Hard-selling AI by non-HR example

Last month, San Francisco-based software biggie Salesforce brought home the chill of AI-induced job losses when it announced it won't be hiring any software engineers in 2025. Earlier, CEO Marc Benioff had said that Salesforce needs 2,000 extra salesmen to peddle its customer relationship management software. Tech layoffs stabilised last year after a brutal 2023, when companies corrected for pandemic over-hiring. But the numbers are still way too high. Current projections don't present a picture of net addition, as AI moves into more functional areas in Silicon Valley and Wall St. Tech and finance industries are seeking productivity gains where AI is making them available, and downsizing in anticipation of required investments where they are not.

Salesforce is ahead of the curve by virtue of its product portfolio, and serves as a marker for AI's progress in agent-based customer roles across Fortune 500 companies. Its wide distribution model underscores potential job displacement from the back to the front office. The company has shed skittishness about going public with the savings it's delivering to its enterprise customers, an issue most companies soft-pedal. The data on which Salesforce's bots train are provided by its customers, reducing the scope of errors of judgement generative AI is prone to. The company has also developed a revenue model that benefits from shrunken sales forces at its client organisations.

There is now a financial benchmark to AI adoption that companies can chase. That they are not doing it more aggressively is a factor of backward integration of AI processes from the customer interface. This is a more sedate process driven by managerial acceptance of technology. In the case of AI, business leaders also need to review a broader set of issues, including corporate governance and organisational structure. Salesforce has demonstrated productivity enhancement in common business practices. Bigger job displacement awaits companies successfully applying AI to parts of their businesses that make them unique. The Salesforce example could help them focus their minds.