AI will take your job. This is a quote that you may have heard in recent months. And to some extent, it may seem possible. Companies are firing thousands of workers as they invest more in AI. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google, the list is quite long. But SaaS giant Salesforce seems to be doing things differently. Instead of planning to fire staff, it wants to hire people for AI, yes, hire people.
On X, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff claimed that the company is hiring 1,000 workers, particularly for AI. He wrote, “We’re hiring 1,000 new grads & interns right now to ride the AI exponential.”
Salesforce says AI won’t take entry-level jobs
Marc specifically mentioned that Salesforce wants interns and new graduates for AI. His post was in response to a tweet by AI Czar David Sacks. Sacks had questioned concerns over AI taking entry-level jobs. He wrote, “Hiring of new college graduates is up 5.6 per cent over last year Weren’t we told that 50 per cent of entry-level jobs were going away?”
The Salesforce chief replied, “You are right they said AI would kill entry-level jobs. Meanwhile these grads & interns are building it — powering Agentforce & Headless360 at Salesforce.”
The projects are part of Salesforce’s Futureforce programme, which focusses on using AI in its services. It is likely that Salesforce believes that younger talent may be better suited to adapt to new technologies.
To give you some context, Microsoft recently offered voluntary exits to its most senior staff members. This could set a trend in the industry as more companies start placing bets on younger talent to embrace AI.
Has Salesforce fired workers?
While it may seem that Salesforce is acting as an outlier in the tech space, the SaaS giant has also reduced roles in the past. Earlier this year, Business Insider reported that Salesforce had just under 1,000 roles. The report said the affected roles included marketing, product management, data analytics.
Though this number is still relatively less when compared to the thousands being shown the door at other big companies including Accenture and TCS.