Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff reveals Steve Jobs’ influence on Agentforce AI strategy

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, unveiled the profound impact of a decade-old conversation with Steve Jobs on the company’s groundbreaking AI initiative, Agentforce. Benioff shared this intimate story during a press briefing last week, just hours before Salesforce launched its most ambitious project to date.

Salesforce positions Agentforce, a suite of AI-powered autonomous agents, as a pivotal shift for the CRM giant. The new platform aims to change how businesses interact with AI, moving beyond simple chatbots to intelligent systems capable of complex reasoning and decision-making.

Benioff’s recollection of his meeting with the late Apple co-founder illuminates how Jobs’ laser-focused approach to product development has shaped Salesforce’s strategy for Agentforce.

In Benioff’s own words:

“In 2010, Steve Jobs called me up. He said, ‘Mark, I need you down in my office today.’ I came down there with a few of my executives. We had a great relationship; he’d helped me so much with Salesforce, and I was so grateful to him.

We’re sitting there, and he says, ‘Now, Mark, you know, since 2007 I’ve been working on the iPhone.’ I said, ‘I know, Steve, and you sent me one. Thank you.’ He then said, ‘Now I’m going to show you my new iPad.’ He took out two iPads, two different sizes. He goes, ‘But I’m only going to have one size. This 10-inch one. I’m not doing the other, smaller size.’

I asked why, and Steve said, ‘All the products have to fit on my coffee table.’ Then he added, ‘Mark, one more important thing: I only focus on one thing at a time at Apple. For the last three years, all I’ve been focused on is iPhone. And now all I’m going to focus on is iPad.’

I asked him why, and he explained, ‘Because we only have one A-team here at Apple, and I want to run that A-team. I’m going to make that happen.’

That was very inspiring to me. As we started to work on Agentforce, I’ve said to my teams, with that inspiration, ‘This is all we are doing. We are doing nothing else at Salesforce. We are only doing Agentforce.’ This is the biggest and most exciting piece of technology we have ever worked on.

What is coming through this platform is extraordinary. As customers get their hands on it, they are having incredible experiences. The only thing that we are going to do at Salesforce is Agentforce, nothing else. When you get to Dreamforce, you’re going to see a huge pivot to Agentforce.

Of course, we are just a startup. We’re lucky. We have been able to hire about 75,000 people so far. $38 billion revenue this year. I think we did more cash flow than Coca-Cola in our last quarter. But here’s the thing: we’re just starting.

This is amazing. I think that for some of our executives in our company who are not technologists, or who don’t come from the software industry, folks who are in our management team, who are running key functions, they haven’t fully appreciated it. I’ve had to take time with them and explain from a computer science perspective that what’s coming out right now is like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life.

The way that we have woven it into our platform is just artistry. The work of Srinivas, David, Steve, MK [Muralidhar Krishnaprasad] – it’s incredible. MK came to me and said, ‘Mark, you are making a huge mistake.’ I said, ‘What is it?’ He replied, ‘I want you to rename the whole company Agentforce. Right now, you do not understand the fundamental implication of what has happened.’

So this is an incredible moment. It’s a moment where we are all very excited. The entire management team is very excited. When Brian and I are looking at how we roll this out into the company, to the customers, how we take and deliver that billion agent goal, how we really take advantage of this kind of first-mover advantage — this isn’t just a bolt-on copilot, which has been such a terrible experience for our customers. We’re not asking them to DIY it.

We can take normal people and make them great AI people. That is our dream at Salesforce. We want everyone to be a trailblazer when it comes to technology, and now these customers can realize that. Salesforce put the AI in Trailblazer. This is really cool. It is a moment for us that we will never forget right now.”

Benioff’s revelation underscores the interconnected nature of Silicon Valley’s innovation ecosystem. As Salesforce pivots aggressively into AI with Agentforce, it’s clear that Jobs’ influence extends beyond Apple, shaping strategies across the tech landscape. This move positions Salesforce at the forefront of the AI revolution in enterprise software, potentially forcing competitors to accelerate their own AI initiatives.

However, as the company races to deploy a billion AI agents, investors and industry watchers will be closely monitoring how this ambitious strategy impacts Salesforce’s bottom line and market position. The true test of Agentforce will be its ability to deliver measurable value to customers while maintaining the human touch that has long been Salesforce’s hallmark. In the high-stakes world of enterprise AI, Benioff is betting that sometimes, to move forward, you need to look back.