Key Takeaways
- Marc Benioff is the CEO of cloud-based software company, Salesforce.
- At Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference on Tuesday, Benioff said that the company is saving $100 million a year by using AI for customer service inquiries.
- Salesforce reported that it has surpassed revenue expectations in its second quarter, achieving $10.24 billion, a 10% year-over-year increase.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the cloud-based software company is saving about $100 million every year by using AI to enhance its customer service operations.
At Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference on Tuesday, Benioff said that the cost savings were due to the company’s use of its Agentforce platform, an AI-powered system designed to automate and enhance customer service.
While Salesforce sells Agentforce to clients, it also uses it in-house to handle customer service inquiries, including automating routine questions, generating case summaries, and providing responses. Benioff said that artificial intelligence has significantly reduced Salesforce’s need for human support staff.
Related: Salesforce Is Cracking Down on In-Office Work, Requiring Some Employees in the Office 5 Days a Week
In an August episode of “The Logan Bartlett Show” podcast, Benioff stated that he was able to “rebalance headcount” on his human support team within the past year, cutting the number of human employees from roughly 9,000 to 5,000 as AI systems took on more responsibilities. During the same period, Agentforce AI agents managed about 1.5 million customer interactions.
Meanwhile, Benioff said on Tuesday that more than 12,000 customers are using Agentforce. The company launched the technology about a year ago.
“It’s the fastest-growing product in our history,” Benioff said at Dreamforce.
Agentforce deploys autonomous AI agents that communicate with customers via chat, email and voice. These AI agents interact with customers, address routine inquiries, and escalate complex cases to human agents as needed.
According to Salesforce, one client, Reddit, reduced customer support resolution time by 84% and dropped the average response time from 8.9 minutes to 1.4 minutes after using Agentforce. Travel platform Engine cut the total time spent on a customer interaction by 15% with the program, saving over $2 million annually.
Related: Here’s How Much a Typical Salesforce Employee Makes in a Year
Salesforce continues to surpass revenue expectations, reporting last month that it had achieved $10.24 billion in its second quarter, a 10% year-over-year increase that exceeded analyst estimates of $10.1 billion, per Bloomberg.
Still, Wall Street is worried that AI is going to take over much of the software-as-a-service sector, per CNBC. Salesforce shares were down over 27% year-to-date.
Key Takeaways
- Marc Benioff is the CEO of cloud-based software company, Salesforce.
- At Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference on Tuesday, Benioff said that the company is saving $100 million a year by using AI for customer service inquiries.
- Salesforce reported that it has surpassed revenue expectations in its second quarter, achieving $10.24 billion, a 10% year-over-year increase.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the cloud-based software company is saving about $100 million every year by using AI to enhance its customer service operations.
At Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference on Tuesday, Benioff said that the cost savings were due to the company’s use of its Agentforce platform, an AI-powered system designed to automate and enhance customer service.
While Salesforce sells Agentforce to clients, it also uses it in-house to handle customer service inquiries, including automating routine questions, generating case summaries, and providing responses. Benioff said that artificial intelligence has significantly reduced Salesforce’s need for human support staff.
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