Microsoft Copilot as “Repackaged ChatGPT”

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Criticizes Microsoft Copilot as “Repackaged ChatGPT”

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff took aim at Microsoft’s Copilot AI offerings during Salesforce’s latest quarterly earnings call, dismissing them as a rebranding of OpenAI’s generative AI technology. “In many ways, it’s just repackaged ChatGPT,” Benioff asserted. He contrasted this with Salesforce’s platform, emphasizing its unique ability to operate an entire business. “You won’t find that capability on Microsoft’s website,” he added.

Benioff highlighted Agentforce, Salesforce’s autonomous AI agent product, as a transformative force for both Salesforce and its customers. The tool, available on Salesforce’s support portal, is projected to manage up to half of the company’s annual support case volume. The portal currently handles over 60 million sessions and 2 million support cases annually.

Agentforce Adoption and Partner Involvement

Salesforce COO Brian Millham outlined the significant role of partners in driving Agentforce adoption. During the quarter, global partners were involved in 75% of Agentforce deals, including nine of Salesforce’s top 10 wins. More than 80,000 system integrators have completed Agentforce training, and numerous independent software vendors (ISVs) and technology partners are developing and selling AI agents.

Millham pointed to Accenture as a notable example, leveraging Agentforce to enhance sales operations for its 52,000 global sellers. “Our partners are becoming agent-first enterprises themselves,” Millham said.

Since its general availability on October 24, Agentforce has already secured 200 deals, with thousands more in the pipeline. Benioff described the tool as part of a broader shift toward digital labor, claiming, “Salesforce is now the largest supplier of digital labor.”

Expanding Use Cases and Market Impact

Agentforce, powered by Salesforce’s extensive data repository of 740,000 documents and 200–300 petabytes of information, supports diverse use cases, including resolving customer issues, qualifying leads, closing deals, and optimizing marketing campaigns. Salesforce has committed to hiring 1,000–2,000 additional salespeople to expand Agentforce adoption further.

Benioff positioned Salesforce as the leading enterprise AI provider, citing its 2 trillion weekly transactions through its Einstein AI product. He claimed Salesforce’s unified codebase provides a competitive edge, unlike rival systems that run disparate applications, potentially limiting AI effectiveness.

“This is a bold leap into the future of work,” Benioff said, “where AI agents collaborate with humans to revolutionize customer interactions.”

AI Growth Across Salesforce Products

AI-driven growth extended beyond Agentforce to other Salesforce products:

Data Cloud: Featured in 8 of the top 10 deals during the quarter, processing 767 trillion records monthly.
Sales and Service Clouds: Achieved double-digit growth.
Marketing Cloud: Powered 56 billion messages and nearly 60 billion product recommendations, a 21% year-over-year increase.
Slack AI: Summarized over 600 million messages, saving users 1.1 million hours, and was included in more than one-third of Salesforce’s $1 million+ deals.

Millham noted that AI-related $1 million+ deals more than tripled year over year.

Financial Highlights

For Q3 FY2024, Salesforce reported:

Revenue: $9.44 billion, an 8% year-over-year increase.
Operating Cash Flow: $1.98 billion, up 29%.
Subscription and Support Revenue: $8.88 billion, up 9%.
Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO): $53.1 billion, up 10%.

Looking ahead, Salesforce expects Q4 revenue between $9.9 billion and $10.1 billion, representing 7%–9% year-over-year growth. The company raised its full fiscal year revenue guidance to $37.8–$38 billion, an 8%–9% increase.

Industry and Product Insights

Salesforce’s growth was driven by its core clouds and subscription services, with health, life sciences, manufacturing, and automotive industries performing particularly well. However, retail and consumer goods saw slower growth. While subscription revenue for MuleSoft and Tableau decelerated, Salesforce’s broader portfolio continued to deliver robust performance.

Benioff concluded by emphasizing the transformative potential of Salesforce’s AI ecosystem: “This is the next evolution of Salesforce—an intelligent, scalable technology that’s no longer tied to workforce growth.”