Looks like the Times of India broke the original story based on Benioff’s podcast comments:
“According to CNBC, CEO Marc Benioff revealed in a podcast that Salesforce had trimmed its support workforce from 9,000 to about 5,000 people through AI deployment. The company later clarified that it had “successfully redeployed hundreds of [those] employees into other areas like professional services, sales, and customer success.”
Looks like the Times of India broke the original story based on Benioff’s podcast comments:
“According to CNBC, CEO Marc Benioff revealed in a podcast that Salesforce had trimmed its support workforce from 9,000 to about 5,000 people through AI deployment. The company later clarified that it had “successfully redeployed hundreds of [those] employees into other areas like professional services, sales, and customer success.”
https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/after-firing-4000-employees-salesforce-admits-confidence-in-gen-ai-is-declining-zohos-sridhar-vembu-weighs-in-2842581-2025-12-27
That’s a much better sourced article and an interesting read, thanks.