Salesforce raises AI prices as Agentforce gains traction but investor doubts persist
12 Sources
[1]
Salesforce finds new AI monetization knobs to twist
With seat and usage-based deals back on the table, CRM giant tells investors agent prices are going up Salesforce has told investors it is upping prices for AI agent platforms, claiming customers will get between three and ten times the value from investment as it introduces new AI charging
[2]
Salesforce CEO calls AI a 'commodity feature', says the technology bolsters enterprise software
As Wall Street worries that advancements in artificial intelligence will hurt enterprise software companies, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told CNBC's Jim Cramer a large language model is "just a commodity feature" that strengthens his company's products. "All these large language models are the
[3]
Salesforce CEO vies to overcome investors' AI skepticism while touting company's quarterly numbers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- After riding the artificial intelligence craze to new heights, business software maker Salesforce has been pummeled by a wave of investor skepticism that's intensified the pressure on its persuasive CEO Marc Benioff to reverse the tide. Benioff, who helped spearhead the
[4]
Salesforce bets on agentic AI platform following cautiously optimistic earnings report
At Salesforce's World tour event this week at ExcelLondon, the company announced a host of new tools for its Agentforce platform - arriving alongside a quietly positive earnings report for Q3 in 2025. Salesforce has revealed an impressive revenue of $10.3 billion this quarter - a 9% year-on-year
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Salesforce's AI bets gain momentum, but overall growth remains sluggish - SiliconANGLE
Salesforce's AI bets gain momentum, but overall growth remains sluggish Salesforce Inc. delivered mixed financial results and mixed guidance for the coming quarter, but its stock moved higher in late trading thanks to some encouraging progress from its agentic artificial intelligence
[6]
Agentforce use cases now number 18,500 as Salesforce turns in a $10.9 billlon quarter
A tale of two AI firms Tuesday. On the one hand, Microsoft saw its stock take a tumble on reports, since denied by the firm, that it had lowered its AI sales targets on the back of sluggish customer demand. On the other hand, rival Salesforce saw its share price pick up following the release of
[7]
Salesforce raises annual forecasts as AI software adoption picks up steam
The forecast signals that monetisation for the company's Agentforce platform is picking up pace as enterprises gravitate towards autonomous AI to streamline and automate repetitive and administrative tasks. Salesforce raised its fiscal 2026 revenue and adjusted profit forecasts on Wednesday,
[8]
Salesforce Counters 'Pilot Purgatory' Fears With 70% Surge In Agentforce Deployments - Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)
Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) delivered a rebuttal to fears of stalled AI adoption in its third-quarter earnings report Wednesday, presenting data that directly contradicts recent channel checks suggesting customers were stuck in "pilot purgatory." CRM stock is gaining positive traction. Get the
[9]
Salesforce Q3 Earnings: CEO Benioff Calls SaaS Industry's Death By AI A 'False Narrative'
'There was a false narrative that somehow the core is in jeopardy because of these large language models,' Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff says. Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff continues to assert that growing demand for artificial intelligence and agentic AI will have a
[10]
Salesforce CEO vies to overcome investors' AI skepticism while touting company's quarterly numbers
Benioff, who helped spearhead the transition to cloud computing after founding Salesforce in 1999, got a chance to try to change the AI narrative late Wednesday with the release of his company's latest quarterly results. After riding the artificial intelligence craze to new heights, business
[11]
Salesforce Raises Revenue Forecast as Agentforce Sales Top $500 Million
Salesforce raised its full-year sales guidance as its AI product Agentforce surpassed $500 million dollars in annual recurring revenue. The customer-relationship management platform on Wednesday posted a profit of $2.09 billion, or $2.19 a share, for the third quarter-ended Oct. 31, compared with
[12]
Salesforce raises annual revenue forecast
Dec 3 (Reuters) - Salesforce raised its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast on Wednesday, anticipating growth from its artificial intelligence agent platform due to strong enterprise demand, sending its shares up around 4% in extended trading. The business software provider now expects revenue in the
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Salesforce is increasing prices for its AI agent platforms while reporting $540 million in annual recurring revenue from Agentforce, growing 330% year-over-year. Despite beating earnings expectations with $10.3 billion in Q3 revenue, the company's stock has dropped 26% in 2025 as investors question whether AI investments will deliver promised returns.
Salesforce Introduces New AI Charging Models with Price Increases
Salesforce has announced it will raise prices for its AI agent platforms, telling investors that customers will receive between three and ten times the value from their investment as the company introduces new AI charging models. Miguel Milano, Salesforce chief revenue officer, said the company is pursuing a sharp increase in Salesforce AI monetization from new contracts, claiming customers are getting substantially more value from their products
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. The CRM giant reported Q3 revenue of $10.3 billion, up 9% year-over-year, while earnings of $2.19 per share exceeded analyst projections by a significant margin3
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Source: The Register
The company introduced its Agentic Enterprise License Agreement (AELA) in October to offer flexible options and reusable credits in a single package. Marc Benioff explained that while Salesforce initially considered conversation-based and transaction-based pricing, customers pushed for more flexibility
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. Milano noted that many customers prefer seat-based pricing for predictability, though the company now offers the ability to convert licenses into credits where companies have over-ordered or are cutting headcount.Agentforce Drives Growth Despite AI Investor Skepticism
Agentforce, Salesforce's agentic AI platform that automates sales and customer service workflows, has emerged as a key growth driver. Benioff described it as "the fastest growing product I have ever seen in the history of Salesforce," with annualized revenue reaching over $500 million, growing 330% from a year earlier
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. The company has closed over 18,500 Agentforce deals since the product's introduction, with 9,500 as paid transactions2
.Combined with Data 360, the platform has achieved $1.4 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR), representing an explosive 114% gain. Salesforce has processed 3.2 trillion tokens through these systems, underscoring its push toward building what Benioff calls the "Agentic Enterprise"
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. The company also unveiled Agentforce 360 at its World Tour event, enabling customers to deploy AI assistants at scale across customer interactions4
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Source: TechRadar
Marc Benioff Defends AI as Commodity Feature Strengthening Enterprise Software
Addressing concerns that AI threatens enterprise software companies, Marc Benioff told CNBC that large language models (LLMs) are "just a commodity feature" that strengthens Salesforce's products. "All these large language models are the same. We just want the lowest cost one, then we plug it in," Benioff said, emphasizing that Salesforce's customer data and core applications are what differentiate the company
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.Benioff suggested that investors who "moved away" from the company somehow think enterprise software companies are under duress from AI when the opposite is true, arguing that software companies are being bolstered and powered by AI . Despite this optimism, Salesforce stock has dropped 26% year-to-date, with investor confidence lagging even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up more than 21%
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Source: SiliconANGLE
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Customer Adoption Challenges and Market Reality Check
While Salesforce promotes aggressive growth projections, including a target of $60 billion in revenue by fiscal year 2030, the speed of customer adoption remains a critical concern. Benioff acknowledged that "the speed of innovation has exceeded the speed of customer adoption," though he confidently predicted this dynamic would change as more organizations build AI services into operations
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.Forrester has questioned the assumptions behind vendor value claims, warning in an October report that 25% of planned AI spending for next year would be delayed until 2027 as financial rigor slows production deployments. The research firm predicted that "the disconnect between the inflated promises of AI vendors and the value created for enterprises will force a market correction"
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. Despite $540 million in Agentforce ARR, this represents less than 2% of the company's forecast revenue for the next 12 months, illustrating significant runway ahead5
.Real-World Deployments Signal Automation's Expanding Reach
Salesforce's push into customer sales automation is gaining traction across unexpected sectors. Thames Valley Police is currently trialing an AI assistant called "Bobbi" for non-emergency questions, having been live for just eight days at the time of reporting. Chief Superintendent Simon Dodds explained that Bobbi already helps with queries like found property and address changes
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. The deployment raises questions about accountability when AI assistants make mistakes, though Dodds emphasized extensive testing preceded the rollout.Analyst Rebecca Wettemann of Valoir noted that Salesforce has a better AI outlook than many peers because it's not asking customers to do the "heavy lifting" with regard to building and managing AI agents. "Customers are gravitating to AI capabilities that are prebuilt, tested and tuned and delivered within and alongside business applications like CRM," she explained
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. The company recently completed an $8 billion acquisition of Informatica, a data management company building AI tools, which is expected to contribute three percentage points to fourth-quarter revenue guidance of between 11% and 12% growth3
.References
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