Salesforce CEO on the Rise of AI: CEOs Prepare for a Mixed Workforce Revolution

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated on Thursday that today’s business leaders would be the last to oversee the entire human workforce as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an integral part of organizational operations. Speaking during a panel at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, he emphasized that the future of management will involve both human and digital workers.

Benioff shared an example from Salesforce, noting that the company had long provided software to help organize the Davos conference. However, this year marked the first time Salesforce incorporated an AI agent within its app to assist attendees in choosing which panels to attend. He reiterated his belief, first expressed at last year’s Davos meeting, that AI would enhance human productivity rather than replace human workers.

He described AI as a partner that could support individuals in managing their lives, businesses, and tasks, driving a higher level of productivity without necessarily increasing the size of the human workforce.

Concerns about AI displacing human jobs have intensified in recent years, particularly after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, showcasing the power of generative AI to create detailed, human-like outputs in seconds.

During the discussion, Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, predicted that AI systems could surpass human abilities in most areas by 2026 or 2027. Meanwhile, a World Economic Forum survey revealed that 41% of employers globally anticipate reducing their workforce by 2030 due to AI’s automation of tasks. However, 77% of companies plan to reskill and upskill their employees between 2025 and 2030 to improve human-AI collaboration.

Despite fears of job losses, the Forum’s Future of Jobs Report highlighted that the primary impact of generative AI could lie in augmenting human skills through human-machine collaboration, underscoring the enduring importance of human-centric abilities.

Benioff also reflected on the $500 billion U.S. AI infrastructure investment announced earlier this week, describing it as the beginning of a historic wave of spending. He told CNN’s Richard Quest that these investments would eventually reach trillions of dollars, paving the way for a transformation in how industries operate worldwide.

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