Salesforce cuts nearly 1,000 roles 'quietly' amid AI push and executive reshuffle

Salesforce has carried out another round of job cuts, eliminating fewer than 1,000 roles across multiple teams, as the cloud software giant deepens its focus on artificial intelligence and undergoes a significant leadership transition.

According to media reports and employee posts on social media, the layoffs took place earlier this month and affected teams across marketing, product management, data analytics, and roles linked to Salesforce’s flagship AI offering, Agentforce. At least nine employees publicly shared on LinkedIn that their positions had been eliminated, while two others confirmed the cuts to Business Insider.

The latest workforce reduction comes at a time of heightened internal change at Salesforce, with the company also announcing a major executive shake-up. 

Since December, five senior leaders have exited the organisation, with Salesforce appointing or promoting six new executives to fill key roles spanning security, marketing, architecture, enterprise technology, Slack, and Agentforce.

Salesforce declined to comment on the exact number of employees impacted, but a person familiar with the matter said the cuts involved fewer than 1,000 roles.

AI at the centre of Salesforce’s strategy

The layoffs underscore Salesforce’s accelerating shift towards AI-driven operations. CEO Marc Benioff has repeatedly positioned Agentforce, the company’s autonomous AI agent platform, as central to Salesforce’s future.

“People don’t understand that Agentforce is part and parcel of Salesforce,” Benioff said in a recent interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer. “It is the core of every product we make now, it is the platform.”

Agentforce enables organisations to deploy autonomous bots to carry out tasks traditionally handled by human teams, with the aim of boosting efficiency and scale. Benioff has previously stated that Salesforce used AI agents to significantly reduce the size of its customer support workforce, shrinking the team from around 9,000 employees to approximately 5,000.

Introduced in 2024, Agentforce has since seen rapid adoption. In 2025, Benioff said the platform had reached “tens of thousands of deployments,” adding that customers were now ready to “get to another level of execution.”

Leadership changes gather pace

Alongside the layoffs, Salesforce has moved quickly to reshape its leadership bench. Among the key appointments:

• Iain Mulholland has joined as Chief Security Officer from Google, replacing Brad Arkin, who departed at the end of January after just over two years in the role.

• Patrick Stokes, a long-time Salesforce executive, has been named Chief Marketing Officer, succeeding Ariel Kelman, who left to join chipmaker AMD.

• Dave Ward, formerly CTO at Lumen Technologies, has taken on the role of Chief Architect.

• Joe Inzerillo, previously Chief Digital Officer, is now President of Enterprise and AI Technology, overseeing both Slack and Agentforce.

• Rob Seaman has been promoted to Executive Vice President and General Manager for Slack.

• Madhav Thattai has been promoted to Executive Vice President and General Manager for Agentforce.

Adam Evans, the previous head of Agentforce, also announced his departure recently, adding to a growing list of high-profile exits.

In a statement, a Salesforce spokesperson said the changes reflected long-term succession planning rather than disruption. “Salesforce has always been a talent engine,” the spokesperson said. 

“Our deep bench and proactive succession planning ensure that our strategy is institutionalized, not individualized. We’re confident in the leaders stepping into these roles and are excited for what’s ahead in FY27,” he added.

Salesforce’s new fiscal year began on February 1, and some of the leadership changes are yet to be formally announced internally.

Employee sentiment points to growing unease

While Salesforce continues to emphasise innovation and performance, employee sentiment shared online suggests growing unease around morale, career progression, and job security.

In a Reddit post shared weeks before the layoffs, a job candidate interviewing for a senior finance role said they were reconsidering an offer amid concerns about recurring layoffs, performance pressure, leadership churn, and work-life balance. The post prompted dozens of responses from current and former Salesforce employees, many of whom echoed similar concerns.

Several employees described low morale, limited promotion opportunities following a flattening of the organisational structure, and constant anxiety around biannual layoffs, which some said have become expected in February and September. Others noted that while compensation and benefits, including generous parental leave and flexible work, remain strong, internal competition and high expectations have intensified.

One employee wrote that Salesforce “will treat you very well when you enter, but don’t expect progression unless somebody above you dies or quits,” while another said the company demands sustained high performance amid frequent restructures. “You are constantly adjusting your way of working, all the while wondering if pushing yourself is worth it or if you’ll be axed during the next layoff,” the employee said.

At the same time, some employees acknowledged that Salesforce remains an attractive brand and a valuable career platform for those who can thrive in a high-pressure, fast-changing environment.

The latest job cuts and leadership changes point to a broader recalibration underway at Salesforce as it doubles down on AI-led growth. While the company continues to position Agentforce as the backbone of its future, the human impact of that shift, from job losses to changing workplace culture, is becoming increasingly visible.