{"id":316604,"date":"2025-07-30T04:09:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/?p=316604"},"modified":"2025-07-29T01:33:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T08:33:26","slug":"marc-benioff-ceo-salesforce-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/marc-benioff-ceo-salesforce-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Benioff CEO Salesforce on Why Tapping into An &#8220;AI Budget&#8221; is Doing It All Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A little while back we did a great deep dive with Marc Benioff, Salesforce&#8217;s CEO.\u00a0 While I had him I did a deep dive on a question all of us need to understand better: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>just where are these massive AI budgets for software really coming from?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff&#8217;s learning: if you have a standalone &#8220;AI budget,&#8221; you&#8217;re probably doing AI wrong.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Marc Benioff CEO Salesforce:  Where AI Budgets Are Really Coming From\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gp9De8Tqwnc?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/www.saastr.com\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>The Reality of AI Transformation<\/h2>\n<p>Despite all the excitement about AI transforming companies and employees over the past 3-4 years, Benioff notes that so far, <strong>the vast majority of companies have mostly failed<\/strong> with their AI initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t have that many great stories of how AI has transformed these companies [yet],&#8221; Benioff said bluntly. Walk into most enterprise boardrooms and ask for concrete ROI from their AI investments. You&#8217;ll get a lot of hand-waving and &#8220;strategic value&#8221; conversations, but precious few hard numbers.<\/p>\n<p>This is why AgentForce has generated so much buzz for Salesforce\u2014it&#8217;s early but it&#8217;s practical, specific, and tactical. It gives companies a clear action plan rather than another science lab experiment that goes nowhere.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Everyone Needs a Win (Yes, Even Salesforce)<\/h2>\n<p>Even Salesforce, with all their Einstein technology and AI capabilities, needed AgentForce to create that &#8220;whoa&#8221; moment. As Benioff put it: &#8220;This is actually dramatically impacting my business process itself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If Salesforce\u2014the company that&#8217;s been pushing AI in CRM for years\u2014needed a breakthrough moment, what does that tell us about where everyone else stands?<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Everyone needs a huge win<\/span>.<\/strong> Not a proof of concept. Not a pilot program. A real, measurable business impact that transforms how work gets done.<\/p>\n<h2>The Budget Migration: From AI Silos to Line of Business<\/h2>\n<p>This brings us to the core insight that every B2B executive needs to understand: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>AI budgets shouldn&#8217;t exist as separate line items according to Benioff.\u00a0 And where they do &#8212; it&#8217;s a flag.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Benioff&#8217;s take is contrarian but logical: &#8220;Where there was an AI budget, that was a mistake. It should be the line of business.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Think about it this way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your service team should be held accountable for AI-driven efficiency gains<\/li>\n<li>Your sales team should be measured on AI-augmented productivity<\/li>\n<li>Your operations team should deliver on AI-enabled cost reductions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The budget should come from the teams that will benefit from the technology, not from some centralized innovation fund that has no accountability for business outcomes.<\/p>\n<h2>The RBS Case Study: From AI Team to Business Impact<\/h2>\n<p>Benioff shared an example about Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Despite having an &#8220;incredible AI team&#8221; with PhD researchers from University of Waterloo, CEO Dave McKay wasn&#8217;t getting the value he wanted from years of AI experimentation.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough came when they shifted focus from the AI team&#8217;s projects to specific business unit challenges\u2014specifically, transforming their wealth management division and converting their call center to not only service customers but also sell mortgages.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This fundamental transformation in their consciousness&#8221; happened when they stopped thinking about AI as a technology project and started thinking about it as business capability enhancement.<\/p>\n<h2>The Line of Business Accountability Framework<\/h2>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the practical framework that emerges from this conversation:<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Service Teams<\/span>:<\/strong> Hold them accountable for efficiency gains, reduced resolution times, and improved customer satisfaction through AI augmentation.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sales Teams<\/span>:<\/strong> Measure them on productivity improvements, better qualification, and increased deal velocity enabled by AI tools.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Operations Teams<\/span>:<\/strong> Track cost reductions, process automation, and capacity expansion delivered through AI implementation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Each team gets budget based on their ability to deliver measurable business outcomes\u2014not on their ability to deploy cool AI technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Why Standalone AI Budgets Are Red Flags<\/h2>\n<p>If you have a completely separate AI budget, Benioff argues, &#8220;you&#8217;re probably not integrated at that level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This makes sense when you think about it. Standalone AI budgets often indicate:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lack of clear business case accountability<\/li>\n<li>Technology-first rather than outcome-first thinking<\/li>\n<li>Disconnect between AI initiatives and business strategy<\/li>\n<li>No ownership from the teams who should benefit most<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Strategic Capability Shift<\/h2>\n<p>The most interesting part of the RBS story was the realization that AI could give them capabilities &#8220;that were not on their business plan.&#8221; This isn&#8217;t just about doing existing things better\u2014it&#8217;s about unlocking entirely new strategic possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>But this only happens when AI initiatives are deeply embedded in line of business thinking, not when they&#8217;re isolated in innovation labs.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means for Your B2B Company<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re running a B2B company, here are the key takeaways:<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">For Your Internal Operations<\/span>:<\/strong> Stop asking for AI budget. Start asking your department heads how they&#8217;ll use AI to hit their existing targets better, faster, and cheaper.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">For Your Product Strategy<\/span>:<\/strong> Don&#8217;t build AI features because AI is hot or to check a box. Build them because they solve specific customer business problems that translate to measurable ROI.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">For Your Sales Process<\/span>:<\/strong> When selling AI-enabled features, sell to the business unit that will benefit, not to the CTO or Chief Innovation Officer.<\/p>\n<h2>You&#8217;re Job is To Enable Superior Outcomes with AI.\u00a0 Period.<\/h2>\n<p>The companies that will win with AI aren&#8217;t the ones with the biggest AI budgets or the most PhD researchers. They&#8217;re the ones that embed AI so deeply into their business operations that it becomes invisible infrastructure for superior performance.<\/p>\n<p>As wealth management and other industries get &#8220;utterly changed by AI,&#8221; the winners will be those who moved fastest from AI experimentation to AI accountability\u2014with budgets, ownership, and success metrics that live where the business impact actually happens.<\/p>\n<p>The great AI budget migration is underway. The question isn&#8217;t whether your company will participate, but whether you&#8217;ll lead it or get left behind.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"AI, M&amp;A, and the Future of SaaS: Lessons from Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, Co-Founder and Chair\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gwQzpwZDhjQ?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/www.saastr.com\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A little while back we did a great deep dive with Marc Benioff, Salesforce&#8217;s CEO.\u00a0 While I had him I did a deep dive on a question all of us need to understand better: just where are these massive AI budgets for software really coming from?\u00a0 Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff&#8217;s learning: if you have a&#8230; <br \/><a class=\"more-link fade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/marc-benioff-ceo-salesforce-on\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":316605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[]},"categories":[24898,31,24987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-blog-posts","category-saastr-ai"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/mqdefault.jpg?fit=320%2C180&quality=70&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5oib2-1kmw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316604"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316612,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316604\/revisions\/316612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}