Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to reshape the workforce at some of the world’s largest technology companies.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff confirmed that the company cut 4,000 customer support roles — from 9,000 to about 5,000 — due to the deployment of AI agents, according to the Los Angeles Times. The outlet notes that Salesforce employs more than 76,000 staff worldwide.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Salesforce has attributed these cuts to rising efficiency enabled by AI agents, which now handle a significant share of customer interactions.

Per Salesforce’s website, AI agents can respond to customer pricing inquiries, generate marketing materials and manage websites without continuous human direction. Salesforce said in a statement that these efficiencies have reduced support case volume, eliminating the need to replace certain support engineer positions, according to the Los Angeles Times.

CNBC highlighted that Benioff told podcast listeners of “The Logan Bartlett Show,” “I’ve reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need less heads,” emphasizing the scale of the cuts. The outlet also noted that this reduction follows Benioff’s June 2025 remark that AI now accounts for up to 50% of Salesforce’s internal workload.

While support roles were reduced, Salesforce said, “We’ve successfully redeployed hundreds of employees into other areas like professional services, sales, and customer success,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Salesforce’s AI agents have also helped the company reconnect with more than 100 million previously unaddressed leads accumulated over 26 years, Benioff shared on “The Logan Bartlett Show.”

Benioff acknowledged the advantages of AI but rejected the notion that automation will fully replace human workers. “Humans are not going away,” he said on the podcast, describing the relationship as a partnership where agents handle routine tasks while humans step in for more complex situations.

These developments highlight Salesforce’s growing focus on AI. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the company invested $7.75 billion to acquire Informatica, a data management company that helps businesses organize, integrate and analyze data to enhance AI and cloud capabilities.

Salesforce is not alone in turning to AI to boost efficiency. AFROTECH™ also reported that in February 2025, just days after laying off more than 1,000 employees, Workday, a leader in enterprise cloud applications, introduced its Workday Agent System of Record, which allows organizations to deploy and manage a variety of AI agents.

In a similar move, Walmart unveiled four AI-powered “super agents” in July aimed at enhancing customer experience and optimizing operations. These agents, customized for shoppers, employees, suppliers, and developers, leverage agentic AI technology to handle complex tasks with minimal human oversight.

This is to say, Salesforce is just one of many large tech companies making the quick shift to AI.