Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has now shared an important message for investors. As Salesforce shares continue to face pressure, Benioff has sought to reassure investors by stressing customer success, strong cash flow, and aggressive share buybacks. Speaking on CNBC's Mad Money show with Jim Cramer, Benioff said that the company remains focused on delivering value despite concerns that generative AI platforms could disrupt traditional software providers. Benioff's message is clear: even as the stock struggles, Salesforce is betting on its product strength, customer loyalty, and AI-driven innovation to sustain long-term growth.
Salesforce Reports Record Quarter Despite Market Concerns
Salesforce has reported better-than-expected earnings, with Benioff highlighting a record quarter marked by large transactions. 'We've never seen this many large transactions happen,' he said, dismissing fears of what he jokingly called a 'Saaspocalypse.' Despite the strong results, the stock slipped another 1.5% in extended trading as investors focused on softer guidance.
Buybacks as a Signal of Confidence
Benioff underscored Salesforce's commitment to buybacks, noting that the company has repurchased $27.1 billion worth of stock. CFO Robin Washington added that buybacks reduced the diluted share count by 10% year over year, boosting adjusted earnings per share by 23 cents in the first quarter. 'We can look around for great opportunities in the market, but Salesforce is probably the greatest. We are very happy to buy back our stock,' Benioff said.
AI as a Growth Driver, Not a Threat
While investor anxiety centers on AI-driven disruption from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, Benioff argued that AI will strengthen Salesforce's offerings. He pointed to Slack's integration with Anthropic-powered tools, saying: 'That Slack bot is driven by Anthropic. By building Anthropic now into Slack, we're able to take an incredibly successful product and give tremendous advice.'
Salesforce CEO Has a Message for Engineers
Recently, Marc Benioff revealed that he does not think that AI is going to replace Salesforce's engineers. He thinks it is going to turn them into managers. Speaking on The Future Live with Matthew Berman, the Salesforce CEO described a shift already underway inside the company—one where its 15,000 engineers work alongside AI coding agents from Anthropic, OpenAI Codex, and Cursor, and increasingly oversee those agents rather than doing the work themselves. 'They can even become somewhat supervisory over these agents,' Benioff said. 'But still those engineers are needed.' His argument for why comes down to a single line: 'The model still cannot operate autonomously. We're not at that level yet.' As evidence, he pointed to the job boards of the biggest AI companies in the world—all of them, he noted, are still hiring engineers at scale.
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