Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Criticizes Microsoft's Copilot AI as "Clippy 2.0"

'A Flop': Salesforce's CEO Keeps Comparing Microsoft AI to Clippy, Calls It 'Inaccurate'

Microsoft, meanwhile, boasts high-profile clients that are using Copilot, like McKinsey & Company. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been highly critical of Microsoft's AI efforts this month, even going on a podcast to call Copilot "disappointing." Now the drama continues as Benioff criticizes Microsoft's AI for businesses. On Monday, Microsoft announced new AI agents that can act on a company's behalf for sales, finance, and customer service tasks. But based on Benioff's tweet the next day, he still thinks Salesforce can beat Microsoft at AI. Salesforce's CEO wrote in a Tuesday post on X that Microsoft pitching its Copilot AI as "agents" signaled "panic mode." "Let's be real -- Copilot's a flop because Microsoft lacks the data, metadata, and enterprise security models to create real corporate intelligence," Benioff wrote. "That is why Copilot is inaccurate, spills corporate data, and forces customers to build their own LLMs. Clippy 2.0, anyone?" Clippy was the office assistant that Microsoft pulled in 2007. Benioff then pushed Salesforce's Agentforce, a set of AI agents customized for sales, marketing, and customer service tasks, as an example of "what AI was meant to be." Related: Microsoft Strikes Back at Salesforce, Announces New AI Agents That Can Take Over Finance, Sales, and Service Tasks In August, Microsoft fixed a bug in Copilot that could have spilled confidential information. Users have commented on inaccuracies with Copilot, but that isn't a problem isolated to Microsoft's AI -- large language models across the board struggle with accuracy. Benioff's comments attempt to distinguish Salesforce's business AI offerings from Microsoft's by restating what he's said before. Earlier this month, on an episode of the Masters of Scale Rapid Response podcast, Benioff said that Microsoft has done a "tremendous disservice" to the AI industry by providing AI that "doesn't work." Benioff drew a comparison then between Copilot and Clippy and said that Copilot didn't have staying power. Microsoft, meanwhile, says that clients like McKinsey & Company and Thomson Reuters are creating AI agents with its technology.

'Copilot's A Flop Because Microsoft Lacks The Data,' Salesforce CEO Slams Rebranding Of AI Tool To 'Agents:' 'That's Panic Mode' - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce CRM, took to social media on Tuesday to criticize Microsoft Corp MSFT for rebranding its Copilot as "agents." What Happened: Benioff described this move as a sign of "panic mode" and called Copilot a failure due to Microsoft's lack of data, metadata, and enterprise security models. He argued that these deficiencies lead to inaccuracies and data leaks, forcing customers to create their own large language models (LLMs). Benioff likened Microsoft's Copilot to the discontinued "Clippy" Microsoft Office assistant, suggesting that it fails to provide real corporate intelligence. In contrast, he praised Salesforce's Agentforce, stating it is transforming businesses by autonomously managing sales, service, marketing, analytics, and commerce. He emphasized that Agentforce integrates data, LLMs, workflows, and security into a single Customer 360 platform, which he believes represents the true potential of AI. See Also: Apple Intelligence's Meh Moment Ahead? Analyst Predicts 5 Months Of Build-Up Could Lead To A 'That's It?' Why It Matters: Benioff's comments highlight the ongoing rivalry between Salesforce and Microsoft in the AI technology sector. Recently, Microsoft announced during its "AI Tour" event in London that businesses will soon be able to develop autonomous AI agents through its Copilot Studio platform. This technology aims to streamline enterprise functions by allowing organizations to create AI-driven agents tailored to their needs. Benioff's critique of Microsoft's Copilot is not new. Last month, he compared it to Clippy, stating that customers have not derived value from it, likening it to selling "science projects to companies." His remarks underscore the competitive landscape as both companies strive to dominate the AI agent technology market. Read Next: Trump Campaign's Snapchat Absence Potentially Gives Harris Edge Among Young Voters Photo courtesy: Shutterstock This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Salesforce CEO: Microsoft Copilot is really the new Clippy | Digital Trends

Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, has some harsh criticism of Microsoft Copilot. During an interview on the Rapid Response podcast (spotted by Windows Central), the decorated executive described Microsoft's AI assistant as a "tremendous disservice" to the AI industry, and even compared it to Microsoft's long-retired office assistant, Clippy. The topic of discussion on the podcast, which you can find the full video of below, is Saleforce's Agentforce AI. It's a competitor to Copilot that offers an AI assistant targeted at increasing productivity in businesses. But Agentforce is customizable. Instead of one AI to rule them all, Salesforce offers agents targeted at different applications. There's an agent built for customer service, another built for retail, and even another built to dig through analytics. Customers can build their own custom agents, too. Marc Benioff: Salesforce can beat Microsoft in AI | Rapid Response Benioff, unsurprisingly, thinks Agentforce has what it takes to beat Copilot, but the executive didn't let Microsoft get out of the discussion unscathed. Recommended Videos "When you look at how Copilot has been sold to our customers, it's disappointing. It doesn't work. It spews data all over the floors," Benioff said. "I haven't found a customer who's had transformational work with Copilot. It's not Microsoft Copilot. Copilot is really the new Microsoft Clippy ... I don't think Copilot will be around. I don't think customers will use it." It's not secret that Microsoft is all-in on AI, with the release of ChatGPT prompting the tech behemoth to invest $10 billion into OpenAI. And for its part, Microsoft has its Copilot Agents that target a similar type of work as Agentforce. In addition, Microsoft is continuing to build out the Copilot+ ecosystem on consumer PCs by integrating AI into basic functions of laptops, including web browsing. In the enterprise space, it's still not clear where Microsoft stands. Although Microsoft is one of the wealthiest companies in the world, Salesforce has deep ties within the enterprise realm. And, at least according to its own numbers, Salesforce's SFR-RAG model is more accurate than even the emerging GPT-4o model from OpenAI. Although most of our readers will never touch Agentforce, there's a good chance you'll interact with the AI at some point. For instance, OpenTable and luxury clothing brand Saks are already using the AI tool for customer service inquires, targeting "routine requests" like reservation changes and redemption of loyalty points.

Salesforce CEO Marc Beinoff slams Microsoft Copilot as 'Clippy 2.0'

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Fighting words? Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff took to his personal X account last night to criticize Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot as "disappointing," saying "It just doesn't work, and it doesn't deliver any level of accuracy," before ultimately concluding "Copilot is more like Clippy 2.0," with a shrug emoji. "Clippy" of course is the popular nickname for Microsoft's Clippit virtual on-screen Word and Office conversational assistant that debuted in 1996. While now looked upon with some ironic fondness for its cute expressions and large eyes, in the mid 1990s when it premiered, it was quickly found by many users to be more annoying than helpful, popping up while they tried to do tasks on their Microsoft software and offering unhelpful suggestions. Copilot -- a text-based chatbot assistant powered by Microsoft partner and investment OpenAI's GPT models -- was initially designed for Microsoft's Office 365 and debuted in March 2023. It later expanded to include a web and mobile app version as well (and was the new name given to Microsoft's GPT-powered Bing Chat). It was recently redesigned and upgraded to include many new features such as vision (watching and reacting to a user's screen activity) and humanlike conversational voice input and output. A loaded critique Benioff's critique is of course loaded and inherently biased, coming as he does from a rival software company -- Salesforce's signature customer relationship management (CRM) software competes directly with Microsoft Dynamics 365, as does the Salesforce-owned Slack with Microsoft Teams -- and both companies have spent the two years since OpenAI's debut of ChatGPT launching various new AI features, assistants, applications, and tools. Yet curiously, Benioff, an early executive to embrace to the power and potential of AI -- at least publicly -- has lately been criticizing the gen AI era more broadly. On Sunday, Benioff posted on X that he thought "much of AI's current potential is simply oversold," and that "AI isn't yet curing cancer or solving climate change as pundits claim," yet provided no evidence of these claims. It's a curious and contradictory tone for him to strike given he also recently told Fast Company he has "never been more excited about anything at Salesforce, maybe in my career," as Agentforce, his company's new enterprise AI agent builder tool. Clearly, the founder is trying to thread a nuanced line of argument here -- saying AI has potential for businesses but that Microsoft's implementation of it doesn't work well or provide enough value -- but that presumably, Salesforce's implementation is superior. We'll see if customers buy it. For now, some of the "pundits" he may be railing against such as public relations expert Ed Zitron have already seized on some of Benioff's AI critical remarks as evidence the pro gen AI narrative more generally is starting to turn.

Salesforce CEO slams Microsoft AI work - says Copilot is "new Clippy"

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, a company that has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence tools for its portfolio, has called Microsoft's Copilot AI a "tremendous disservice" to the industry. In a recent interview on the Rapid Response podcast, Benioff likened Copilot to Microsoft's early office assistant, Clippy, suggesting the service is disappointing and fails to deliver meaningful value. The comments come despite Microsoft's multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI several months ago, and the subsequent injection of what is considered one of the best AI models available into its products. Benioff went as far as suggesting that Redmond's extensive AI efforts might not be around for long, predicting faded hype and a dwindling user base. In the podcast, he added: "It doesn't work. It spews data all over our floors, it doesn't deliver value. I haven't found a customer who has transformational work with Copilot. Copilot is just the new Microsoft Clippy." Keen to separate Microsoft's efforts with those of Salesforce, the CEO praised the company's new Agentforce tool for helping to transform businesses by delivering tangible value. Agentforce is already reportedly handling "a couple of trillion AI transactions per week," leading to satisfied customers. Looking ahead, Benioff alluded to an AI landscape dominated by AI agents destined for enterprises, suggesting the demise of Microsoft Copilot, which promises to deliver productivity and efficiency improvements for workers. Despite the CEO's criticism, Microsoft's influence in the AI space remains strong. Its relative early entry combined with its affiliation with OpenAI put it high on the scoreboard among companies choosing to employ AI. Subsequently, Microsoft has plans to continue investing in its data centers to support future expansion. Microsoft became the second company to reach a market cap of $3 trillion, well into its AI journey, and analysts are predicting that it could be the world's most valuable company in the years to come. Apple currently holds that title, but chipmaker Nvidia, which is responsible for providing those all-important data center chips, has also entered the race, and strongly.

Salesforce's Marc Benioff says Microsoft's AI Copilot won't stick around

While Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella last year compared the significance of Copilot's launch to that of historic technologies like the PC and the internet, Benioff said in an X post Thursday that Copilot is not worth the hype (to put it lightly). "When you look at how Copilot has been delivered to customers, it's disappointing. It just doesn't work, and it doesn't deliver any level of accuracy," he wrote. Benioff also called Copilot "Clippy 2.0" and implied it would be as much of a failure as Microsoft's retired paperclip assistant meant to help users craft Word documents and save documents among other things. "I have yet to find anyone who's had a transformational experience with Microsoft Copilot or the pursuit of training and retraining custom LLMs," he wrote. Copilot was released by Microsoft last year to help users be more productive by assisting in the creation of PowerPoints, Excel documents and more using artificial intelligence. Benioff's comments were the latest attack in what has become a monthslong feud with Microsoft and its AI product. Benioff also compared Copilot to Clippy in an interview with Bloomberg during the company's annual Dreamforce event. And in August, during the company's second-quarter earnings call, Benioff said "Microsoft has disappointed so many customers with AI." In his most recent tirade against Microsoft's AI, Benioff linked to an article covering his comments during a podcast interview in which he expanded on his Copilot criticism. Benioff cited a report in the interview from research firm Gartner, which found that only 6% of the 132 IT leaders it surveyed had completed a pilot and were moving to wide-scale adoption of the product in their organizations, Business Insider reported. Microsoft did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment. In the interview, Benioff also hyped up Salesforce's new AI product, Agentforce, which it released in September. The suite of AI tools -- "what AI was meant to be," in Benioff's words -- helps companies analyze data and make decisions in service, sales, marketing, and commerce. Agentforce is already being piloted by companies such as OpenTable and the Wyndham hotel chain. Microsoft's corporate vice president of AI at work, Jared Spataro, told Yahoo Finance that its number of 10,000 seat subscriptions had doubled, and among its customers were large companies like Disney, Dow, and Novartis. But as for Copilot's future success, Benioff isn't holding his breath. "I don't think Copilot will be around. I don't think customers will use it, and I think that we will see the transformation of enterprises with agents, and Agentforce will be the number one supplier," he said.

Salesforce CEO Calls Copilot the New Microsoft Clippy - Doesn't Work or Deliver Value

He compares Copilot with Microsoft Clippy and says customers will not use it and eventually forget it. Microsoft recently upgraded Copilot with a fresh UI and added several new features including Copilot Voice, Copilot Vision, and Copilot Daily. On the enterprise side, Microsoft introduced Copilot Agents and Copilot Pages, among other things, to improve productivity for business users. However, Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce says that Copilot is the new Microsoft Clippy and it doesn't work or deliver value. In a discussion with Rapid Response, Benioff slams Microsoft and says: I think Microsoft has done a tremendous disservice to not only our whole industry, but all of the AI research that has been done because when you look at how Copilot has been sold to our customers, it's disappointing. It doesn't work. It spews data all over the floors. It doesn't deliver value to customers. I haven't found a customer who has transformational work with Copilot. Customers are so confused based on this Microsoft narrative. Benioff further says, "I don't think Copilot will be around. I don't think customers will use it." He emphasizes that agents will bring the revolutionary transformation with AI, but Microsoft is doing a disservice, as far as enterprise customers are concerned. It's worth noting that Salesforce is a competitor to Microsoft in the enterprise space. Benioff claims that its Agentforce -- Salesforce's customizable AI agent builder -- will be the number one supplier for business customers. He goes on to say that Salesforce will have more than a billion agents running within the next 12 months. While it's hard to say right now how well Microsoft Copilot is doing in the enterprise segment, as for consumers, the new Copilot is indeed refreshing. However, most of the features are currently not available to end users. In addition, Copilot doesn't have deep integration with Windows 11 which makes it just another AI chatbot. Microsoft recently hired Mustafa Suleyman to lead its AI efforts and under his leadership, the shift in Microsoft's approach to AI is visible. Microsoft now wants to create an AI companion for everyone, moving to -- "a calmer, more helpful and supportive era of technology." But how well is Microsoft going to do in the enterprise segment is something only time will tell.

Marc Benioff warns that AI, while useful, is overhyped and partly blames Microsoft | TechCrunch

One of the tech industry's biggest hype men, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, wants you to know that he is psyched about generative AI, but even he doesn't think it can do what its biggest proponents say it will do. And he (not surprisingly) blames Microsoft. A month after Salesforce's enormous tech conference, Dreamforce, during which Benioff endlessly pitched, pumped, and lauded AI -- at least as it's used in Salesforce's own products - he's now on a setting-expectations tour. And he's trash talking his biggest competitor and arch rival, Microsoft. He recently appeared on the podcast Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Bob Safian. Talking about AI's potential, he said, "I've never been more excited about anything at Salesforce, maybe in my career." But he also warned that "customers have been told things about enterprise AI, maybe AI overall, that are not true," he said. "I think Microsoft has done a tremendous disservice to not only our whole industry but all of the AI research that has been done." Benioff had negative things to say in particular about Microsoft Copilot's accuracy and usefulness. He even compared Copilot to Clippy, Microsoft's widely panned 1990's talking paperclip cartoon that was supposed to be an assistant to Microsoft Office users. "We may have heard from these AI priests and priestesses of these LLM model companies and Microsoft and others about AI is now curing cancer, and AI is curing climate change, and we all have to plug into these nuclear power plants to get these data centers. None of this is true," Benoff said. He was doubling down on a comment he made on X, where he said, "LLMs (Large Language Models) are not the direct bridge to AGI, and much of AI's current potential is simply oversold. AI isn't yet curing cancer or solving climate change as pundits claim." That was a dig at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Earlier this summer he postulated that with AI-enhanced health tech, "Maybe a future version will help discover cures for cancer," Altman said at the Aspen Ideas Festival, reported Newsweek. Benioff also cited some research by Gartner about Microsoft Copilot. A Gartner report released in April called "The Top 10 'Gotchas' of Copilot for Microsoft 365" found that only a quarter of the organizations doing Copilot pilot programs are currently planning a large-scale rollout. That's actually a pretty good number, given how young this tech is, and how slow enterprises can be to adopt it. That said, Gartner also concluded that as Copilot improves, so will enterprise adoption. Microsoft might point to market research conducted by Forrester that cited a slew of bottom-line benefits for small businesses who are using Copilot. Forrester found that Copilot led to a tiny uptick in revenue, while reducing operating costs and speeding new-hire onboarding, based on a survey of 266 small companies. However, we must note that this research was paid for by Microsoft. Make of that what you will. Still, Benioff has a point that the GenAI we have today, while sometimes mind-blowing, is not ready to replace human workers in most cases. True, the podcast-making capabilities of Google's NotebookLM - which can create bantering AI-generated hosts that explain material - is quite the party trick. Yet, it's hard to see how such a thing will directly reduce the kind of soul-sucking menial labor tasks that bog down most corporate jobs. Benioff is also spot-on that the one area where GenAI does seem to be doing a screaming good job with enterprises is AI agents. That ties in nicely with the Salesforce product he's been hyping lately, Agentforce. A slew of other tech companies and startups are working on AI agent technologies, too, from building use-case specific ones, to offering platforms where businesses can build their own. Just a few examples include OutRival, Atlassian's Rovo AI, and Sierra, the startup founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and Google vet Clay Bavor. AI agents are especially finding their way into customer service, ranging from much improved website chat bots to field service guides. Examples include Zingtree, Talla or Neuron7. Salesforce has offerings here, too. AI agents are also finding success with sales, too, especially prospecting, the high-rejection rate cold-calling and emailing that is the bottom tier of every sales organization. Examples include AI Regie.ai, AiSDR, Artisan and 11x.ai. "I think we'll have more than a billion agents running from Salesforce within the next 12 months," Benioff speculated, based, he said, on getting about 10,000 customers at his tech conference to try it. However, it's also worth pointing out that there are other areas where LLMs are already valued and where Microsoft, specifically, does have game. Software programmers and engineers increasingly use them to help them test and debug or generate code examples, including with Microsoft's GitHub Copilot. Countless startups are offering AI coding assistants as well, like JetBrains and Continue, to name just a couple. Microsoft's close relationship with OpenAI means that its cloud, Azure, is a popular choice for enterprises who are using LLM models to build their own GenAI apps, too. So, Microsoft's tentacles into GenAI extend far beyond having Word write documents, having Excel whip up charts or having Teams transcribe meetings. At the same time, when the people who are literally talking up AI to sell their own AI products warn that the AI is overhyped, it's safe to say that AI is overhyped. "It's about managing expectations while harnessing AI's capabilities," Benioff explained.