It has been revealed that Salesforce is cutting over 1000 jobs in its first mass layoff procedure of 2025.
This comes after the cloud giant announced that it would be undertaking a hiring spree of sales roles in order to meet the requirements of their primary AI offering, Agentforce.
Who Has This Affected?
According to an unnamed close source, Bloomberg reported that over 1000 people have been affected by this latest round of layoffs. However, the range of roles this has specifically affected cannot be determined, but displaced workers will be able to apply for other jobs internally.
The company had 72,682 employees at the end of its fiscal year in January 2024, and although official layoffs for that year came to a total of 1000, Salesforce also pledged to hire over 1000 new employees to support the selling of their proprietary AI offering Agentforce.
It is likely that the Salesforce Well-Architected team formed part of this round of layoffs following speculation that the team has been dissolved. Rumors started circulating on social platforms late last year – as Salesforce is an organization that has to comply with the WARN Act, this seems feasible.
Note: The WARN Act states that companies with over 100 employees that commit to layoffs of 500 people must provide 60 days’ notice.
The Reality of Tech Layoffs
As covered in our article yesterday, it’s evident that technology companies like Salesforce are no strangers to these kinds of layoffs, especially at the start of the new fiscal year. These layoffs likely mirror the latest layoffs from Meta, which were attributed to the weeding out of “low performers”.
Salesforce is also likely thinking about its restructuring and reprioritization goals as it moves full steam ahead with the advancements of Agentforce, especially if this means cutting jobs in lower-performing sectors of the business.
The Changing SaaS Landscape
As covered in our latest analysis of the Salesforce job market and ecosystem, we are currently in the gradual uptick phase which is a welcome relief from the unfortunate events of 2023 and early 2024. However, the last year and a half have brought on a number of developments and challenges, and it’s becoming evident that the SaaS landscape as a whole is not well-adjusted for these changes.
The boom of AI and the promising future of Agentforce are of course exciting, and there is no doubt that new jobs and markets are going to open up as a result. However, it must be assumed that this will be at the cost of some other jobs, resulting in restructuring or reprioritization orders much like I imagine we are seeing right now.
The last economic boom of SaaS focused on the ‘growth at all costs’ mentality, with a dedication to dominating market share, much like Salesforce which utilized a large proportion of its marketing and sales budget to do just that. However, come 2025, the world of AI demands efficiency to stay competitive, meaning that the SaaS industry will have to rethink its strategy to remain the strong and competitive business model that it has been in the future.
Summary
This latest round of Salesforce layoffs follows other technology companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Stripe, which experienced their own layoffs earlier this year. The start of the new fiscal year and a fresh look at prioritization likely have a large part to play in this kind of situation.
How quickly Salesforce meets its 1000+ hiring goal of Agentforce salespeople will definitely be something to watch as the year goes on.
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