Salesforce to cut 1,000 roles while hiring salespeople for AI products

By Brody Ford 

Salesforce Inc. is cutting jobs as its latest fiscal year gets underway, according to a person familiar with the matter, even as the company simultaneously hires workers to sell new artificial intelligence products. 

More than 1,000 roles will be affected, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Displaced workers will be able to apply for other jobs internally, the person added.

 

A representative of San Francisco-based Salesforce declined to comment. It couldn’t be determined which divisions the reductions were focused in. Salesforce had nearly 73,000 workers as of January 2024, when that fiscal year ended.

 

Technology companies have grown more accustomed to regular job reductions after a massive wave of layoffs at the start of 2023. So far this year, Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. have all moved to trim their corporate workforces.

 

Salesforce, the leading maker of customer management software, has embarked on a hiring spree for salespeople focused on the company’s new AI agent products. But it’s also been keeping a closer eye on maintaining profit margins after pressure from activist investors in 2023. 

 

“Just because we have a hit new product doesn’t mean that we ignore the commitments we’ve made internally and externally as we think about scaling this business,” Chief Operating Officer Brian Millham said when asked about the company’s profit-focus during an event hosted by Barclays Plc in December. “We’re looking across the entire company to say, ‘Where can we get more efficiencies? How can we continue to get fuel for the work that we’re doing to go invest in scale going forward?”

 

Salesforce is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings around the end of February.