Earlier this week, Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, said that the company has cut 4,000 customer support roles. He attributed the layoffs to the efficiency gains from user artificial intelligence. Benioff announced the cuts on The Logan Bartlett Show saying he had “reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need less heads.”
The statement by the CEO comes after he previously announced that AI was handling up to 50% of the work at Salesforce. “Because of the benefits and efficiencies of Agentforce, we’ve seen the number of support cases we handle decline and we no longer need to actively backfill support engineer roles,” Salesforce said in a statement Tuesday to NBC Bay Area.
Benioff"s comments haven"t sat well with some people though, including analyst Ed Zitron who, speaking to CNBC, criticized the growth at all costs mindset that companies have taken on. He said that it “ruins people’s lives” and can make the “company worse” by providing an “inferior product.” Benioff’s statement where he said “because I need less heads” highlights the dehumanizing aspect of the decision.
Salesforce’s job cuts are part of a wider trend in the tech industry. According to Layoffs.fyi, in 2025, there have been more than 83,000 job cuts in tech alone in the US. Human resources consultant Laurie Ruettimann told CNBC that there have been cuts all over America directly caused by AI. They advise learning new skills to remain employed.
While people are concerned about AI’s impact on jobs, there’s also the fact that tech firms went on big hiring sprees during the coronavirus pandemic. With higher interest rates and inflation hitting people’s ability to spend, companies are having to cut employees because people are buying less than they were several years ago. By tightening up, companies can also attract investors by claiming to be efficient.
On the plus side, as more people’s incomes declines, the more inflation should fall, which subsequently means interest rates can come down. This will make loans cheaper and encourage savers to move their money from saving accounts to the stock market. Both of these can help the economy start growing again and this will lead to more job creation, giving people a chance to get back into work.
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