Salesforce Replaces 60% of Tier-1 Support with AI Agents

Salesforce has laid off 1,800 employees, primarily in customer support and engineering roles, as the company's Einstein AI platform now handles the majority of tier-1 support tickets automatically.

In an earnings call, CEO Marc Benioff framed the cuts as "AI-driven efficiency" rather than traditional layoffs. "Our AI agents resolve 60% of customer issues without human intervention," Benioff said. "This isn't about cutting costs — it's about serving customers better."

The affected roles include Customer Support Representatives, DevOps Engineers, and Software Engineers working on legacy systems. Notably, Salesforce is simultaneously hiring for "AI Ops" and "Prompt Engineering" positions, though at a fraction of the numbers being cut.

Internal sources describe a culture shift at Salesforce: teams are now evaluated partly on how much work they can automate away. "There's pressure to make yourself unnecessary," one engineer told us. "It's a weird incentive structure."

What this means for you: Support and ops roles are the canary in the coal mine. If your job involves repetitive ticket resolution or standard troubleshooting, AI agents are coming for it. The surviving roles require judgment calls that AI can't make — escalations, edge cases, relationship management.