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AI Businesses

Salesforce to Hire 1,000 People for Big AI Product Sales Push (yahoo.com) 25

Salesforce "plans to hire more than 1,000 workers to sell its new generative AI agent product," reports Bloomberg: The hiring surge is aimed at capitalizing on "amazing momentum" for the new artificial intelligence product, Chief Executive Marc Benioff said in a message. "Agentforce became available just two weeks ago and we're already hearing incredible feedback from our customers."

The top seller of customer relations management software, Salesforce pivoted its AI strategy this year to focus on agents — tools that can complete tasks such as customer support or sales development without human supervision. It launched the product, dubbed Agentforce, last month, with initial pricing of about $2 per agent conversation.

Salesforce to Hire 1,000 People for Big AI Product Sales Push

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  • Don't sell your house to move. AI biz is more volatile than frogs on crack.

  • ...crap, expensive crap.
    I will be very surprised if it helps anybody except the crapmongers who are pushing it.

    • It's crap and it's expensive, but here's the clincher: it's less expensive than decent human non-crap.

      The bean counters will go for cheap anytime, and throw quality out the window if that's what it takes to get cheap.

      • Any good engineer understands that cheaper is better so long as it falls within the specification and grade called for by the application. Bean counters don't even get involved in that conversation, they just ground your aspirations into the reality of what you can afford. It's the job of the leadership to find a compromise, and they often wear at least a little if not all of both hats. Though I'm not one view everything through the "us vs them" lens as is common here, r/antiwork, and r/union.

        Can this AI cr

  • They really need to replace Apex with either a fully compliant Java or with Groovy.

  • If it's so good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Sunday November 10, 2024 @01:49PM (#64935143)

    Why do they need to hire people to sell it? Can't it sell itself?

  • Draft memo to staff: Extra-super-ignore Salesforce Sale and Corporate communications for next few months. Refer all voice calls regarding AI to the IVR Esp. Introductory Menu.

  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday November 10, 2024 @02:13PM (#64935175)

    If you need to hire human beings to promote AI instead of letting AI promote itself, it's a sure sign that you AI is useless dogshit.

    • Historically, when a new technology sweeps in, there are dinosaurs that go extinct in terms of their relevancy. I remember a programmer my dad hired to manage some custom software. The guy was running DOS and all his backup systems required floppy disks. After I learned to program, I replaced his software with my own that used a GUI and could backup files to a flash drive. He was pretty good in his day, but he didn't keep up with the times.

      Currently, I teach lower undergraduate math classes. I drive the dir

  • AI agents used to be an academic research about sophisticated multi-agent systems that together could accomplish complex tasks. These days it just means any AI app that accomplishes a task. Ie. any AI app. The limited nature of these 'agents' means that they basically replace what would be a simple button with an opaque task or chat interface. For a lot more money. The typical examples with 'just ask the chatbotnfor how many PTO days you have left' just show how vapid the promise is here. Worse, by giving t

  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday November 10, 2024 @02:39PM (#64935195)

    As the saying goes: "A man w/o AI is like a fish w/o crypto." :-)
    (or something like that [wiktionary.org])

  • Salesforce which has spent a fortune on its AI that has flopped in the marketplace and has not made them any money. So Salesforce latest attempt to get some ROI on AI, first layoff employees and replace them with 1000 sales people who mostly work on commission (so cheap if they dont sell) in attempt try to get customers to pay for AI.

  • by skogs ( 628589 ) on Sunday November 10, 2024 @03:14PM (#64935221) Journal

    "Chief Executive Marc Benioff said ... "Agentforce became available just two weeks ago and we're already hearing incredible feedback from our customers."" and decides to hire 1000 people off of 'feedback' over the course of 10 business days.

    I understand that he is the CEO in a business area that most sensible people think probably shouldn't need to exist ... but this is exceptional level of stupid.

    • The guy co-founded the company in 1999. This is their stock price [marketwatch.com] from the past decade. Not sure how what he's saying/doing qualifies as stupid.

      P.S. Salesforce is the reason we have SaaS. How many billions has that idea made them?

  • Hire one person who knows what absolute lunacy it is that in 2024, the default behavior of Salesforce when sending a file is to attach a rerouting HTML file to an email. Why not start there? I might start replying with an HTML file rigged with a tech support scam javascript assault on your ears and eyes, as that's the other 95% of HTML attachments we get that aren't from Salesforce.
  • Whole domains to add to the NoScript and AdBlock black-lists. An un-ending supply of spam-bot accounts to block on what social media I use. On days when I use social media, dozens to hundreds of accounts get blocked, and they still make up 30%+ of my feed ; I use less social media because of the level of advertising, and my use is going down in response to the advertising.

    Remember - if it needs advertising, it is crap.

  • If that AI is so goddamn special, why can't it convince humans to give it money by itself?

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