September 3, 2025

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco tech CEO said that because of artificial intelligence, he has been able to cut 4,000 jobs. Speaking to The Logan Bartlett Show on Friday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the use of AI agents had enabled him to “rebalance” his headcount in the customer support division by trimming 4,000 jobs.

“I’ve reduced it from 9,000 head to about 5,000 because I need less heads,” Benioff said.

Benioff called the first eight months of 2025, during which an estimated 10,000 jobs have been lost to AI, “eight of the most exciting months of my career.”

“There were more than 100 million leads that we have not called back at Salesforce in the last 26 years because we have not had enough people,” Benioff said. “We just couldn’t call them back. But we now have an agentic sales that is calling back every person that contacts us.”

The use of AI agents — artificial intelligence systems that plan and automate tasks that typically required human employees in the past — has enabled Salesforce to call back around 10,000 leads a week, Benioff said.

Salesforce, which is the largest private employer in San Francisco, has around 76,000 employees globally.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768999&forum_id=2...id#49231218)