Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, publicly stated in 2025 and 2026 that AI would not cause mass layoffs, calling such concerns exaggerated. Simultaneously, his investment vehicle Time Ventures participated in a $20 million pre-seed funding round for June, a startup whose entire business model relies on replacing enterprise AI specialist teams with software agents. Salesforce itself reduced its customer support workforce by approximately 4,000 positions, dropping from 9,000 to around 5,000 roles, through the deployment of Agentforce, its own AI platform. The company simultaneously paused hiring in non-sales functions while announcing the recruitment of 1,000 graduates and interns in April 2026. This contradiction highlights a gap between Benioff’s public statements and his private investment choices, the success of which directly depends on the substitution of technical jobs by automation.
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