Salesforce just announced plans to hire 1,000 new salespeople dedicated to pushing Agentforce, their AI agent technology.
The aggressive expansion comes as CEO Marc Benioff continues to publicly spar with Microsoft over AI dominance in the enterprise space.
The Bigger Story
We’re watching an intense game of corporate chess between two enterprise software giants, and the moves keep getting bolder.
Here’s how the rivalry has escalated:
- Microsoft launches Copilot, which Benioff dismisses as a “glorified Clippy“
- Salesforce debuts Agentforce with a bold vision of 1 billion users by 2025
- Microsoft quickly counters by unveiling 10 new AI agents for enterprise tasks, showcasing Fortune 500 adoption
- Benioff immediately takes to X, saying Microsoft is in “panic mode”
- Salesforce announces its 1,000-person sales team expansion
Why Should You Care
First, watching how these rivals approach category definition and go-to-market strategy is fascinating.
While Microsoft lead its annoucement with enterprise proof points and ROI focus, Salesforce is betting on aggressive competitor criticism, bold branding, and a biting tagline (“what AI was meant to be”).
Second, Salesforce is breaking from its 25-year seat-based pricing model in favor of usage-based billing – a shift PMMs should find interesting. Kyle Poyer’s did a great breakdown on this here.