After AI supports efficient operation, Salesforce will no longer recruit more engineers in 2025

In a recent episode of the "20VC with Harry Stebbings" podcast, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff revealed that the company will no longer hire new software engineers in 2025. The main reason behind this decision is that the company has significantly improved the productivity of the engineering team through its flagship artificial intelligence product Agentforce and other AI technologies, achieving a growth of more than 30%.

When talking about the size of the workforce over the next five years, Benioff said that although it will no longer add software engineers, the number of Salesforce employees will likely increase. He mentioned that although the need for engineers has decreased, the company's engineering efficiency has been greatly improved due to the application of AI technology, and the team's work speed is incredible. In addition, he pointed out that the number of support engineers will be reduced next year and the number of sales personnel will be increased instead, because the company needs more sales teams to convey the value of AI to customers.

Agentforce has become the most important business focus of Salesforce. Benioff emphasized: "At Salesforce, everything must revolve around Agentforce. This is the only important thing at the moment." He mentioned that the AI ​​platform is helping the company improve operational efficiency. and customer service. The Salesforce Ben team tested Agentforce back in December, and while results varied depending on the user's experience level, it helped to a certain extent.

However, as 2024 approaches, Salesforce employees are also facing some unease. In 2023 and early 2024, the company carried out large-scale layoffs, laying off 700 and 7,000 employees respectively, causing many employees to worry. Benioff acknowledged in a letter that the current layoffs are one of the economic challenges the company must face due to excessive hiring during the epidemic.

Although Benioff mentioned that Salesforce may expand over the next five years, employees are still uneasy about whether the layoffs of the previous two years will be repeated in 2025. With the rapid development of AI technology, it remains to be seen what kind of future Salesforce employees will face in this change.