A California filing lists 86 cuts, the latest in a year of AI-driven restructuring at the software g
Salesforce has cut more jobs in a fresh round of layoffs, and the detail that stands out is who got hit. Among the affected workers were employees on Agentforce, the flagship AI product that CEO Marc Benioff has placed at the center of the company’s future.
A regulatory filing in California, known as a WARN notice, listed 86 job cuts across sales, general administration, and technology and product roles. People familiar with the matter said the reductions also touched the company’s MuleSoft integration tool and Marketing Cloud software. Salesforce has not formally announced the cuts and did not respond to requests for comment.
What we know about the latest cuts
The 86 positions in the California filing likely represent only the documented slice of a wider round, since WARN notices capture specific in-state layoffs rather than a company’s full total. The hit to Agentforce is striking, given how central Benioff has made the product to Salesforce’s strategy. At the end of January, the company employed more than 80,000 people.
A year of AI-era restructuring
These cuts don’t stand alone. They cap a year of steady reductions tied to Salesforce’s pivot toward artificial intelligence. In January, the company eliminated fewer than 1,000 roles, with marketing, product management, data analytics and, again, Agentforce among the areas affected.
The deeper shift came earlier. In September 2025, Salesforce cut about 4,000 customer support jobs, shrinking that division from roughly 9,000 workers to around 5,000 as AI tools took over routine tasks, a move Benioff later confirmed publicly.
Benioff’s AI bet, and the irony
Benioff has been unusually candid about the reasoning. He has said AI already handles 30% to 50% of the work at Salesforce and that he is examining every single function to find where the technology can replace people. He has also credited AI with lifting engineering productivity by more than 30%, which he says reduces the need to hire new software engineers.
The irony is hard to miss. The people building the AI meant to automate work are among those being automated out of their jobs. Benioff has leaned so far into the approach that he has joked about renaming the company Agentforce.
Why the stock is under pressure
Investors are uneasy about the same force driving the cuts. Salesforce shares are down more than 30% this year amid fears that AI models and agents could replace traditional software, including the company’s core customer-relationship tools. Salesforce’s response is to sell the disruption itself. Its Agentforce product recently passed $1 billion in annualized revenue, a rapid climb the company points to as proof the bet is paying off.
A wider tech reckoning
Salesforce is far from alone. Tech layoffs in early 2026 reached roughly 37,000 across nearly 60 companies in the first quarter, slightly ahead of the same period a year earlier, with Amazon cutting 16,000 roles in January and outsourcing giant TCS shedding more than 12,000.
Yet the messaging is muddled. Even as the cuts mount, Benioff has publicly pushed back on the idea that mass white-collar AI layoffs are underway. Whether that stance holds as 2026 wears on is one of the larger questions hanging over the industry.