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**Summary:**

Salesforce, under CEO Marc Benioff, has laid off approximately 4,000 employees from its customer support division as part of a strategic shift towards integrating agentic AI. Benioff stated that AI now handles approximately 50% of customer conversations and has eliminated a massive backlog of sales leads. This contrasts with his previous statements where he emphasized AI’s role in augmenting, rather than replacing, human workers. The move aims to improve efficiency, redeploy human talent to higher-value areas, and establish Salesforce as a leader in AI-driven enterprise solutions.

**News Article:**

**Salesforce Cuts 4,000 Customer Support Jobs, Citing AI Automation**

*San Francisco, CA* – Salesforce, the cloud computing giant and parent company of Slack, has announced the elimination of roughly 4,000 positions within its customer support division, a reduction from approximately 9,000 to 5,000 employees. CEO Marc Benioff attributed the move to the successful integration of agentic AI into the company’s core operations, enabling significant automation of customer interactions.

Speaking on the Logan Bartlett Show podcast, Benioff stated that Salesforce’s AI now manages about 50% of customer conversations, streamlining operations and freeing up human employees for more complex and strategic tasks. He also highlighted the AI’s success in clearing a 26-year backlog of over 100 million uncontacted sales leads.

“I was able to rebalance my headcount on my support. I reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000 because I need fewer heads,” Benioff explained.

The system utilizes an omnichannel supervisor to monitor interactions between human and digital agents, escalating complex issues to human representatives when necessary. Benioff framed this strategy as a key component in defining the next generation of enterprise solutions, where AI and humans collaborate seamlessly.

The announcement marks a shift from Benioff’s earlier statements just two months prior, in which he maintained that AI would augment, not replace, human workers, emphasizing the need for human oversight in fact-checking. However, the rapid advancements in AI capabilities have reportedly made these workforce reductions unavoidable.

The layoffs are part of a broader strategic move by Salesforce to improve efficiency, reallocate resources, and establish itself as a leader in AI-driven enterprise technology. The company’s future success hinges on its ability to effectively integrate AI into its operations and leverage the remaining human workforce for higher-value activities.

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