Salesforce Cuts 700 Jobs Amid Industry Shifts, Advocates for AI Safety Measures

Salesforce is laying off approximately 700 people as part of the latest round of layoffs in the IT industry, according to a new report.

Salesforce Layoffs 700 Employees Throughout The Company

The layoffs affect approximately 1% of Salesforce's workforce, which now numbers roughly 70,000 individuals. This move follows a similar decision made a year ago, when the corporation downsized its workforce by 10%, laying off almost 8,000 employees. At the time, the decision was driven by investor pressure to cut costs.

Salesforce, which is recognized for its cloud-based customer relationship management software, is modifying its workforce in reaction to the changing nature of the technology industry. The restructuring comes at a time when many tech companies face comparable issues, and the industry is experiencing a wave of layoffs, as per Business Today.

It also comes a day after Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees across its video-game subsidiaries, including Activision Blizzard. Microsoft only recently paid $69 billion for Activision, which closed late last year.

Salesforce CEO Advocates for AI Safety and Trust to Avert Potential Catastrophe

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated at the WEF that the tech industry is implementing safety rules and trust principles for the burgeoning AI software that has taken the globe by storm in order to avoid a "Hiroshima moment."

“We don’t want something to go really wrong. That’s why we’re going to, like, that safety summit. That’s why we’re talking about trust,” Benioff said, referencing a U.K. event last year.

“We don’t want to have a Hiroshima moment. We’ve seen technology go really wrong, and we saw a Hiroshima. We don’t want to see an AI Hiroshima. We want to make sure that we’ve got our head around this now,” the company exec furthered.

Concerns have grown over AI's reliability, applications, and potential information bias, with critics around the world questioning the software's ability to replace human workers, as per CNBC. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund issued a report warning that the advent of artificial intelligence might affect roughly 40% of jobs worldwide.

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