Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says that the company has “almost not hired engineers” over the past two years, citing the rise of AI coding agents that have dramatically changed how software is built. According to a report by Business Insider, speaking on quarterly earnings call, Benioff revealed that the Salesforce’s engineering workforce has remained ‘mostly flat’ at around 15,000 engineers since 2024. “The hottest new hires are no longer engineers,” he said, pointing to the growing role of AI agents in handling coding tasks.
Salesforce shifting towards sales roles
As per the BI report, Benioff further states that the headcount at Salesforce is concentrated in sales, led by president and chief revenue officer Miguel Milano. “Because, I think we all realize the one thing that we are doing here with you, selling and communicating, the agents are not exactly doing that,” he explained, underscoring that human sales representatives remain critical to expansion.
AI cuts and spending
While sales roles are safe, other functions have been reduced. Benioff said Salesforce cut about 4,000 support roles last year, with AI agents taking over those responsibilities. He also disclosed that Salesforce is projected to spend $300 million on Anthropic tokens in 2026 to power AI-driven projects.
Salesforce reports record quarter despite market concerns
Salesforce has reported better-than-expected earnings, with Benioff highlighting a record quarter marked by large transactions. “We’ve never seen this many large transactions happen,” he said, dismissing fears of what he jokingly called a “Saaspocalypse.” Despite the strong results, the stock slipped another 1.5% in extended trading as investors focused on softer guidance.
Salesforce CEO has a message for engineers
Recently, Marc Benioff revealed that he don’t think that AI is going to replace Salesforce’s engineers. He thinks it’s going to turn them into managers. Speaking on The Future Live with Matthew Berman, the Salesforce CEO described a shift already underway inside the company—one where its 15,000 engineers work alongside AI coding agents from Anthropic, OpenAI Codex, and Cursor, and increasingly oversee those agents rather than doing the work themselves. “They can even become somewhat supervisory over these agents,” Benioff said. “But still those engineers are needed.” His argument for why comes down to a single line: “The model still cannot operate autonomously. We’re not at that level yet.”As evidence, he pointed to the job boards of the biggest AI companies in the world—all of them, he noted, are still hiring engineers at scale.
