AI Is Marc Benioff’s Friend—and Foe

In the weeks after Salesforce unveiled Agentforce in September, its new artificial intelligence agent—a software tool that automates business tasks—CEO Marc Benioff had an aggressive demand for his sales teams. In all-hands sales meetings, he ordered that Agentforce must be part of every deal they complete with customers, said a person who works with Benioff.

And now, less than two months after Salesforce began selling the product, more than half of its roughly 15,000-member sales team has at least one Agentforce transaction in progress, Benioff said in a recent interview.