(Bloomberg) — Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said the company’s newly introduced artificial intelligence software is a complete package for business customers looking to take advantage of emerging technologies.
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“Customers think they have to build their own AI. That’s not true,” Benioff said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. “This is shocking for customers, but exciting for us.”
The software company recently announced a change in its AI strategy to focus on building AI “agents” that don’t need human supervision for certain tasks like customer service or scheduling sales meetings. Like many of its peers, Salesforce previously focused on building generative AI assistants that required user direction.
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“We want to have 1 billion agents as customers within the next 12 months,” Benioff said.
Salesforce acknowledges that the new technology has the potential to replace workers: Its AI agents allow companies to boost their workforce capacity during busy periods without having to hire additional full-time employees or “gig workers,” Benioff said in a conference speech earlier this week.
The company’s shares rose 5.4% to close at $265.99 in New York on Thursday, its biggest one-day gain in nearly four months. The company’s shares are up 1.1% this year, lagging many tech stocks.
Benioff also responded Thursday to reports that The Walt Disney Co. was suspending its use of Salesforce’s business communications tool Slack after Disney employee accounts were hacked earlier this year, exposing millions of messages.
“Our security is extremely strong,” but Benioff said customers need to take steps to prevent intrusions like phishing attacks. “We can do our part, but we need our customers to do their part too.”
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