Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff has dismissed concerns of a “SaaS-pocalypse” hitting business software even as the group posted a weak revenue forecast amid investor fears that AI will disrupt its business.
The group on Wednesday said its full-year revenue would come in between $45.8bn and $46.2bn, undershooting analysts’ estimates of $46.1bn, according to S&P Visible Alpha.
Salesforce, which sells software as a service (SaaS) to track customer relationships, has faced pressure from investors during a market rout spurred by the risk that AI start-ups such as Anthropic pose to software companies.
The group has been pitching its “agentic” AI tool Agentforce that can take actions on behalf of clients, including handling customer service.
“If there is a ‘SaaS-pocalypse’, it may be eaten by the ‘SaaS-quatch’ because there are a lot of companies using a lot of SaaS because it just got better with agents,” Benioff told investors.
“Anthropic runs its whole operation on Salesforce and Slack. I think every AI company does,” he added.
The San Francisco-based company’s shares are down about 27 per cent this year alongside competitors such as Intuit, Workday and ServiceNow. They dropped a further 5 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
The soft guidance accompanied mixed fourth-quarter earnings, with Salesforce reporting revenue increased 12 per cent to $11.2bn in the three months ended January 31, in line with expectations. Operating profits of $1.9bn fell shy of the $2.1bn analysts estimated.
Agentforce and Data 360, the company’s AI products, generated annual recurring revenues of $2.9bn, up from $1.4bn in the previous quarter. This included $1.1bn from cloud data business Informatica, which it acquired for $8bn in late 2025.
Salesforce is also wrestling with the pricing model that will underpin its future AI services, having traditionally focused on a “per-seat” licensing approach.
Benioff has insisted that pricing based on the number of users offers customers predictability. This contrasts with a move towards a consumption-based model adopted by some AI start-ups — or an outcome-based approach promoted by Sierra, a rival start-up set up by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.
Salesforce on Wednesday boosted its dividend and announced a new $50bn share buyback programme after repurchasing $23bn last year.
Benioff — long a supporter of progressive causes — has come under fire from Salesforce employees after making a series of remarks regarding immigration and law enforcement.
He invited employees who had flown into Las Vegas from overseas this month for a company event to stand up before noting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were present and monitoring them.
The remarks came several months after the billionaire invited US President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard in San Francisco to curb crime and public drug use. He later apologised for the remarks.
His recent comments have led to significant employee pushback, including from senior executives such as Rob Seaman, general manager of subsidiary Slack.
In a message to employees, Seaman wrote he “cannot defend or explain” Benioff’s remarks. “They do not align with my personal values and I know this to be the case for many of you as well.”
Senior figures have left Salesforce in recent months, including Slack CEO Denise Dresser, who joined OpenAI as chief revenue officer.