September 4 News.Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was recently talking about theAI(AI) on how it has helped the company reduce its workforce, said the company has eliminated 4,000 customer support positions.
"I've reduced the number of people in this position from 9,000 to about 5,000 because we don't need that many people anymore," Benioff said when discussing the impact of AI on Salesforce's operations. As a company at the forefront of AI change, Salesforce has created a robotic customer service team called Agentforce.
1AI notes that Benioff revealed this summer that AI is responsible for up to 50% of the workload in the company.
AI is having an impact on employment across multiple industries, according to HR consultant Laurie Ruettimann. "There have been layoffs across the U.S. as a direct result of AI," Ruettimann said, adding that both people who want to keep their current jobs and those who are looking for work need to learn new skills.
Analyst Ed Zitron argues that some tech companies overhired during the epidemic and are now blaming AI for layoffs, which he says are now trying to lure investors by claiming to be "more efficient".
"It's essentially a 'growth at all costs' mentality," says Zitlen, "They only care about growth, even if it's going to ruin other people's lives, even if it's going to put the company in a bind and cause product quality to decline, too."