Salesforce Inc. is unveiling a pivot in its artificial intelligence strategy this week at its annual Dreamforce conference, now saying that its AI tools can handle tasks without human supervision and changing the way it charges for software. The company is famous for ushering in the era of software as a service, which involves renting access to computer applications via a subscription. But as generative AI shakes up the industry, Salesforce is rethinking its business model for the emerging technology. The software giant will charge $2 per conversation held by its new “agents” — generative AI built to handle tasks like customer service or scheduling sales meetings without the need for human supervision. The new pricing strategy also seeks to protect Salesforce if AI contributes to future job losses and business customers have fewer workers to buy subscriptions to the company’s software.
Despite a breathless focus on AI since early 2023, application software makers like Salesforce, Workday Inc. and ServiceNow Inc. have little to show for their efforts. Revenue and valuation gains from AI have largely flowed instead to makers of hardware such as Nvidia Corp. or cloud infrastructure like Oracle Corp. Many software vendors have launched AI assistants that can summarize or draft written content — the most well-known of which is Microsoft Corp.’s Copilot. Generally, customers haven’t been quite ready to pay for these additional features.
Full report : Salesforce’s New AI Strategy Acknowledges That AI Will Take Jobs.
