Salesforce Loses AI Chief Amid Major Push for Autonomous Agents

Salesforce Inc’s CRM AI head, Clara Shih, has departed to pursue another opportunity, the Information cited a report from JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens.

The departure coincides with Salesforce’s Agentforce gaining traction, with Northland Capital Partners comparing it with Microsoft Corp MSFT. Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” held the platform responsible for the company’s current upside.

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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff aims to revolutionize enterprise software by deploying AI agents to handle tasks autonomously, reducing human workloads.

Benioff targets the rollout of a billion AI agents within a year, highlighting strong market demand and scalability.

He believes Salesforce’s secure data infrastructure will offer a competitive edge, delivering more reliable AI insights.

Salesforce already leverages these AI tools internally across customer service and sales to boost productivity.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc AMD and Tesla Inc TSLA also noted the departure of their AI leaders this year.

AMD’s AI leader, Victor Peng, retired on August 30, 2024. Vamsi Boppana, SVP of the AI Group, took over the AMD Instinct data center AI accelerator business, enhancing his current role.

In May, Tesla AI Manager Paril Jain left the EV company for his co-founded robotics company, The Bot Company.

Salesforce stock surged over 29% year-to-date. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $9.33 billion, up 8%, beating the analyst estimate of $9.23 billion. It expects third-quarter revenue of $9.31 billion-$9.36 billion versus a consensus of $9.35 billion.

Price Action: CRM stock is down 1.23% at $327.5 premarket at the last check on Friday.

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