Salesforce, Nov 2024: We're hiring 1,000 new sales execs to sell AI!
…Salesforce, Dec 2024: Now we're hiring 2,000 new sales execs to sell AI
— Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) December 19, 2024
So it was just the other day Salesforce somewhat stunned the tech world by announcing it would hire 1,000 folks in sales and marketing to sell AgentForce and its AI products — while keeping other hiring, including engineering, flat.
Well that must have gone well as Salesforce is now hiring 2,000 (!) in sales to sell AI.
Per The Information, Benioff has also instructed his sales team to go all-in and put AI and Agentforce into every deal possible. More here.
Salesforce is growing 9% at $40 Billion (!) ARR. And driving margins up.
🛑It's using AI to hold engineering to 0% growth. Zero new hires this year
It sees AI driving a 30% efficiency improvement in eng
🫂But sales? It's growing the sales team up to 20% this year alone pic.twitter.com/Nte9vWao0Y
— Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) February 27, 2025
It’s a bit counterintuitive at first — isn’t AI replacing people? But we all know enterprise software. It doesn’t sell itself. Not really.
Salesforce and Benioff are all in on agents and AI for its platforms. They know they can sell it, and they need to sell it now. They need 2,000 new sales execs for that. And while Salesforce’s growth has slowed dramatically the past 2 years, it did bounce back a bit last quarter, and its stock is up 33% this year.
SaaS is Back. In different ways, at different places. But in most places. Salesforce included.
And personally, while I’m still in learning mode for AI, I’m not betting on any net reduction in sales headcount from AI. I haven’t seen it yet, and don’t expect to see it. I do expect agents to make routine sales interactions better though. We’re already seeing this with AI done right in support and the contact center. When support uses AI right, it can resolved 20% or more of tickets and often with top 10% CSAT. A sales AI agent should be able to do that sooner rather than later.
More on how SaaS is Back here:
