Salesforce shares surge on Benioff’s billion-agent AI strategy

Clients think “they have to DIY their AI. It’s not true,” Benioff said — using the acronym for do-it-yourself — Thursday during an interview with Bloomberg Television at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. “This is a shock to them and it’s exciting for us.”

The software company recently unveiled a change in its AI strategy to focus on building AI “agents” that don’t require human supervision for specific tasks such as customer service or scheduling sales meetings. Like many peers, Salesforce was previously focused on building generative AI assistants that require user prompting.

“We want to get a billion agents with our customers in the next 12 months,” Benioff said.

Salesforce has acknowledged the new technology may replace workers. Its AI agents will let companies increase their workforce capacity during busy periods without having to hire additional full-time employees or “gig workers,” Benioff said earlier this week during a speech at the conference.

The shares rose 5.4% to close at $265.99 Thursday in New York, the biggest single-day jump in almost four months. The stock has trailed many tech peers, gaining 1.1% this year. 

Benioff also responded Thursday to reports that Walt Disney Co. would stop using Salesforce’s Slack business communications tool after a hack earlier this year of a Disney employee’s account led to millions of messages being leaked.

While “our security is rock-solid,” customers still must take measures to prevent incursions such as through phishing attempts, Benioff said. “We can do our part, but customers need to do their part.”