City: San Francisco, CA Date: October 11, 2025
Marc Benioff Hits the Headlines once again.
Co-founder and billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has again hit the news, this time not just because of his intense political beliefs but because of his aggressive investment in artificial intelligence (AI) as well. Addressing the city of San Francisco earlier this week, Benioff demanded radical solutions to the problem of increased safety concerns in the city but also presented Salesforce with its biggest AI integration plan to date. During an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, BenioffBenioff stated that the former U.S. President Donald Trump would be required to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco in an attempt to curb violent crime and homelessness in the city. His remarks were quickly criticized by leaders of cities, and they have become the focus of intense discussion on the place of tech billionaires in government. Meanwhile, Benioff underlined that AI has become a core aspect of the Salesforce operations to the extent that it currently takes 30 to 50 percent of Salesforce work done by an AI system.
AI Revolution within Salesforce.
The company created by Benioff has become one of the key players in the field of AI-driven enterprise software. The recent internal report of Salesforce has shown that its AI agents AI agents, or the automated digital employee, which is being trained to handle customer service and sales data, as well as marketing, are currently performing most of the repetitive corporate duties.
At a press conference in Salesforce Tower, Benioff said:
AI is not coming to take over humans, but rather to give them power. But there is an emerging new workforce that is more competent, digital-wise, and that is changing all of this. The current accuracy of AI systems in responding to customer requests is 93 percent according to internal data that is provided by the company, which is much higher than that of many other human support teams. These developments are already decreasing the expenses in all departments and enable Salesforce to concentrate its human resources in the strategic and innovative work. This change has not passed without controversy however. In the first half of the year, Salesforce allegedly laid off an estimated 4,0004,000 customer service positions and substituted numerous of them with AI-based solutions. Critics believe that AI makes the industry more efficient; however, it may cause mass unemployment in white-collar positions.
Political Remarks arouse controversy.
Even though salesforce AI innovation attracted interest in the world, the political remarks that Benioff made caused a local effect. In his interview, he blamed the city leadership of San Francisco and proposed to the federal government to come in. Benioff said, this city has lost control. We have to seek federal assistance to secure our streets. The elected officials resisted as they claimed that the introduction of the National Guard was not the solution to the problems of the city. Mayor London Breed neither accepted the proposal nor took it seriously, calling it impractical and being politically charged rather than community programs. Regardless of the controversy, the comments made by Benioff indicate the frustration felt by most owners of businesses in the city in regard to the homelessness crisis and the safety issues in the city. He makes his comments only weeks before Salesforce annual Dreamforce Conference, which is one of the biggest economic events in San Francisco.
Salesforce AI Global Investment.
Salesforce is still aggressively entering new markets on the business front. In early August, Benioff has declared that the company is going to spend $1 billion in Mexico during the following five years to enhance AI implementation and internet infrastructure in Latin America. The growth will also involve the development of a new Global Delivery Center in Mexico City and multiple regional training centers that will specialize in AI development. According to Benioff, the objective is to democratize access to AI by assisting local businesses in incorporating intelligent systems in their processes. As Reuters reports, the Mexico investment is among the biggest international investment Salesforce has had in the recent years and highlights the intention of Benioff to turn Salesforce into a real global AI leader.
The tradeoff between Innovation and Responsibility.
Activism, philanthropy, and innovation have always been a part of the leadership approach of Marc Benioff. In the last 10 years, he has given hundreds of millions to educating and medical research on AI and health causes, including 139 million to UCSF. Nevertheless, his current words and business actions depict the conflict between the technological advancement and social contribution. Although a lot of people celebrate the Salesforce breakthroughs in AI, others fear about the long-term effects of automation and unemployment and privacy issues. Benioff insists, however, that AI can also co-exist with people in case it is handled responsibly. I do not see AI killing jobs, he said, it will change them. The future of people is in their ability to learn how to use these tools. Industry analysts believe that Salesforce is setting itself up intelligently to the next generation of enterprise AI. The AI offering created by the company, the Einstein 1 Platform, has now been embedded in all the major Salesforce products, and it allows companies to automate their workflows, predict the behavior of their customers and analyze business data in real-time. —
Wall Street’s Reaction
Shareholders seem to be positive regarding the AI orientation of Salesforce. After the recent statements issued by Benioff, Salesforce shares (NYSE: CRM) gained 3.9 per cent on Friday and ended at $289.25. The company has a great AI revenue potential and the increasing customer base saw analysts at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs upgrade their forecasts. Morgan Stanley analyst Amy White said Salesforce is evidently changing itself into an AI first enterprise. However, it is true that despite risks in automation, the company has an advantage because of its emphasis on innovation and ethical AI. Nevertheless, Wall Street is fearful of possible regulatory reviews. As governments around the world step up regulations governing the use of AI in transparency and the use of data, Salesforce can be under some pressure to explain how its AI agents make its decisions and the use of user data.
The Bigger Picture
The two-fold attention to technology and politics of Benioff can be used to demonstrate how the top executives of Silicon Valley have changed their roles. He does not merely happen to be a CEO; he is a cultural influencer, who is influencing discourse on the interface of AI, society and ethics. Salesforce has more AI-driven products targeting small and medium businesses that will be launched in the next few months to ensure that accessibility is no longer restricted to Fortune 500 clients. OpenAI and Google Cloud also remain a part of the company efforts to implement a generative AI into the CRM solutions. Considering whether he is a visionary or a provocateur, Marc Benioff has become one of the most influential people in the current tech world, being a mediator between business innovation and social responsibility.company