Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Criticizes Microsoft's AI Copilot, Highlighting Industry Tensions

Marc Benioff Warns Microsoft's Copilot 'Spills Corporate Data,' Emphasizes Security Gaps Ahead Of Salesforce Agentforce Launch - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce Inc. CRM CEO Marc Benioff criticized Microsoft Corp. MSFT for its artificial intelligence tools, claiming that they are overhyped and underperforming. What Happened: Benioff took aim at Microsoft's Copilot AI tool, describing it as overhyped and ineffective, in an interview with Business Insider. This criticism comes in the wake of Microsoft's announcement of new Dynamics 365 AI agents, which directly compete with Salesforce's Agentforce product, a CRM lead. Benioff's comments were not a coincidence. The day before the interview, Microsoft introduced 10 new AI agents for its CRM offering, Dynamics 365. This announcement came just days before the release of Salesforce's own AI agent product, Agentforce, which is set to be generally available on Friday. Benioff stated, "Microsoft has really disappointed so many of our customers. They've really done it by delivering a level of hype around their AI solutions." He also criticized the accuracy of Copilot, stating that it "spills corporate data," and referred to it as "Clippy 2.0," a nod to an infamous 1990s Microsoft Office digital assistant. Benioff emphasized the success of Salesforce's AI solutions and the company's continued lead in the CRM market. Despite Microsoft's recent gains in CRM market share, Benioff remains confident in Salesforce's position. See Also: 'Nvidia, Own It, Don't Trade It:' Jim Cramer Questions Short-Sellers As Stock Hits New Highs Why It Matters: The rivalry between Salesforce and Microsoft has intensified with the introduction of AI-driven technologies. Recently, Benioff criticized Microsoft's rebranding of Copilot to "agents," calling it a sign of "panic mode" due to Microsoft's lack of data and security models, which he claims leads to inaccuracies and data leaks. Benioff praised Salesforce's Agentforce for its integration of data, workflows, and security into a unified platform. Microsoft's announcement during its "AI Tour" in London highlighted the ability of businesses to develop autonomous AI agents, aiming to streamline enterprise functions. This move is part of Microsoft's Copilot Studio platform, which allows organizations to customize AI-driven agents. Analysts have noted that Salesforce's Agentforce platform is on par with Microsoft's offerings, with Piper Sandler upgrading Salesforce's rating and raising its price target. Read Next: Palantir CEO Alex Karp On Partnership With L3Harris: They Are 'Better Networked' And Good At Understanding 'DC Environment' -- Calls For More Lethal Tech To 'Scare' China And Russia Photo courtesy: Shutterstock This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is tearing into Microsoft's AI Copilot

What's another day without Silicon Valley tycoons talking smack about each other? Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff ensures the passage of time as he engages in one of his most frequent activities -- taking a jab at Microsoft's AI product. Benioff claimed that we'd be better off not listening to the noise about AI, at least from anyone besides him. "Microsoft has really disappointed so many of our customers," Benioff said to Business Insider. "They've really done it by delivering a level of hype around their AI solutions." Of course, Benioff has some billions in the game of piercing doubt into the effectiveness of Microsoft's AI copilot. Just one day before the interview, Microsoft announced 10 new AI agents for its product Dynamics 365 -- said innovation stands in direct competition with Salesforce soon to be released AI agent Agentforce, which is set to be generally available on Friday. "Microsoft has been having a hard time really responding with customers who have had any level of success with their AI solutions," he added when speaking to Business Insider. His jab at at Microsoft and its CEO Satya Nadella comes hot off the heels of scathing comments he made just two weeks ago on the podcast Rapid Response, Benioff said that "Microsoft has done a tremendous disservice to not only our whole industry but all of the AI research that has been done." He added that Microsoft customers were "told things about enterprise AI, maybe AI overall, that are not true." Benioff previously compared Microsoft's Copilot to the outmoded paperclip tool, Clippy. Microsoft referred Fortune to customer data in response, noting that nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies use Copilot. Indeed, if customers are all that disappointed it's not too clear from Microsoft's growing base. Copilot customers increased more than 60% quarter-over-quarter with the number who use the product daily in their jobs nearly doubling in the same period, according to Microsoft's latest customer momentum and use case data as shared. In Benioff's eyes, AI has enormous potential, it's just being misadvertised. "I've never been more excited about anything at Salesforce, maybe in my career," he said on Rapid Response, adding that he thinks AI will change companies, Salesforce, and software forever. AI assistants, in general, have not been exactly the world-changers that they were promised. Many products or chatbot systems that use AI are plagued by hallucinations and bugs. It all feels a bit like a tech version of the emperor's new clothes -- as CEOs point fingers and place the marker for unpromised innovation later down the line. Benioff recently tweeted that "AI isn't yet curing cancer or solving climate change as pundits claim, but our current AI tech does have immense power to drive meaningful improvements in many areas over our life as a 'co-intelligence.'" The name of the game instead is about "managing expectations." It's certainly a less exciting sell, especially if AI is to still be upheld as the latest breakthrough technology. But it might be an increasingly popular message. Saying that Copilot "spews data all over the floor," Benioff added on said podcast. He hasn't "found a customer who has had transformational work" with the tool. It leads to confusion to those who bought into said narrative, he claimed. Instead, Salesfore encourages people to "get their hands in the soil because they need to see for themselves exactly what is possible, what is real, and how easy it is to get huge value from AI." Encouraging clients to get involved in mess is certainly an interesting strategy, but definitely not an overselling one.