Artificial intelligence is already replacing certain jobs in technology companies.
Last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the San Francisco software giant was able to reduce the support role from 9,000 to 5,000 as “AI agents” help automate certain tasks.
Appearing on the entrepreneurial podcast, The Logan Bartlett Show, Benioff has fueled the development of Salesforce, a platform that helps businesses deploy AI agents to provide customer service, support employees, and increase productivity.
According to the company’s website, Salesforce AI agents can work proactively without constant input from humans, but can respond to customer questions, generate marketing materials, and manage the website.
Salesforce, one of the tech companies that doubled their AI investments but cut their workforce this year, said using the AI agent platform no longer requires filling in the role of support engineers for efficient profits.
“We have managed to relocate hundreds of employees into other areas such as professional service, sales and customer success,” the company said in a statement.
Benioff’s latest remarks show that AI is urging tech companies building more powerful AI tools to rethink what workers are doing.
When companies look at ways to cut costs significantly, tech companies are promoting AI as a way to do more with fewer people. In June, Benioff said that AI is doing 30% to 50% of company jobs.
Some high-tech executives say that AI will replace certain jobs, such as entry-level roles, and create other tasks.
Still, the rise of AI could reduce the workforce in certain companies and promote anxiety among a variety of occupations, such as scripts and coding. It is reshaping San Francisco, a city where AI companies have taken over vacant office space and watched them compete with each other for talent.
This year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he hopes the e-commerce giant will shrink its employees as employees “get efficiency through widespread use of AI.”
Benioff has stopped saying that AI automates all jobs.
“Humans aren’t gone,” Benioff said on the podcast. “We’re working with these agents, and that’s how I see it.”
AI has been around for a long time, but it is a generic AI that can quickly generate images, text, code, and other information that is disrupting your work.
As more companies leverage AI, questions remain as to whether it will help companies to make more profits. Openai, Google and other tech companies are looking to expand the use of AI tools in government, education and various industries.
McKinsey & Co is a management consulting company. The survey found that nearly eight companies in 10 companies deployed the generated AI, but the same number also reported that “does not have a significant impact on revenue.” This is because the use of some of these chatbots “inclined to spread thinly to employees,” and therefore AI deployments are limited or narrow usage restrictions to assist with sales, support and other business tasks.
Salesforce has seen the benefits of using AI tools, Benioff said in a podcast. He said there are over 100 million leads that Salesforce has not been able to handle because the company has not had enough workers in the past 26 years. But now, the company’s salespeople can accommodate more customers with the help of AI. The company also has supervisors who help AI agents and humans work together, he said.
Salesforce has over 76,000 employees worldwide.
