce – this is the only thing that really matters today.”
Marc and Salesforce rarely miss an opportunity to talk up Agentforce, with the AI platform clearly becoming the company’s primary focus in recent months.
We at Salesforce Ben tested it out ourselves in early December when the AI became available on the cloud giant’s help portal. Our reviewer reported mixed results, finding that experienced Salesforce professionals who provided clear and detailed instructions could find use in it, while more entry-level people might make poor choices and accumulate technical debt from following an agent’s instructions.
Winter Is Coming…
While December is a time of celebration for many, it may be slightly less so for people working at Salesforce – which has been known to let staff go at the start of the year.
In January 2024, we reported how the ‘mothership’ was laying off 700 workers – roughly 1% of its 70,000-strong global workforce. This was no doubt heartbreaking news for many of those affected, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the previous year’s lay-offs. In January 2023, Salesforce Ben reported how the cloud giant was letting go of 7,000 people – roughly 10% of the entire company.
At the time, CEO Marc Benioff sent a letter to employees saying that they had “hired too many people” during the coronavirus pandemic. Tech giants like Salesforce saw huge demand for their services throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, with cloud services providing much-needed remote working options for businesses amid stay-at-home orders.
As Marc himself wrote in his letter to employees: “As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that.”
Final Thoughts
It remains to be seen whether Salesforce’s campaign of staff cutting following the COVID pandemic has well and truly come to an end, though nervous Salesforce staff might take solace in Marc Benioff’s words that the company will “probably be larger” in five years.
Still, with January approaching, no doubt some ‘mothership’ team members will be anxious that 2025 will see a repeat of the layoffs of the previous two years. And if the Agentforce productivity bump means no further software engineers, what else might it mean?
