Salesforce has laid off 4,000 customer support employees as artificial intelligence takes on a growing share of its service operations. Chief executive Marc Benioff confirmed the cuts during an appearance on the Logan Bartlett podcast, saying the company had reduced its support workforce from 9,000 to 5,000. “I was able to rebalance my head count on my support,” Benioff said.
He reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000 because he needed less heads. The downsizing amounts to nearly a 45% cut in the support division of the cloud software giant.
The move comes as Salesforce deploys AI agents that now handle around half of all customer conversations, with human staff managing the remainder. Benioff described the shift as “eight of the most exciting months of my career,” highlighting how quickly AI had reshaped company operations. The technology has also been rolled out in sales.