Is Your Job Next?

Salesforce, the company that sells customer relationship software, just ended 4,000 of its own customer relationships with employees.

Over the past year or so, Salesforce quietly shrank its customer support team from 9,000 to 5,000 people. They didn’t hold a big press conference, nor was there a farewell cake, just silence… and a chatbot. The company's new AI system, Agentforce, is now handling half of all customer support requests. That’s right, 50% of the work that used to be done by humans is now done by a robot that doesn’t even have a LinkedIn profile.

CEO Marc Benioff shared this news like it was a TED Talk, calling it one of the “most exciting transformations” in Salesforce history. You know, just casually announcing that a few thousand people got replaced by software, the same way you’d announce a new office ping pong table.

He says it wasn’t a layoff wave, just that they “didn’t backfill” roles as people left or were nudged out. Which sounds a lot like telling your partner, “I didn’t break up with you, I just ghosted you into unemployment.”

Agentforce doesn’t need coffee, sick days, or therapy after a customer screams, “LET ME SPEAK TO A HUMAN.” It just grinds, 24/7, solving tickets, resetting passwords, and slowly turning every call center into a ghost town with good Wi-Fi.

Some of those 4,000 people were “reassigned” to other teams, like sales or customer success. But let’s be honest, that’s like being moved from first class to baggage handling. You’re still on the plane, but you’re definitely not sipping champagne. You’re just hoping the robot doesn’t learn to sell next.

And the people who were let go? They’ve watched a company they helped build replace them with an algorithm trained on their own work. Imagine teaching someone everything you know and then being told, “Thanks, we don’t need you anymore, your clone's cheaper.”

Now Salesforce is flexing its AI muscles, competing with Microsoft’s Copilot, ServiceNow’s Control Tower, and a flood of AI startups like Sierra. But instead of hiring more engineers or improving customer wait times, it’s choosing to go full robot. The race isn’t just for market share anymore; it’s for how few humans you need to run a billion-dollar company.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or exec, this Salesforce move probably has you texting your team like, “Do we have one of those AI things yet?” They cut nearly half their support staff, plugged in a chatbot, and nothing broke. No angry customers, no chaos, just one bot doing thousands of jobs without lunch breaks or bathroom drama. Now boards everywhere are asking, “Why can’t we do that?” Suddenly, saying “people are our greatest asset” sounds kind of expensive.

If you’re a manager or regular employee, it’s a different story. You’re now sharing your team with Jeff, Karen, and Agentforce, the AI that doesn’t sleep, complain, or ask for a raise. Jeff wants paternity leave, Karen’s remote in Vermont, and Agentforce just crushed 73 tickets without blinking. Whether you work in customer support, sales, or even flipping burgers, the writing’s on the wall: AI didn’t show up to help, it showed up to compete, and it’s already winning.

This isn't some far-off, sci-fi scenario. This is real. This is now. A major company just proved that you can replace thousands of people without breaking a sweat, and your customers might not even notice. If you work in support, service, data entry, or any job that can be broken into scripts, patterns, or “how can I help you today?”, it’s not just Salesforce you need to watch, it’s every company watching Salesforce.

Because when the execs see a robot close 100 tickets an hour without asking for a raise, the question isn’t “should we use AI?” anymore. It’s “Why are we still paying Steve?”

A lot of those 4,000 Salesforce workers didn’t just leave. They likely helped build the system that now does their job. That’s like teaching your replacement… only it doesn’t sleep. Would you do it if it meant keeping your paycheck for a few more months?

- Matt Masinga