Salesforce boss: We're not hiring any new developers this year, AI is enough
Salesforce boss Marc Benioff is enthusiastic about AI tools for coding. They make 30 percent more productive, and new developers are not needed this year.
(Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com)
CRM specialist Salesforce does not intend to hire any more developers this year. This was stated by CEO Marc Benioff in the conference call for analysts on the software company's rather disappointing fourth quarter. Benioff cited the investments in AI coding tools, which had led to a 30 percent increase in productivity, as the reason for this. Benioff generally spoke of extraordinary efficiency through AI.
However, the major boost in turnover hoped for as a result of the company's new AI products has yet to materialize. Revenues in the current financial year are expected to be between 40.5 and 40.9 billion US dollars, the company announced on Wednesday after the close of trading. According to a dpa report, analysts had expected an average of 41.5 billion US dollars. Salesforce expects an adjusted operating profit margin of 34 percent, while experts had previously expected 33.9 percent.
In the last financial quarter, turnover rose by 7.6 percent to just under 10 billion dollars, which was also below analysts' expectations of 10.4 billion dollars. Profit increased by a good 18 percent to 1.7 billion dollars.
Agentforce: Incredibly enthusiastic, but still in its infancy
One of Salesforce'sgreat hopes when it comes to AI is the Agentforce platform, which has been available since last October. Companies and employees can use it to create AI agents for customer service, for example, without having to have any programming knowledge. The platform already has 3,000 corporate customers, said Benioff.
CFO Amy Weaver added: "At Agentforce, we are incredibly excited about the momentum we are seeing with our customers. However, the adoption cycle is still in its early stages as we focus on the rollout to our customers." Agentforce will then probably make a "modest contribution" to the 2026 financial year and then significantly more in 2027, Weaver said, formulating the company's expectations. According to reports, Salesforce had cut around 1,000 jobs at the beginning of the year – and in return was looking for new employees, especially salespeople for the new AI products.
(axk)
